Cleveland Indians 2018-2019 Offseason Outlook

[Lee]

The biggest issue is the fact they are a bottom 15 market size, and a bottom attendance wise, but in the top 15 salary wise at the moment. What else can you ask of an owner?

If we got full attendance 30-35K a night, we would have probably still traded EE, but otherwise we would have sign Marwin, kept Gomes, and would have likely gotten a veteran OF and Setup man as well, but how can you ask someone to afford to run a team if people don’t show up to watch them? They have really good TV and radio ratings, but honestly don’t expect an owner to put out money if people don’t show up!

24k in sales at like simple 100, per person is 194.4 mil over a season, 35k is 283.5 mil a season. So that amount of ticket difference is like a 100 mil a season. If fans sold out most games, they don’t have an excuse not to stay at the 150 mil type of payroll in a sense but at 24k that’s just asking way too much of Dolan/any owner.

How much are using per a ticket. if we use simple math of 5,000 X 81 games, that is 400k more people attending, if we then use $75 per a person with a $50 ticket (average), one beer, one dog, that is 30 million, there is a cost to the food and beer, but not huge, so lets say 25 million in profit reasonable to ask we average 5k more a game, and 25 million going towards players would have been nice, but I think your 90 million more is a bit high and unreasonable.

 

[Urban]

Your math is based off a 100% sellout at $100 for every ticket for all 81 games. That is not a good base

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

Yeah, it can get a lot worse. And it will.

It almost literally cannot.

I don't like what he said, but it's not going to have a direct impact on attendance when he leaves.

Especially because the Indians have been dominating their international signings as of late and have a truly special A team this year. Maybe their best group of prospects since the early 90's.

 

[bigfoot5415]

Yeah, it can get a lot worse. And it will.

I know quite a few people in the Cleveland business community that think its inevitable that the Tribe leaves by the end of this next decade. The only thing people cant agree on is where a baseball team would move.

 

[bigfoot5415]

Part of me wishes that we truly knew the financials behind sports teams. I never understand how owners are operating at a loss, even with the ridiculous player expenses.

If you look at Forbes, we had $284M in revenue, $144M in player expenses. So $140M to cover expenses and salaries throughout the organization. Not saying the Dolans should spend everything, but it seems like a large chunk of change. Does that $284M include every dollar earned at every level? Why does sites like Forbes treat gate receipts as a different line item? The operating income & the "losing money" arguments never add up.

Anyone able to clarify?

 

[BMAN]

I know quite a few people in the Cleveland business community that think its inevitable that the Tribe leaves by the end of this next decade. The only thing people cant agree on is where a baseball team would move.

No way Indians move before the Rays and Oakland. As much as people dislike the Dolans, I don’t think they would move the team either.

 

[bigfoot5415]

No way Indians move before the Rays and Oakland. As much as people dislike the Dolans, I don’t think they would move the team either.

I think that is why people have a hard time figuring out where we would land. A lot has to happen, but its not out of the question.

1) The team would need to be sold to a suitor who already has moving in the back of his mind.
2) You would need to find a market to hold an MLB team. How many markets out there would even want an MLB team? Austin, Charolette, Vegas cant think of a ton.
3) One of Oakland or TB would need to move 1st. Given that the A's are getting a new stadium & the city has only one professional sports team starting next year. Tampa would be the likely 1st choice.
4) If we struggle with attendance & profitability (attendance definitely falls on the fans) when we are good; how the hell do they keep the lights on when we are bad?

I would be interested to see if we could renegotiate our TV deal early since we have such a high tv viewership. While the Cleveland market may be small, our TV market covers quite a bit & is somewhere in the teens when nationally ranked.

 

[Ohio]

I know quite a few people in the Cleveland business community that think its inevitable that the Tribe leaves by the end of this next decade. The only thing people cant agree on is where a baseball team would move.

Yeah, I've thought about this recently and would not be the least bit surprised. If Dolan refuses to sell, and he lets another era of great Tribe players walk, fan support will rapidly decrease to the point where Dolan may not have a choice.

Although, if the organization continues to develop players from the farm into good MLB players, the train could theoretically keep on rolling with different players. But it's going to be incredibly difficult to replace guys like Lindor, Jose, Bauer, etc...and even more difficult to sell to the fans.

He should just sell the team. I assume there would be a good market, considering where the organization is now and where it can go with an owner that's willing to spend.

The Dolans are from Cleveland, so they probably wouldn't want to move the team if they didn't have to. Hopefully they'd just sell before that.

 

[BMAN]

I think that is why people have a hard time figuring out where we would land. A lot has to happen, but its not out of the question.

1) The team would need to be sold to a suitor who already has moving in the back of his mind.
2) You would need to find a market to hold an MLB team. How many markets out there would even want an MLB team? Austin, Charolette, Vegas cant think of a ton.
3) One of Oakland or TB would need to move 1st. Given that the A's are getting a new stadium & the city has only one professional sports team starting next year. Tampa would be the likely 1st choice.
4) If we struggle with attendance & profitability (attendance definitely falls on the fans) when we are good; how the hell do they keep the lights on when we are bad?

I would be interested to see if we could renegotiate our TV deal early since we have such a high tv viewership. While the Cleveland market may be small, our TV market covers quite a bit & is somewhere in the teens when nationally ranked.

I may be mistaken, but our tv deal should be expiring soon. They should be able to get an increase with a new one since like you said, our viewership has been pretty high.

 

[bigfoot5415]

I may be mistaken, but our tv deal should be expiring soon. They should be able to get an increase with a new one since like you said, our viewership has been pretty high.

I want to say 2023 or 2024. Last deal was 10 years/$400M.

 

[jack hammill]

The biggest issue is the fact they are a bottom 15 market size, and a bottom attendance wise, but in the top 15 salary wise at the moment. What else can you ask of an owner?

If we got full attendance 30-35K a night, we would have probably still traded EE, but otherwise we would have sign Marwin, kept Gomes, and would have likely gotten a veteran OF and Setup man as well, but how can you ask someone to afford to run a team if people don’t show up to watch them? They have really good TV and radio ratings, but honestly don’t expect an owner to put out money if people don’t show up!

24k in sales at like simple 100, per person is 194.4 mil over a season, 35k is 283.5 mil a season. So that amount of ticket difference is like a 100 mil a season. If fans sold out most games, they don’t have an excuse not to stay at the 150 mil type of payroll in a sense but at 24k that’s just asking way too much of Dolan/any owner.

I know we play with numbers a lot here but I would wager that the average fan is not spending 100 a game

 

[Lee]

Does anyone see baseball getting some type of revenue sharing deal in place with some type of cap in the next 10 years?

I just feel baseball is killing their own sport without it, eventually the salaries just escalate to the point only 5-8 teams can afford the truly great players and viewership will continue to decrease if that happens.

 

[BMAN]

I want to say 2023 or 2024. Last deal was 10 years/$400M.

Yeah that sounds right.

 

[bigfoot5415]

Does anyone see baseball getting some type of revenue sharing deal in place with some type of cap in the next 10 years?

I just feel baseball is killing their own sport without it, eventually the salaries just escalate to the point only 5-8 teams can afford the truly great players and viewership will continue to decrease if that happens.

I feel like its one of those things people will always yell about, but MLB wont implement until its too late.

 

[BimboColesHair]

I want to say 2023 or 2024. Last deal was 10 years/$400M.

2022.

What would be year 1 of a Lindor extension...