Drayton is not one of those that are losing money! I recently read in the newspaper that Drayton said he will lose money this year. That is a load of .... . There are so many ways to play with the numbers. I am in the profession. I put values on companies, projects, etc.... I know he is playing with the discount rates.
Now I am not going to back Drayton or try to explain away any issues you guys have with him but he runs the team like he runs all of his bussinesses. He does not run businesses to lose money. He does this in all of his business ventures including the Astros. I am not defending him, I personally think he could spend a little more but how much more? The Astros have had more success with Drayton at the helm than any other owner the Astros have ever had. We have never won a World Series but the Astros have won more games in the last 10 years than most teams that have never been to the WS all the while not let salary spending to get out of control like teams such as Balt, LA, Chi, Texas, etc. If MLB had at least a soft salary cap and revenue sharing, that could stop the bleeding and save the game.( Although I feel a hard salary cap like the NFL would work better) The scary thought for me is what kind of team could Gerry Hunsicker compile if he could spend like say ..the Yankees..
What other overbloated teams have done is trade their marketable players for 1 yr contract players and a couple of draft picks while eating up the overpaid contracts of the freeloading players (Rice, Cato, etc...) I doubt Les' commitment to winning will be more paramount than circumventing the luxury tax when Shaq has another 2-5 years left in the NBA.
RE the luxery tax. I have never met Les Alexander and I have no idea what his stand on the issue is. He has been a good owner as far as the dollars and cents go. He allowed management to cut and replace Maloney and others even though they had guaranteed salaries. I have to feel that all owners don't mind going a bit over the threshold if it will make a difference. Especially if the difference is making the play offs or not, or going deeper into the playoffs. The extra seats and tv revenue shouldl more than make up for most of the tax. However, I read the other day that the Knicks are $31,000,000.00 over the expected and may have to pay $31,000,000.00 in luxery tax. That has to be hard to swallow. If "my people" had put me in that position for those crappy results, I would want to be in on all future decisions myself.
