Win at No Cost
In a piece entitled "Fan Stupidity," the Most Valuable Network blog discusses fans who don't want to get what they asked for:
The KC Royals have a reputation for having ticket prices that rank amongst the lowest in all of MLB, if not major league pro sports in general. This condition is brought about by the facts that KC is a “small” market town, has direct quality competition for the economy-minded pro baseball fan from the Northern League’s KC T-Bones and also the fact that KC is not exactly a prosperous town. Ditto for the surrounding countryside.
The simple fact of the matter is that the only way that the KC Royals could “buy” their way to consistent winning, is by first substantially increasing ticket prices which would ignite a storm of protest from those who profess to wanting to win at all costs. My 2 favorite sports teams, the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Blackhawks have both over the years been roundly criticized for being “cheap” on the payroll. However, when both teams increase the ticket prices to enable higher payroll spending, there are screams of protest from the very same fans and media critics who were crying about the alleged cheapness in the first place. I have often heard fans & radio talk show hosts bitterly complain about how high the ticket prices are while simultaneously accusing the teams of being cheap.
This lack of reality leads to fannish fantasies about the Billionaire on a White Horse who rides into town throwing money around in a magnificent committment to winning and brings the championship to the fans. The Billionaire is always a committed sports fan who would never ever think of raising ticket prices since he always values winning above all else....Those rich folks who do buy teams and spend lavishly on them at first (Ted Turner for example) learn quickly that spending on payroll is a chancy gambit at best and that player development is the better, not to mention cost-efficient, path to glory. Additionally, they learn that fans will not turn out in droves in response to higher payrolls and that the same fans who were previously complaining about “cheapness” will continue to do the same....If anything, upping payroll often brings more problems than before.
Another thing that the rich folks who buy teams learn is that the fans/media will attack them at every turn no matter what they do. Witness the hysterical attacks upon the owners/GM’s of the Chicago Bulls and the LA Lakers for supposedly killing NBA dynasties. In a typical sports team’s ups and downs, when the team does well, the players and managers/coaches get all the credit while the GM’s and owners are hardly mentioned. However, when the team takes an inevitable downturn, the owners and GM’s are singled out for abuse. Sometimes, the owners are trashed even when the team are successful as in the case of the repeat AL Central champion Minnesota Twins (Carl Pohlad) or the 1990 World Champion Cincinnati Reds (Marge Schott).
One reason for a lot of the recent bitterness by fans against their teams is that of an opportunist named Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks who likes to posture as an owner who is supremely concerned about winning above all else. Cuban also likes to make generic statements about how other team owners care about the bottom line more about winning as if he, Cuban, is superior to them. Many fans and sports writers have seized upon Cuban’s statements and have made him seem like the ideal team owner and also as a means of further denigrating the folks who currently own teams. However, as a few sports writers such as the Chicago Tribune’s NBA columnist Sam Smith has pointed out, Cuban’s talk is mostly hot air that is not supported by the facts....
A dissenting view:
Someone with money and a knack for hiring the right people does not make a good owner. These people are called high-end investors. A good owner requires devotion to his franchise and a willingness to do anything to make his franchise successful. This quality is found in Mark Cuban. Although he might be perceived as overzealous, his excitedness about his team is infectious and should be considered a praiseworthy quality.
Angel Cielo
Culver City, Calif.
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