Jim Crane
Owner
Houston Astros
Talk about lighting a bond fire!
That Forbes Magazine story that came out yesterday showing the 2013 Houston Astros as the biggest profiting team in all of sports history has started both a forest fire of attention and a sand storm of protest from Astros owner Jim Crane in the past 24 hours . As simply another little pea in the Houston Sports Pod, The Pecan Park Eagle doesn’t even pretend to know the truth in this matter.
According to Forbes, the worst team in baseball, the 2013 Houston Astros, are on their way to pulling in $99 million dollars in profit from the current season, an amount greater than the combined profits of the last six World Series winners. Forbes says that a slashed payroll and skyrocketing income from television revenues is making the difference for the game’s biggest losers, but that conclusion begs the obvious questions: With Astros tied into the Comcast TV deal, only 40% of their market is now receiving all televised games. – Where’s the income skyrocket? Is the club share in the national TV contracts that great? And, even with the payroll scratched to next-to-nothing by today’s standards, the gate is way down. – Where’s the income source that justifies the Forbes conclusion?
Luhnow Better Be Right!
Astros GM Jeff Luhnow better be right in his rebuild-with-babies approach because, if this team isn’t winning competitively by 2015, or 2016, at the latest, there is going to be a wholesale order placed by the club for executive-strength guillotines that far exceeds the demand for annual season ticket sale renewals.
With the Astros’ payroll now at $13 million, the attached article puts this face on the club’s situation:
“Sixty-four major leaguers make more individually than the Astros’ current 25-man active payroll makes collectively. The New York Yankees pay nine players more than the Astros payroll. Twenty other teams pay at least one player more. And Jason Bay, who is not even on a team, earns more than the all of the Astros, thanks to an old contract with the New York Mets.”
Then, if the plan does work, it still fails if the Astros don’t come up with the money by that time to lock in the stars of tomorrow to long term contracts, but Reid Ryan says the club is counting on the Comcast deal getting settled in time to provide that dough.
Oh well, if Forbes is even close to being right on their estimation of Astros profitability, money for salaries won’t be a problem. We’ll just need to see signs from the club that the will is there to pay out salaries on a sustained championship competitor basis. And that’s a whole other realm.
Meanwhile, let’s hope that the Astros never get too comfortable making big money as a loser. My initial guess after hearing him talk last Saturday is that President Reid Ryan isn’t going to let that kind of sloppy entitlement mind set to slip into the saddle as the Astros operational plan.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 27, 2013 at 2:15 pm |
Dr. BILL:
Most recently – the man that made the huge profit off the Astros was Drayton McLane in Temple. The numerous organizations and institutions (Hospitals – Colleges) in Bell County and surrounding areas, were major beneficiaries of that profit – some to the tune of $40 million a pop. Reputedly McLane made a profit in the range of $600 million….how’s that for good timing?
August 27, 2013 at 3:39 pm |
I think the Comcast stalemate only points out how all pro sports have come to depend on TV revenue too much. It used to be supplemental income like billboards and concessions. Now, professional teams and whole college programs can’t make it without the TV dollars. The Astros are getting by with less revenue from their deal than they expected, but the network itself is actually losing money….and they own about 45% of it! As long as networks, cable and satellite systems are willing to keep paying all the teams and schools are OK. That will be determined in large part by the public. In reality of THEY are willing to keep paying nothing will change. But what if the public said “Enough is enough?”
August 28, 2013 at 1:54 pm |
There is no way to verify the story in Forbes–MLB clubs are very secretive about their finances, as are NFL clubs. Greg Lucas’ comments about the baleful effects of TV money on pro and college sports (to say nothing about the Little League) are underlined by a very long article in the NY Times Sunday edition on how ESPN now seems to dictate the scheduling of college football on TV. Howver, the colleges aren’t complaining. Can educational institutions thrive in this environment?