Dollars and Sense
November 13, 2008
By AllStarsPlus
People, we are in recession in just about every industry. This will be the year to see what the effect is on the sports world.
Sure, most of the TV revenues are locked in as are some of the advertising deals, but the unknown is how fans will line up with their wallets at the ticket window and where team salaries are going to end up.
So tomorrow (Friday) becomes the 1st day that other teams can sign up Free Agents. Manny, CC, and Teixeira are the highlights. So ESPN reports today an inside scoop on what the Dodgers basically offered Manny in a 2 year deal with a 3rd year team option which could average out to $20 million per year and Manny is looking for something more long-term http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3697308
Long-term deals are a gamble on both sides, but the team risks more on longer deals due to injury and the dreaded diminishing statistical returns.
The Nationals can tell you all about issues just with short-term deals with Kearns, Wily Mo, Nick Johnson, Dmitri Young, Shawn Hill, Matt Chico, and others.
Chad Cordero signed a 1 year deal for the 2008 season and got paid his $6,200,000 and appeared in just 6 games. If he had signed a long term deal, who knows what his statistical returns would have been for 2009 and beyond.
How many players have you seen that have told their team they would pay them back because they didn’t perform at an anticipated level on their long term contract? I would say it has never happened.
So the Nationals have a long list of players and decisions with arbitration-eligible players like Willie Harris, Tim Redding, Ryan Zimmerman and the newly acquired Willingham and Olsen.
Zim, Willingham, and Olsen are all in the same situation as they will be going in to their 4th full MLB season without long term contracts and as of now are all be arbitration-eligible so the Nationals obviously took big financial gambles on Willingham and Olsen.
Here was a Bill Ladson interview at the end of October 2008:
Bill Ladson:You are now arbitration-eligible for the first time. Are you close to signing a contract with the Nationals or will you be going to arbitration?
Zimmerman: I have no idea. I don’t know if my agent has talked to [Jim Bowden] and those guys. I would doubt that we would go to arbitration. I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to agree on something. I don’t know what they think, but our side thinks it shouldn’t be that tough to come to an agreement. We’ll see what happens. The first three years is their time and, I guess, the next three years is my time. Ultimately, I would like to sign a deal and be in D.C. It’s just going to be a matter of whether the time is right and all the figures are right or stuff like that. It’s an exciting time for me and hopefully for the Nationals, too.
So tomorrow, let the bidding begin! What recession?
Here is some more Dollars and Cents:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/stories/2001-12-05-focus-expenses.htm
Average Player Salary for the last 20 years:
| Year | Average | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | $512,804 | N/A |
| 1990 | $578,930 | 12.9 |
| 1991 | $891,188 | 53.9 |
| 1992 | $1,084,408 | 21.7 |
| 1993 | $1,120,254 | 3.3 |
| 1994 | $1,188,679 | 6.1 |
| 1995 | $1,071,029 | (-9.9) |
| 1996 | $1,176,967 | 9.9 |
| 1997 | $1,383,578 | 17.6 |
| 1998 | $1,441,406 | 4.2 |
| 1999 | $1,720,050 | 19.3 |
| 2000 | $1,998,034 | 15.6 |
| 2001 | $2,264,403 | 13.9 |
| 2002 | $2,383,235 | 5.2 |
| 2003 | $2,555,476 | 7.2 |
| 2004 | $2,486,609 | (-2.7) |
| 2005 | $2,632,655 | 5.9 |
| 2006 | $2,866,544 | 8.9 |
| 2007 | $2,944,556 | 2.7 |
| 2008 | $3,154,845 | 7.1 |
Posted in Baseball - General, MLB, Washington Nationals
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November 14th, 2008 at 8:20 am
In today’s Sports Business Daily:
MLB Free-Agent Market To Be Impacted By Economic Slowdown
Execs And Agents Predict Rush To Sign
Big-Ticket Free Agents Like CC Sabathia
Three-fifths of the NL West is in “salary-dump mode, at least partly in response to the worsening economy,” and one can “easily see how the ripples will begin to strike other parts of baseball,” according to Buster Olney of ESPN.com. There is an “expectation among some executives and agents that the free-agent activity will be heavy at both ends of the offseason calendar.” Some agents “want to move quickly and strike deals rapidly in the first days after the free-agent period begins Friday out of a concern that eventually the money spent by teams this winter is going to dry up — particularly if there are teams who get an indication, in their season-ticket returns, that their attendance is going to go backward” in ‘09. Then, after an “initial flurry of signings and after the money musical chairs starts to slow in mid-December, some executives and agents believe that many big-name players will be left to sit and wait and play out a stare-down, with the teams waiting and waiting for the prices on the midlevel free agents not named” CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira to go down. One GM: “I’m going to wait until late January, because there are going to be a whole lot of bargains out there.” Also, if season-ticket returns do take a “major turn backward, it will have an impact on teams like ugly poll numbers do for a politician: They will change strategy in midstream”