billiken_roy Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 i do agree with kshoe on the year to year financial situation of sports franchises. i will agree dire straits exists when teams actually start folding up shop and there is not another money man in line to take the reigns and pay the bills. sure there might be franchises that make more on a day to day basis than others, but you cannot argue the fact that these franchises continue to escalate in value to the point that a profit for any major pro sports team is at minimum there for the taking just by selling to the next bill laurie in waiting. like i said, the day the nhl has only 8 franchises left, or the pirates call off a series due to being unable to pay their expenses. i aint buying. the owners arent suffering. the only ones holding the bag is the poor fan. so dont count me in the group that is against the rich athlete. i say good for them. get all they can get. no one is holding a gun to the idiot owners to sign those contracts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 What bag is the fan holding? No one is holding a gun to the fan to root for a team. You are exactly right about the owners Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 true, but the fans are the ones that really pay the bills. i.e. the owners and players point fingers and then in reality just pass it on to the fans. i can tell you that in the 80's i had cardinal season tix. i dropped them in the late 80's for this very reason. i began attending billiken games then instead with my sports dollars. best entertainment decision i ever made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 For the record, the year before Mr. Marriedwell bought the Blues, Forbes' "franchise value" was $152M. Thus, using about 8% total inflation since 1999 (which would make the 1999 value $164M in 2004 dollars), one could extrapolate that Insert Tab A into Walmart B would get about $93M if Forbes were as accurate in estimating values today as it was in 1999. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 My wife is furious with Albert Pujols over his contract negotiations, but he did the same thing that Lamping and the Cardinals did to the city to get financing. I say let the players get whatever they can while they can. Until more folks take their sports dollars elsewhere, the system will continue as is. The whole baseball thing is a mess with little chance of improvement. A lot of credit goes to Mac and Sosa for getting people back into the game, but I think the real thing that saved baseball is the explosion of rotisserie/fantasy leagues. Without the millions of people playing along, the game would die of lack of interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 While I understand that they are very popular...this sports nut hasn't wasted one minute getting interested in them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted April 8, 2004 Share Posted April 8, 2004 butch i never really thought about the "fantasy baseball" angle, but you know you are right. i know i personally watch sports center and baseball tonite everynite waiting to hear what "my players" did that day. great point. and for those of you that dont play fantasy baseball, you shouldnt knock it. i can tell you that before i started playing fantasy baseball in the late 80's i couldnt name probably 25 players in the american league. i know the players now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 and can honestly say I knew the players so much better back then but after playing fantasy football for the past few years I'll never go back to baseball. The baseball season is just so long and having to check on your team daily takes the fun out of it within a few months. With football, however, you can check/manage your team on Thursday, watch the games on Sunday and Monday and that is it. I know you don't care for the NFL but fantasy football blows away the baseball equivalent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 i play fantasy football, college basketball and baseball. nothing says you cant do all three. i do know what you are talking about though. you need to get in a baseball league that limits moves to once a week or even more. that is what i did to cut down on the work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 Fantasy sports really have changed the landscape of viewing. My wife absolutely despised football two seasons ago. If asked she may have been able to name 3 players in the NFL (Faulk, Warner, Bruce). We talked her into playing last season and she is completely converted. She spent a qurter of the season studying free agent tight ends to improve her chances in the playoffs. Simply amazing. The really cool part is that she watches the games with interest. It sure makes my Sunday's more enjoyable. She is playing baseball this year for the first time and is still learning the ropes. The league we have is all family members 7 men, 3 women. About half of the league are die hard baseball fans, the other half could care less except for the Cardinals. By the end of the season the other half is going to be screaming at Lou Pinella for benching Rocco Baldelli. It is a boon for the league to have people care about the movements on obscure teams in the other league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 ...fantasy sports are the reason the networks have gone to the stat tickers at the bottom of the screen. Five years ago these tickers did not exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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