Please show me the posts where anyone has blindly accepted and/or defended Crane for everything he's done. We're all sick of the losing...but can look to the near future when the team will get better. No one appreciated his "you can give me $10 million..." remarks. No one likes being the laughingstock of baseball...heck, pretty much of all American professional sports right now. Doesn't mean he should sign a deal that will screw the team over for the next 20 years.
I think the Rockets and Astros were given expectations by Comcast. It's Comcast's business after all..and they'd done this in other markets around the country. Ultimately, they didn't meet those expectations for whatever reason. I think the biggest reason is that the RSN bubble just popped...that carriers started realizing that these RSN's weren't worth the price. Houston was a battleground for a much larger war.
Come on, CFers! Time to pool our money together so we can purchase the broadcast rights! Also... awesome post. Rep x 10.
All partners have put up cash. CSN is on the hook for the $100 million...not Comcast. CSN is owned by 3 partners -- the Astros, Rockets and Comcast. The assets of CSN are pledged against the $100 million. Not the assets of Comcast, the Rockets or the Astros.
So every team who fields a minor league roster at the major league level automatically becomes competive via the farm system in a couple of seasons? You are guaranteeing us that this plan will 100% succeed and that Jim Crank won't swap out these youngsters wih prospects once they start making decent money.
There's never a guarantee of success in pro sports....having a huge payroll at the major league level doesn't guarantee you anything either. See the Angels. But the teams that have the most success right now are teams that build through the farm and then supplement with free agents.
i understand that, in earlier posts i wrote crane and les lent themselves the money. i understand that is what the partnership allowed, lets just say it was stupid on comcast's part. i don't want to get into moral judgements
It was absolutely stupid on everyone's part...though I do think no one anticipated the bubble popping on them. What you have left is the fallout from that.
We are basically cheaters for tanking for the top pick every year. That is what is embarassing. The Astros and Rockets should have had a deal in place with all providers before they pulled the plug on the Fox Sports deal. When did we ever sign a 20 year deal before anyway? Why couldn't they sign shorter term carriage deals with providers to keep revenue flowing for a few years until this prospect plan blossomed? It's not like in 2 years we'd have a 100 million payroll that we had on the previous deal.
Except....we are not supplementing with free agents. We are putting a **** product on the field that draws a 0 rating at the same time we are asking for more money than we got when we had talent, a packed stadium and decent ratings. The only buzz around the Astros come from the flies buzzing around the garbage Crank puts on the field.
like i wrote earlier in the thread, it looks like the astros used that money to sign prospects. their farm system has gone from very bad to very good in very little time. crane maybe a pr nightmare but it looks like he does have a plan
We don't have anything to supplement yet. When we bring up the talent...if he never acquires pieces to go alongside it, then I'll agree with you. Reid Ryan is saying they're going to be adding help this offseason. My guess is most of that will address what was one of the worst bullpens ever. I have no idea if you follow baseball, but I can honestly say I've never seen a farm system more decimated than the one McLane left the Astros with. He stopped signing draft picks and then traded away all of the better prospects for older players. Farm systems don't get built overnight.
Now you're just wandering aimlessly. Point out where anyone said or suggested that a plan has a 100% chance of success? And what does any of that have to do with whether Crane should value 20 years worth of revenues based on the team's performance now? You just seem to be aimlessly rambling about how you hate Crane and the Astros. That's fine and your right - but it has nothing to do with CSN or the decisions being made there.
Pay attention..... Who would agree to 20 year lucrative deal with this jackwad with no track record and a bully attitude? You don't have to sign a 20 year deal with Dish or U-Verse for top dollar. Sign a shorter for slightly more than they paid Fox until you have leverage. Don't piss off your loyal fans and make them miss a couple of years of following the team over a few bucks in the first couple of years of you owning the team. Dollars that Crank wouldn't be spending on the payroll right now anyway.
I do follow baseball. Never said Crank inherited a great farm system. I just think it's dishonorable to tank the way we have. Crank can hold out like he is because he doesn't have to pay players very much these days.
There's no incentive for Dish or UVerse to sign that deal. For starters, you're only getting the crappy part of the product with no guarantee you'll be able to get them when they are better. Second, if you then don't renew later on, your customers will be pissed because you took away their Astros. Better to not give it to them in the first place - basic consumer psychology. It's the same reason why all those networks rejected CSN's free trial offer. Right now, the PR favors them - they lose that if they sign a short-term deal.
While I agree the Astros are on the right path it was also the only path. The downfall of the Astros farm system was so devastating and unprecedented that there really was only one option, so I give Crane no credit for it. The decisions he has made are receiving a 70 million discount for switching leagues, being as cheap as he possibly can as the Astros go through their rebuilding process, and appearing overly passive and incompetent as this CSN fiasco drags on into year two. There has been zero evidence this guy is a good thing for the Astros, and I'd argue the evidence points the other way based on what little we have to go on. Maybe in 3-5 years we'll figure out if he's trustworthy, but until that time color me skeptical. * okay, I guess I'll give him some credit for going retro with the unis/logo
The only path? Why are we the first with 3 straight #1s? Why did nobody take this path as far as we have? Crane wanted a baseball team more than anything, and it was the only way he was getting it. After seeing Drayton and the owners sacrifice millions of dollars to get this done, I think it was clear that he had no choice. Is it not impressive that Crane was willing to pay $70M more to stay in the NL? Why is that ignored? Crane had a deal signed to pay the full amount. Owners only needed to approve it, and they wouldn't vote on it. Cheap as he possibly can? He wouldn't have signed Carlos Pena, Bedard, Ankiel. He wouldn't have re-branded everything. He wouldn't have expanded the front office. He wouldn't have lifted the ban on all outside food/drinks. Just because the Major League payroll is low, and he isn't spending every dime he can, it doesn't mean he's being as cheap as possible either.
