Holy Cow! Chicago Cubs = EVIL!!!

[Miller]

*Originally posted by TaxGuy *
**Jesus Christ Almight.

I was going to call you people idiots, but since this is the Pit I’ll call you all fucking idiots. Take a fucking economics course or something and stop acting like children. I don’t have the time it would take to explain to you why what the Cubs did is not “evil.” **

Hmm. As someone who knows very little about basball and even less about economics, I might have been swayed to your POV if you’d taken the time to explain. However, since you instead decided to be a pompous, condescending asshole, I guess I’ll just have to accept the OP’s description of the Cubs as evil.

[Jonathan_Chance]

EVVIIIILLL!!!

[Miller]

Sorry, change that to “I’ll have to accept the OP’s description of the Cubs as EVVIIIILLL!!!”

I apologize for any confusion my previous post may have caused.

[ShibbOleth]

Dumb question: when did they start revenue sharing in baseball? Does that mean the Reds will get some of the TRULY EVIL Yankees’ jack now?

[Jonathan_Chance]

They have for years. Revenue sharing went in with (I think the 1998 season. The Yankees may pay over $40 Million dollars this year.

[ShibbOleth]

See, that’s what I get for moving overseas in 1998. I missed all the good stuff. But at least I avoided Survivor, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and the Spice Girls’ 15 minutes.

On a separate note: then why is Carl Linder, who is anyway a billionaire (and banana mogul) being such a cheap prick about getting some pitching?

[Jonathan_Chance]

Because he likes profits rather than winning.

Pretty straightforward there, isn’t it?

[dantheman]

Hey! This isn’t the Snappy Answers thread!

[diku]

The $225 seats at Great American are the Diamond Club seats. Includes bar and grill, lounge, and other crap not having much to do with the game. For entertaining people not watching the baseball, basically.

[Typo_Negative]

*Originally posted by TaxGuy *
**Jesus Christ Almight.

I was going to call you people idiots, but since this is the Pit I’ll call you all fucking idiots. Take a fucking economics course or something and stop acting like children. I don’t have the time it would take to explain to you why what the Cubs did is not “evil.” **

Wow, that was classy. Thanks for dropping by.

[3trew]

*Originally posted by Miller *
**Hmm. As someone who knows very little about basball and even less about economics, I might have been swayed to your POV if you’d taken the time to explain. However, since you instead decided to be a pompous, condescending asshole, I guess I’ll just have to accept the OP’s description of the Cubs as evil. **

I don’t think it was a decision.

[elf6c]

*Originally posted by A Monkey With a Gun *
**Your missing the point. They could let the market set the price all they want to by getting rid of “Wrigley Field Premium” and just chargeing the fans whatever they will pay.

However, by using themselves as their own ticket broker they can reduce their revenue sharing payment to MLB. The fans end up paying the same price regardless, but this way the Cubbies steal from the coffers of Major League Baseball. They are a drain on the system. **

No I got the point, but couldn’t give a rat’s patootie about the “coffers of Major League Baseball”. Many teams have been gaming the system for decades, it is about time the Cubbies did too. Other teams are free to set up similar schemes, except most of them can’t sell their tickets at face value. Only the teams that really have worked hard to put a good product out there can run this gambit. Does it bother me that the lazy Florida Marlins owner Jeffry Luria (who ruined the Expos, and ran a back office scheme to get the Marlins) doesn’t get some free $$, not at all.

Let the Red Sox, Cubs and Yankees et al of the world reap the advantage of actually trying to win.

[dantheman]

Whoa, hold on a second. Worked hard to put a product out there? The Cubs? They live off selling out a tiny stadium. They don’t have a huge incentive to put out a quality product, because they know the fans will come regardless.

What other teams “game” the system to this extent?

[Typo_Negative]

*Originally posted by elf6c *
**Many teams have been gaming the system for decades, it is about time the Cubbies did too. **

They’ve been side-stepping the revenue sharing system for decades? Hasn’t it only been going since '98?

18 of the 30 clubs sold 2 million plus tickets last year.

And the Cubbies are trying to win?

[elf6c]

What other teams “game” the system to this extent?

Yankees for one. Any team which has worked out a sweet deal on regional cable TV. As MLB is an unincorporated association run by and for the owners, with a nice congressional anti-trust exemption in place, so all sorts of interesting book-keeping has gone on forever- so long the MLB idiots even tried to use their phony numbers on Congress- until Forbes magazine came out with much different numbers.

Here is a few fun cites:

http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2003/0428/064.html

Baseball owners with media properties can skirt the league’s revenue-sharing system by deflating their teams’ balance sheets.

and

But don’t expect the poorer teams to get their fair share. The new YES pact will let Yankees owner George Steinbrenner effectively divert millions of dollars and shelter it from the revenue-sharing plan. That’s because Steinbrenner controls 60% of YES, the Yankees’ new exclusive cable channel. This year YES will bring in an estimated $200 million from cable operators and advertising, most of it derived from Yankee telecasts. The bulk of the proceeds will stay in the pockets of Steinbrenner and his YES partners at Goldman Sachs Group.

More teams may take the same approach, reporting lower fees for revenue sharing while raking in higher sums through owner-controlled cable channels. The Red Sox do it, the Los Angeles Dodgers do it and so do the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Cubs and the Toronto Blue Jays. The Twins will launch their network next year. The Houston Astros and the Chicago White Sox may do the same.

http://www.angelfire.com/ok5/pearly/htmls/bush-sec5.html

http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/ce/multi/0,1329,5182192_52,00.html

More 49ers fans dumping seat licenses, because 49ers’ new stadium sucks

http://msn.espn.go.com/mlb/news/2002/0329/1360060.html

The 30 major league baseball teams had an operating profit of $75 million last season according to a study by Forbes Magazine, about $300 million more than commissioner Bud Selig testified to Congress in December. Forbes reported in its April 15 issue that 20 of the 30 teams were profitable last season – more than double what Selig said.

and

In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee in December, the commissioner said the industry had $232 million in operating losses last year and only nine teams made money.

From: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/news/2002/03/29/forbes_ap/

And in regards to the jokes about the Cubs-- underpants!