Comments on: Baseball does not want you to know about its debt crisis

By: ta192

ta192 — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:50:11 +0000

Agree they need a decent commissioner in MLB, but I wouldn’t wish Landis on North Korea…

By: Reflex

Reflex — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:52:28 +0000

Last time I saw any numbers, labor costs were slightly more than half of expenditures for most teams. If you’ve ever run a business, you’d know thats right in line with expectations if not slightly below the average. People who make comments like this are people who I strongly suspect have never run a business.

By: monsieurbear

monsieurbear — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:21:24 +0000

The Commissioner works at the pleasure of the owners and would no longer be the Commissioner otherwise.

By: The Rabbit

The Rabbit — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:52:48 +0000

Absolutely! Those of us educated in finance and investments were trained in the fine art of leverage when the outrageous interest rates of the early 80′s subsided. It sucked for pension plans that didn’t invest in junk bonds and/or were raided by corp execs but was great for capitalists.
Now if only I were rich enough to form a holding company…….

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:38:57 +0000

Not really. What happened in each of these cases is that people without the financial means to buy a team, was allowed to buy one, and people that will buy something that they can’t afford that costs 100s of millions of dollars are likely to often buy things they can not afford.
.
This situation is akin to banks approving loans for people that can’t afford the house they are financing. That doesn’t mean that the cost of the house or cost to maintain the house must come down, it just means that the person that bought it couldn’t afford it.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:35:27 +0000

After reading the full Forbes article, I am forced to conclude that they get all of their financial information related to the Mets, all of which is clearly inaccurate, from one of the nefarious and diabolical local periodicals of New York.

By: tomemos

tomemos — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:22:18 +0000

Why would you put an apostrophe there? Where does anyone learn that?

By: bigtrav425

bigtrav425 — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:14:17 +0000

whether its true or not i dont know but i tend to believe it is true with the economy and the way contracts are getting outrageous.If this is true then that means that,and i wont get into detail ,but the contract money needs to come down..One way or another…..iv been saying this for a few yrs..make ALL contracts incentive laden,that way when a guy doesnt perform,you save money etc etc

By: sportsdrenched

sportsdrenched — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:09:12 +0000

I’ll keep this in mind the next “Cheap ass Royals” Comment or article get’s posted on here.

By: steve keane

steve keane — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:05:38 +0000

The Wilpon’s claim they were “duped” by this Forbes report and are victims and they will be vindicated

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:53:22 +0000

This is what happens when your so-called commissioner is really just one of the guys. Baseball under an independent commissioner would be, I suspect, in far better shape. Right now, even though it’s awash in money, the game as a whole could use the next iteration of Mountain Landis. But then, so could Congress.

By: apbaguy

apbaguy — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:28:03 +0000

It’s always fun to bet with other people’s money, as many of the owners are doing. A lot of these guys grew up watching Trump and Ted Turner take on mountains of debt in the ’80′s, and watched as the bankers who made the loans lost their jobs and the loans were written down, or off altogether, and Turner and Trump emerged far wealthier and with reputations not just intact, but enhanced. Who’s to say if anyone would lose out today, with bailout money still sloshing around, and near-zero interest rates.