The $300mil portion they are going to have to pay anyway, so its only the $74 mil annually. That's under one fourth of their revenue, give it a couple of years and its one fifth, possibly even one sixth if the new stadium helps a lot, or they find new ways to squeeze out revenue to cover the costs (personal seat licenses for example, or maybe more from the YES network)
Where are they going to get the $300 million for the down payment? After all, the Yanks have been living high the hog for years........see A-Rod's salary.
Searching a bit I see the stadium itself is supposed to cost $800 mil. (But that doesn't include some associated costs, like replacing the parkland where the new stadium is supposed to be built, or transportation improvements)
Trust me, if they are starting out at $800 million, it will be well over a billion before they get done.
Yeah, right. Just last season, a 100 games were cancelled due to a shortage of good players.
Of course games don't get cancelled. The teams just play with inadequate players at certain important positions. The point is that you don't have hundreds of additional starting quality pitchers, or dozens of additional starting quality QBs to go around. Which doesn't mean you can't have additional leagues, but it means either the new league will be satisfied with lower quality (in which case it won't provide serious competition), or it will compete for the limited number of top players in certain positions (bidding up their salaries, just like what happened when the AFL and NFL competed, or later when the NFL competed with the USFL)
Tim, there a lot of good players who never get to the majors because there are not enough openings for them.
Why is it you claim to believe in free markets but as soon as
I point out a major institution needing some free market treatment, you defend its near monopoly status?
I don't believe in government creation of, or defense of monopolies, except perhaps in limited cases (for example I accept copyrights and patents, even if there are some problems with those systems). But a company or organization being in a dominant position largely because of its own efforts isn't the same thing.
How has the MLB gotten into a dominate position by its own efforts? They have one of the coziest setups in the country; whereby franchises are limited, the gov't pays for their stadiums; no property taxes, etc.
I do oppose the subsidies going to the current teams/leagues, but I don't think they should be broken up, or penalized by the government, and I don't think it would be a good idea to massively subsidize new leagues so they can compete.
I am not saying any of that. I am saying they need to pay their own way. I see no reason to subsidize the playing of sports and the salaries of players in this country.
In any case pointing out the fact that increasing demand for players will increase their salaries is hardly defending the teams/leagues or any monopoly or near monopoly status. I don't oppose the idea of new leagues. If anyone tries to create them I have no problem with it. I'm just pointing out how they won't solve what you see as a problem, and in fact they will make it worse from your perspective.
What I said was.....forcing owners of teams to pay their own way will reduce players' salaries while creating another league will increase the number of eligible players.
Sure more teams would mean more people playing, and some of them would emerge as stars, but there is absolutely no good reason to think that doubling the demand (with two leagues) or even more (if you want multiple competing leagues) would result in an increase of supply even equal to, let alone beyond the increase in demand.
Its a well known premise in business the more opportunities created the more customers generated..........within certain limits. Same with entertainment..........you create more venues more entertainers show up. I bet we have not even come close to utilizing all the eligible players in this country. The sports industry is like the music industry has been....closely guarding and limiting viewing of its product. That has resulted in huge salaries for rock stars.....[and ball players]. However, downloads on the internet and CD pirating is changing that, breaking the control the industry has over its product output. |
