Pretty late to my own party with this, but here’s a look at why MLB’s revenue sharing is NOT broken.
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On Baseball Prospectus: Despite The Screams, Revenue Sharing Isn’t Broken
posted by Shawn Hoffman, on August 31st, 2010 at 01:46 pm, in category 1No Comments | Add Comment
On Baseball Prospectus: Do New Owners Spend More?
posted by Shawn Hoffman, on August 12th, 2010 at 09:19 pm, in category 1How do new owners spend, relative to those they replace? And what can we expect from Greenberg/Ryan?
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On Baseball Prospectus: The American Needle Fallout
posted by Shawn Hoffman, on June 10th, 2010 at 10:24 am, in category 1Back from the dead, momentarily at least. I’ve said from the beginning that there’s more downside than upside for the NFL in this case, and now that the Supreme Court has shot down their ace argument, you’d think they’d try to settle. But they’re still talking tough, and that could have serious ramifications for all of the major American sports leagues, including Major League Baseball.
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On Baseball Prospectus: The Enigma That is MLB Network
posted by Shawn Hoffman, on May 20th, 2010 at 04:59 pm, in category 1MLBN is doing very well in a lot of ways, but I don’t think it’s going to be the massive billion-dollar business that a lot of people figured.
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On Baseball Prospectus: At Bat for iPad Review
posted by Shawn Hoffman, on May 6th, 2010 at 01:55 pm, in category 1It’s really, really cool, as expected. Even if you’re not gonna buy one, go to an Apple store and find a demo version that has At Bat on it.
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On Baseball Prospectus: Early Attendance Patterns
posted by Shawn Hoffman, on April 30th, 2010 at 04:15 pm, in category 1How much does early attendance matter, and when should teams (and MLB) start getting worried? Hint: in a month or two.
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Forbes Releases 2009 MLB Financial Estimates
posted by Shawn Hoffman, on April 8th, 2010 at 09:57 am, in category 1I should have a full analysis up on Prospectus on Sunday, but a few off-the-cuff reactions:
- The valuations are way too low, assuming they’re trying to estimate what-if-they-sold prices. The Padres sold for $500 million a year ago, and are only valued at $408m, while the Rangers could sell for even more than that (including debt), and Forbes has them valued at $451m. In fact, the Phillies and Angels are valued at $537m and $521m, respectively, and I don’t know who’s arguing that those teams wouldn’t sell for more than the Padres and Rangers. I haven’t finished the articles yet, but this seems like such a glaring error that I’d expect Forbes to account for it.
- The Yankees aren’t twice as valuable as the Red Sox. They are worth significantly more, as they do more revenue and have more valuable media properties, and probably have more growth potential in a healthy economy. But in practical terms, if both teams were sold, I would guess the difference would probably be closer to 25-50%, as opposed to 100%.
- The Pirates are not the least valuable team in the sport. Pittsburgh people support good teams in very large numbers, as we’ve seen with the Penguins the last four years; if the Pirates can ever get it together, their upside is far higher than the A’s and Marlins, among others.
- Note that both the Yankees and Red Sox were solidly profitable. This is very rare, particularly for the Yankees, and I’m curious whether Forbes changed up their methodology somewhat, as their old numbers never really passed the smell test.
- The Marlins were once again the most profitable team. Without even looking, I’m positive there were articles in the local papers bashing them today.
- Off the top of my head, I don’t think I remember a year where 28 teams were profitable, and only one lost more than $1m. That’s pretty amazing given that we were looking at Armageddon last spring, and, if true, is a credit to Bud and company, who hammered home the message of fiscal responsibility over and over and over again before last season.
More coming this weekend.
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On Baseball Prospectus: Predictions for 2010
posted by Shawn Hoffman, on April 3rd, 2010 at 05:15 pm, in category 1Some predictions for the coming year in baseball’s business.
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On Baseball Prospectus: How the NFL is Destroying MLB in Mobile
posted by Shawn Hoffman, on March 25th, 2010 at 09:14 am, in category 1It really is pretty amazing, considering the media attention given to each. But it is what it is, and what it is is a route.
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On Baseball Prospectus: Sports TV’s Golden Age
posted by Shawn Hoffman, on March 18th, 2010 at 01:12 pm, in category 1Why are TV ratings so high for sports right now? A couple theories.
Also, I love this chart — it’s the number of status updates on Facebook during the gold medal hockey game:
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