Contraction

[LanceRoten]

Originally Posted by carrigansghost

Okay this is going to offend some fellow members. Isn't about time MLB looks into contraction? I'm a Red Sox fan and make no excuses. I watch 90% Sox games and it amazes me that most of the fan come to the game dressed as empty seats.

It would generate a great deal of excitement to have a draft similar to the expantion draft to farm out all off the players on the teams that cannot outdraw a Texas high school football game. You can check the #'s out, but the bottom 10 teams need to go. This will really make some fans upset in storied places, but come on, let's be real here.

I feel bad for the cameramen that have been told to try not to show the empty seats, what should they show?

Arizona
Pitt
Wash
Seattle
Tor
Cleve
Balt
KC
Tb
Oak
Fla

See ya teams.

Rawn

Pittsburgh, Cleveland, KC, Baltimore, Oakland and Florida(Miami Marlins, whatever lol) keep. New ballpark in South Florida SHOULD make a huge difference down there. Those other teams I could care less. But, the Pirates, Royals, Indians, Orioles, A's have solid roots and history.

[4815162342]

I've only been to a handful of MLB games in my lifetime, all of them in my adulthood, and all of them at Camden Yards (I lived in the Baltimore/DC area a few summers during college).

When my buddy and I went to a game during the National last summer, it was like night and day in comparison to 10 years ago. No Iron Man. Higher Ticket Prices. Lower Attendance.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Cubs during the National this year. I'm guessing that Wrigley Field is a little busier than Camden Yards.

[jb217676]

Originally Posted by LanceRoten

Pittsburgh, Cleveland, KC, Baltimore, Oakland and Florida(Miami Marlins, whatever lol) keep. New ballpark in South Florida SHOULD make a huge difference down there. Those other teams I could care less. But, the Pirates, Royals, Indians, Orioles, A's have solid roots and history.

Blue Jays are better than all those teams. Watch out, my team is a juggernaut in the making!

Why does everyone want to contract Seattle teams? This provincial crap must stop. There is no other rep in MLB for the entire Pacific Northwest (including Alaska an area more than 2/3 the size of the contiguous U.S.). The Mariners draw well, when they are performing well, and with a good stable of young pitchers (Hernandez, Pineda, and Fister) those days may not be far away. Just need some timber in the lineup.

The NBA stole the Sonics. The Seahawks and even Sounders regularly sell out games. This is a GREAT sports city. Contraction should be reserved for teams not supported by the public, and considering it was Washington state tax payers dollars that built Safeco Field, that is simply not the case here.

[steve B]

Hmmm...... Better get out the nomex suit for this one....

I don't think contraction is the answer.

On one point from the original post, from another sox fan. Don't use "can't outdraw a texas HS football game" as the benchmark. Fenway is pretty small, and with Alamo stadium seating 23000 we'd only be a few bad seasons away. And for a HS championship in a pro stadium it's not looking good. One in 1977 drew just short of 50,000.


They should tryto do something about the cost of attending. The teams that don't draw well do charge much less. My brother went to a few Red sox games in KC when he was stationed nearby. $10 for pretty good seats!

What really should happen are changes in compensation, as well as in player treatment. The players union only really helps the top players, while many solid players who aren't superstars have shortened careers.
A team can't reduce a players salary by more than 20% no matter how bad they are.
The 5/10 rule makes it difficult to move some players
And having arbitration start at 3 years makes some players fairly expensive.
Brian Daubach is a prime example. 4 very good years with the red sox, but his salary went from 400,000 to 2.3 million for 2002. After 2002 he was released before the 5 years with one team could apply. He was also up for arbitration and probably a good sized raise. He signed with Chicago, for around 400,000 and was eventually released. Signed with Boston again, released, then the Mets and Cardinals, who he never played for. I believe the last 3-4 contracts were initially minor leage deals where he had to earn his way onto the big league team. I believe a lack of regular playing time hurt his performance, some guys just need to play regularly.

There's no way the CBA helped him at all.

In some ways I think the reserve clause while often unfair did keep some guys around longer than they would play today. There was more of a comittment between team an player. And the fans got some consistency.

So maybe a base minimum salary of 2 million or so, some realistic performance bonuses setup in a way that prevents a club from sitting a guy to avoid a bonus. And a tighter requirement for free agency. Maybe only available after 5 years with a proceedure to become a free agent earlier if the player feels he's being held back deliberately. And no compensation to the team for losing a free agent to push better treatment.

Yeah, still some problems, like how to handle injuries and stuff like that, but I think it would help many teams field a better team for longer.

Steve B

[carrigansghost]

I believe Daubach was also compelled to cross the picket line due to family medical issues and was never granted inclusion into the player's union. He is still employer in baseball, but forget for which team. He is one of the players that I very much enjoyed watching.

Rawn

[novakjr]

No contraction, just a salary cap. The majority of the small market teams that were listed have proven that they can sell seats consistently when their teams are playing consistently. The problem is that the system doesn't allow these small market teams to be consistent for any prolonged period of time. At best, these teams will be competitive for 2-3 years before they have to rebuild again, because their stars end up in the big markets, where money can just be thrown around freely... These teams never really get to profit off of their good years either, because they're either completely unexpected, or come and go so quickly that by the time the fans get on board it's over. Which leads to some hesitancy the next time the team is competitive.

Consistency, also included being able to know what players are gonna be on your team year after year. Who knows how long a guy's gonna stick around? How can you legitimately root for players that you know are gonna leave as soon as they get good? I can't blame the players or the team for that. But it's clearly evident that the system if F*ed.

[carrigansghost]

Minn seems to have found a way to do it as have other "small market" teams even playing in the joke of a ballpark until this year.

Rawn