Astros, Les Alexander may owe Comcast at least $54 million

What cable/satellite company do you have?

 

Roadrunner/Time Warner/Spectrum is the only reliable Cable Co. in my area. Almost 1,000 unwatchable channels, though.

 

Do you know rich people?

 

That money came from investors and will almost certainly go back to them alone.

 

Meh. Yes, rich people generally suck but it’s pretty clear Crane isn’t treating the Astros like a cash cow; he’s fielded top 5 payrolls for the last 4 seasons. And it is likely all of the money from the original investment in the team/network has been either paid off or rolled into ownership/operations of the team by now. So I do consider it at least possible that if that group were to get an unexpected $200M cash injection then at least some of that could find its way into player payroll increases.

 

I could see the owners putting that cash into a hard asset such as a minor league facility or a broadcasting group. Spending it on every day controllable expenses would be an unforgivable waste of a major asset that would likely result in Cranes ouster by the board.

 

Very unlikely he would be ousted. Investors have done very well under Crane’s leadership.

 

I actually find that most wealthy people are actually very nice people. Those that aren't are terrible people and give the vast majority a bad name.

 

I don’t want to totally derail the thread into a discussion of the morality of massive wealth accumulation, but I disagree with that first sentence.

 

Agree to disagree and I work with many people of great means.

 

Polite people? Yes, I would agree with that. However they often can be cut throat. I suppose every person is different.

 

I regularly deal with people who likely rank among the ten thousand wealthiest people on earth. In terms of social interaction, they aren’t much different than any other group of people; most of them are as nice as can be, friendly, charming, yada yada. A lot of them can be impatient. But social interaction isn’t what I was referring to when I said rich people generally suck. I was referring to my opinion that there is something inherently immoral about hoarding that amount of resources. “Easier to pass through the eye of a needle…” and all that jazz. Apologies to all for being party to taking the thread off topic.

 

My direct boss is one of the 20 richest people on earth - he makes more every year with his dividend check than most of the top 1000 have. He inherited a good portion of it, and while he keeps way more than he needs, he also ensures the massive organisation he owns never faces layoffs, everyone gets good raises, and contributes to society. He also flies commercial, gets me coffee himself when we meet, and knows all his direct reports’ kids’ birthdays. And if he gives away the shares that generate his multibillion $ annual paycheck, it will end up in the hands of someone who will be happy to lay off many in the company.

Does he deserve all of what he has? Of course not. Is he evil? Hell no.

It is far too easy to paint with a broad brush.

anyway, maybe let’s skip the class warfare BTSOOTYankees!

 

Just a heads up in case revealing your employer would be bad for you, I can infer that you work for Jim or Rob Walton based just on that post.

 

Agree, i'm around quite a few VERY wealthy people on a fairly regular basis, and a large majority of them are very nice

And yes, the vocal few are true A-holes

 

I'm never around wealthy people.

But I love baseball and the Astros

 

Nope

 

**** Les Alexander and all of the douchebags who still currently work for him.

 

Which frees up money from debt service that can shift to operations, if they so choose.

 

Eggxactly right..