money

You’re Paying for the Marlins and Pirates

It has long been suspected in baseball circles that the lower-income teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates and Florida Marlins take the revenue-sharing money they receive from rich teams like the Yankees and pocket it, rather than spend it on their teams like they’re supposed to. Deadspin has detailed financial documents from the Pirates, Marlins, and Angels, and they confirm those suspicions: The Pirates, for example, netted nearly $30 million in 2007 and 2008, and nearly half their revenue came from sources outside the Pirates themselves. (MLB Advanced Media, national television, and, mostly, revenue sharing.) The Pirates have the lowest payroll in baseball by far, and are making money like crazy. We’re actually going to be at PNC Park tonight, and we’d expect some sort of fan protest, if there were any fans in the building at all. Actually, the Cardinals will be at PNC tonight; there will probably be a lot of Cardinals fans, happy to see the money they paid for tickets isn’t going back into the team that’s a division competitor. Well, “competitor.”

You’re Paying for the Marlins and Pirates