Ok thanks for the clarification on the revenue. I saw an article that mentioned something about revenues and the NFL comparison, but haven't had the time to read it yet. I do agree though. The steroid damage will be very small unless this Mitchell report names guys like Ortiz, A-Rod, Jeter, Pujols, Santana, etc. As long as the guys who are named are not the "faces of baseball" types, baseball will be fine.
Where I dont believe that baseball is going down or anything like that, it is a very distant third to me in the big 3 of sports (NFL, NBA, MLB). It has been this way much of the last 5 or 6 years for me. The contracts, the non-loyalness of every player, the roids...its just gotten to be too much for me personally. Not even the Astros making the World Series made me put MLB before the other two sports. Just one mans opinion.
That's fair. But to be clear...it is just one man's opinion. Baseball is doing very well right now....approaching NFL revenue numbers...and that's insane. This article was from October.....since then they did the final tally on baseball's 07 revenues...it was over $6 billion. That's essentially what the NFL did in 2005. The NBA is a very distant third in that respect. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune...s,1,1443212.column?coll=cs-whitesox-headlines MLB cash cow breaking away Selig envisions surpassing NFL with huge influx of new revenue Executives with Major League Baseball are riding high after arguably the most compelling September in history. How high? How about take-on-the-NFL high? "I probably shouldn't say this," one highly placed MLB executive said last week. "There was a time when I wouldn't even think it. But I think we're going to see a time in the future, the near future, when we are going to pass the NFL in producing revenue." That thought would have seemed preposterous a decade ago. But Commissioner Bud Selig didn't laugh when the possibility was presented during a discussion. "By any measure you want to look at, our sport is more popular now than it has ever been," Selig said. "The country really is baseball-crazy today, no question." The 30 major-league franchises combined to draw 79.5 million fans, averaging 32,785 per game. The overall attendance increased 4.5 percent over the record 2006 totals. Local, cable and network ratings are also on the rise. "The sport is exploding," Selig said. The final revenue figures for 2007 still are being calculated, but Selig said the projection is $5.6 billion to $5.8 billion. The NFL produced $5.7 billion in revenue in 2005 and is expected to rise to about $6.3 billion this year. MLB definitely is closing what was once a huge gap. As recently as 1992, when the small-market clubs aggressively began pushing for a redistribution of national funds, MLB's total revenue was $1.2 billion. That means MLB has grown by more than 350 percent in 15 years. With its global development and the Internet, MLB has tapped into revenue streams that have money flowing into the central fund, which passes most of it back to the clubs in equal shares, the Kansas City Royals getting as much as the New York Yankees. MLB's TV network, another potential source of major revenue, has a launch slated for 2009. MLB redistributes about $315 million from the biggest clubs to the smallest this season, but that is only one part of the financial model Selig believes allowed Colorado, Arizona and Cleveland to go to the playoffs this season. With the Yankees the only 2006 playoff team to make it back this season, 15 of the 30 franchises have been in postseason play over the last two years. The chase for the wild card has driven the increased attendance, prompting fans to keep going to games after school has started, with the small-market teams the biggest beneficiaries of the increased attendance. "The economic model we were using in the 1990s was broken," Selig said. "I don't think we really realized how badly it was broken. The same with the labor fights every four years. I don't think we really knew how much we were hurting ourselves. Fans did not want to hear about that. They want to know about the sport on the field, and that has never been better."
That's nice and all, but as you yourself stated, it's one man's opinion. Basketball isn't even in the same realm of baseball and football nationally generally speaking.
Bud Selig should be fired plain and simple. The guy was incompetent and let this thing roll for 10 years now. Baseball is tainted forever by the "juice" era, all the records including Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa's should be baned from the hall of fame. Selig never had the balls to deal with this mess and let things slide for so long, hoping it would go away with time. He is a disgrace to baseball more than any guy who did steroids. Even the hockey commish looks more competent at this point and he is a moron. These guys need to learn a thing or two from Roger Goodell and how to run things the proper way.
not gonna happen. the bottom line is all that matters to the owners. and they're making a killing right now. and if you think Goodell isn't presiding over a league that abuses performance-enhancing substances, you're nuts.
largely true. and lawyer geeks like me who like to see those who indulge in perjury and obstruction of justice held accountable.
To me, if he did do those things, I would like to see him be held accountable (don't get me on flip-flopping 9 years after the fact!), but I think by and large, people just are sick and tired of hearing about Barry Bonds.
i agree. they've known it was all possibly/probably the result of steroids for years now. they've bought tickets in record numbers, nonetheless.
You can't blame the guy for inheriting that from Paul Taglibue but I think the guy has the balls to deal with athletes who disgrace the game like Mike Vick and Pacman Jones. For the longest time Bud Selig has turned the other cheek on the issue of steroids. Look we all know athletes these days use substances in every sports. The issue is not steroid abuse but rather the ignorance of the commissioner to keep a blind eye to all of this when he knew long ago what was going on. So far all the major players in this steroids circle such as Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire and Jason Giambi have received no penalty from the league. That is why I say football is in better situation where at least someone is willing to hand suspensions to big name players for misconduct and wrong-doing. No sports comissioner is perfect but none is as blatantly incompetent as Bud Selig.
cheezie: comparing the NFL & MLB when discussing drug use in sports and not mentioning the differing roles/strengths of the players' associations in each sport shows a very shallow understanding of a very complicated issue.
until you have positive tests, you can't suspend people. the players union would freak out...and the league would lose. you have to have more than conjecture. you need positive tests. when they get positive tests, guys get suspended.
except he never adminstered tests. As an owner, however, I'd take the commissioner who increased revenues and market values over the one who did not -- even if the pundits think he's doing a lousy job. So Selig wins over Stern. That hockey guy doesn't register. I think baseball actually comes out pretty good through all this. Barry got to set the record so the conspiracy theorists can't drone on about it all being about stopping him....Barry gets indicted so we can stop the Bonds drama...baseball finally has some testing...and A Rod's locked up with a team that can afford him, and other players too. And I get to keep cheering anybody but Yanks!
so now you're going to attribute the success of the nfl to commissioner earp who's in his first season?
Because what he was doing at the time wasn't against the rules of mlb. Kind of hard to cheat when what he was doing wasn't actually against the rules.
but it was illegal. kind of like tax evasion and illegal gambling. may not be in the "rules of baseball" but still enough to keep you out of the HOF.
