Where is baseball going?

[The Yeti]

"the rich get richer and the poorer get poorer"... seems to be the way things are heading lately. How many times is the word money mentioned in most articles these days about free agents, signings, etc.. East and West coast are going to be the only places that have teams.

It's just sad.

[harvey lee]

The high pay for sports can end if all people would stop going to games for a few months. That would send a fast message. No fans, no pay for the players or owners.

Simple to do, just stop watching and attending games and they will be forced to reduce the pay or there will be no pay.

[bassNspear]

I understand where players are out there getting all there money.

Baseball is by far, the hardest sport to play, and succesed doing it. If you can do both, your going to get paid. Ya, i understand its getting way out of hand what there paying them, but you have to understand the game.

I agree with tom, its getting way out of hand.

[IFallsRon]

Would contraction be a bad thing? There sure seems to be more mediocre players spread across the teams not spending money than past years. it's pretty sad when a slag pitchers like Kyle Lohse think they can command huge salaries when they're no better than sub-.500.

[juggs]

Baseball players don't make the big bucks because the game is the hardest to play. They make what they make because the game is do darn popular and raises mind blowing revenues. Harvey is right--to all the fans who want to complain about salaries, you can point the finger at yourselves for supporting the sport. You go to the game, pay too much for a ticket, too much for a beer, too much for a bag of nuts, popcorn, jerseys, etc. But you are willing to pay, which generates more revenues for the owners which eventually makes its way to the players' pockets. Then you complain about how overpaid the players are. As in any business, the size of the "pie" is determined by customer interest. If customer interest drops, jobs are lost, salaries cut, and eventually the business fails. People keep asking "where will this salary thing end?". Well, it's been going on like this since about 1975 and will only continue as long as the fan base remains.

[DonBo]

They are not spending the money to keep their best players, so...why do my season tickets keep getting more expensive? Three years in a row now they have raised my prices. Where is it going?

[juggs]

If you don't like the product you don't have to buy it.

[TNFL]

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why do my season tickets keep getting more expensive?

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Because you keep paying more! They will keep milking every penny they think they can out of you until you say "NO MORE". Sadly this is the first year since I was about 7 Y-old that I did not attend a twins game, and I only went once last year. There is just so much else out there to do with your family at a better cost/hour than a sporting event, it rediculous. Now if I can convince the kids to do less tubing and more fishing.

[DonBo]

I don't realy mind paying the money to go to the games, it is about the only thing my wife and I do together. It's just that we would like to think that the Twins are trying to put a good product on the field, and it doesn't feel that way now.

We have been to several major league ball parks across the country and we know how much their seats age going for...a bunch more than at the Metrodome! I guess they are trying to ease us into the cost of the new ballpark which will be close to double what they are now. That may be where we draw the line...but probably not.

[PierBridge]

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Now if I can convince the kids to do less tubing and more fishing.

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Nothing a couple figure eights at high speed can't cure....

Congrats to the Angels on having a 33 year old career 269 hitter the beneficiary of the largest contract in Angles history... $90,000,000 guaranteed!

Go Twins!

[Scott K]

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Congrats to the Angels on having a 33 year old career 269 hitter the beneficiary of the largest contract in Angles history... $90,000,000 guaranteed!

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Exactly what I was thinking

And if the yanks, or any other big market team wants to give Santana $160 million, and trade away their young talent, I am happy for them too!

The Twins, will be doing the right thing by letting them go, and get everything you can for them. If the Twins had to pay these 2 contracts, they couldnt afford to pay anyone elses.

They may not be able to go out and pay big dollars for over paid players and win every year, but we can make shots at winning it all every 5 years or so! If you expect the Twins to over pay all their players, then by all means, buy season tickets, ask if they will raise the price of them so they can afford to pay them! It is a business they cant just spend money that isnt coming back in!

[Windy City Walleye Hunter]

And that is on top of the fat cheese they are paying Jon Garland now! What is Artie thinking? All that to win their division and get beat again in the first round of the playoffs!

Windy

[hanson]

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If you don't like the product you don't have to buy it.

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If the product keeps going downhill, the Twins marketing department will be bribing fans with more "dollar a dog" nights to fill the empty outfield seats.

Remember the Doug Meintkeiwicz Fan Club days in left field? Pretty lonely in the Dome when we had all those young players coming up.

[Coach1310]

MLB Franchises are just like any other corporation..the ones that have more can spend more and the ones that have and spend more make more. Of course it is frustrating to sit here and always be a player or 2 away from winning the whole thing, but it is what it is. For sake of discussion I researched a few numbers.

Twins Payroll- roughly 63 million last year

The Metrodome seats 48,000 for a baseball game @ an average ticket price of $16.25 that amounts to $71 million if they sell out every game, which they don't come close to doing, so being generous and saying they sell 70 percent of all tickets that amounts to roughly 50 million. So ticket sales don't even cover players salaries, not to mention all other expenses. Of course they make money on concessions, tv, jerseys, etc. Just a thought, but for the kind of money the Twins have to invest, I'm not sure they get the return other businesses and corporations do.

[Coach1310]

Just for comparisons sake...

Boston Red Sox

Payroll $120 million

Ticket revenue $130 million

Just with ticket revenue they make around 10 million and I have to believe they make quite a bit more on merchandise and TV revenue.

[TNFL]

That ticket average is brought a lot lower with the cheap horrible upperdeck outfield seats. I would venture to guess that 90 percent of the tickets sold, easily average over $20. Diamond view and lower deck are usually close to full, especially on weekends.