Cards Need an Owner Who Doesn't Need to make a profit

[Galatians221jb1]

DeWitt is an amazing investor and has bought the Cards for $150 million and turned it into a $2.5 billion investment. I applaud him for that but evidently, he needs to make more money from the team. That's understandable, but if for example, the Taylor family bought the Cardinals, Andy and the family make so much money from Enterprise car leasing that they could treat the Cards as a loss leader and tax write-off. I understand the advantages that the mega market teams have in broadcast revenue, but I get the sense that they aren't concerned with making short term money from the ballclub. DeWitt owns Arby's franchises and lots of other investments but perhaps he could keep the stadium and sell the club to someone like the Taylor's who would do so as a way to honor the city and keep making gazillions renting cars and bring the Cardinals into a competitive club for free agents and be willing to operate as a loss for a while. I've lost confidence in the DeWitts. They want to do things on the cheap. Perhaps they have to. Having investments doesn't necessarily translate to cash flow. I spent decades mocking the futility of the Cubs. Now, I fear, we are going to flounder for a long time.

[cardstatman]

Cubs owner:

3rd largest market in USA and larger than all four division rivals combined.
Cross-town team is perenially even more inept.
Fans pack stadium win or lose.
Payroll potential is almost as great as Yankees or Dodgers but owner/POBO signs few free agents.
Owner pockets huge profits with payrolls usually outside the top 20% of MLB.

Cards owner:
Not among the 20 largest markets in USA. Bottom third of MLB.
Fans only come if team is winning. They disappear during a rebuild. First rebuild in 25 years is currently happening.
Owner usually has payrolls around 30-40th percentile of MLB and and fields a team often better than the Dodgers... until the past few years.
Payroll drops for 3 years during a rebuild and owner is villified for being cheap and only caring about profits.

Culprit: POBO became sentimental and stopped being among the MLB best. Owner failed to notice and act quickly... or was the driver of sentimentality.

[desertrat23]

Cubs owner:

3rd largest market in USA and larger than all four division rivals combined.
Cross-town team is perenially even more inept.
Fans pack stadium win or lose.
Payroll potential is almost as great as Yankees or Dodgers but owner/POBO signs few free agents.
Owner pockets huge profits with payrolls usually outside the top 20% of MLB.

Cards owner:
Not among the 20 largest markets in USA. Bottom third of MLB.
Fans only come if team is winning. They disappear during a rebuild. First rebuild in 25 years is currently happening.
Owner usually has payrolls around 30-40th percentile of MLB and and fields a team often better than the Dodgers... until the past few years.
Payroll drops for 3 years during a rebuild and owner is villified for being cheap and only caring about profits.

Culprit: POBO became sentimental and stopped being among the MLB best. Owner failed to notice and act quickly... or was the driver of sentimentality.

Not a very flattering depiction of the fanbase. None of this is their fault.

[Galatians221jb1]

Dewitt purchased a dynasty put together by Jocketty. He fired Jocketty. Walt brought in LaRussa, Duncan, McGwire, Walker, Pujols, Molina, Carpenter and much more. After firing Jocketty, Cards were still strong for a few years but the synergy dropped quickly after that. Replacing Walt with Mo was the beginning of a huge downturn. I’m not anti- DeWitt but Bill and his son don’t know as much about baseball as they think they do. I’m hopeful that Bloom can be the next Walt. I’m skeptical. Retaining Oli makes me extremely skeptical

[icon]

DeWitt is an amazing investor and has bought the Cards for $150 million and turned it into a $2.5 billion investment. I applaud him for that but evidently, he needs to make more money from the team. That's understandable, but if for example, the Taylor family bought the Cardinals, Andy and the family make so much money from Enterprise car leasing that they could treat the Cards as a loss leader and tax write-off. I understand the advantages that the mega market teams have in broadcast revenue, but I get the sense that they aren't concerned with making short term money from the ballclub. DeWitt owns Arby's franchises and lots of other investments but perhaps he could keep the stadium and sell the club to someone like the Taylor's who would do so as a way to honor the city and keep making gazillions renting cars and bring the Cardinals into a competitive club for free agents and be willing to operate as a loss for a while. I've lost confidence in the DeWitts. They want to do things on the cheap. Perhaps they have to. Having investments doesn't necessarily translate to cash flow. I spent decades mocking the futility of the Cubs. Now, I fear, we are going to flounder for a long time.

And one who gives a [shirt] about winning. And one who isn''t senile. And one who doesn't have a nepo idiot son.

[rockondlouie]

Dewitt purchased a dynasty put together by Jocketty. He fired Jocketty. Walt brought in LaRussa, Duncan, McGwire, Walker, Pujols, Molina, Carpenter and much more. After firing Jocketty, Cards were still strong for a few years but the synergy dropped quickly after that. Replacing Walt with Mo was the beginning of a huge downturn. I’m not anti- DeWitt but Bill and his son don’t know as much about baseball as they think they do. I’m hopeful that Bloom can be the next Walt. I’m skeptical. Retaining Oli makes me extremely skeptical

BDWJr's call galatains, he wasn't going to pay Oli to sit on his a z z AND pay a new Manager in what Dewitt has determines is a throwaway, re-building season.

Bloom gets his Manager after the new CBA is in place.

[45s]

So…

You want an owner who will operate the club as a public service?

Good luck with that…

[Cranny]

Jed Hoyer has said that the Cubs path to success needs to follow the Cardinals model.

[ClassicO]

Define profit?

If I buy stock at $150,000,000 and it appreciates over 30 years to $2.55 billion, and some years had dividends (operating profit) and others did not, did I profit?
Yes, not operating profits every year, but having a 17-fold value increase is extremely good. And I can hang on to the stock, knowing that when I sell it, it will bring that enormous value gain.

P.S. - They bought the team for $150 million, but then sold the parking garage for $150 million, so they made back their investment in year one.

[mattmitchl44]

Most MLB teams will turn an operatiny profit. I only expect the Cardinals owners to turn a profit in line with other teams.

[Ordinary Man]

Define profit?

If I buy stock at $150,000,000 and it appreciates over 30 years to $2.55 billion, and some years had dividends (operating profit) and others did not, did I profit?
Yes, not operating profits every year, but having a 17-fold value increase is extremely good. And I can hang on to the stock, knowing that when I sell it, it will bring that enormous value gain.

P.S. - They bought the team for $150 million, but then sold the parking garage for $150 million, so they made back their investment in year one.

The parking garages went for 90 million I believe. But your point still stands, they bought at fire sale prices and have amassed a fortune in appreciation.

[Bob39]

Define profit?

If I buy stock at $150,000,000 and it appreciates over 30 years to $2.55 billion, and some years had dividends (operating profit) and others did not, did I profit?
Yes, not operating profits every year, but having a 17-fold value increase is extremely good. And I can hang on to the stock, knowing that when I sell it, it will bring that enormous value gain.

P.S. - They bought the team for $150 million, but then sold the parking garage for $150 million, so they made back their investment in year one.

The parking garages went for 90 million I believe. But your point still stands, they bought at fire sale prices and have amassed a fortune in appreciation.

Yes, but you can't use that appreciation to pay salaries. The notion that an MLB owner has to be willing to lose revenue if he truly wants to compete is a crazy notion in my judgement. For years people have defended monster salaries by saying 'the money is there, why shouldn't the players get it?" If the salaries are outpacing revenue, the salaries have to come down.

[Goldfan]

Dewitt purchased a dynasty put together by Jocketty. He fired Jocketty. Walt brought in LaRussa, Duncan, McGwire, Walker, Pujols, Molina, Carpenter and much more. After firing Jocketty, Cards were still strong for a few years but the synergy dropped quickly after that. Replacing Walt with Mo was the beginning of a huge downturn. I’m not anti- DeWitt but Bill and his son don’t know as much about baseball as they think they do. I’m hopeful that Bloom can be the next Walt. I’m skeptical. Retaining Oli makes me extremely skeptical

BDWJr's call galatains, he wasn't going to pay Oli to sit on his a z z AND pay a new Manager in what Dewitt has determines is a throwaway, re-building season.

Bloom gets his Manager after the new CBA is in place.

I just bought some new sneakers……turns out after wearing a couple times they really hurt my feet…..I now have blisters……these sores won’t seem to heal……since the sneakers are new and I just paid $$$ for them I’ll continue to wear them instead of buying and wearing a new pair of sneakers….because why would I spend money on 2 pairs of sneakers when I just bought this one that will lead to my feet being possibly cut off…..
This is BDW logic with all these “sunken cost” terrible signings….destroy the Team(product) so he won’t have to pay for a replacement that produces WINS….Brilliant business man who partially because of the thinking has lost 1million butts in seats and commiserate income from 1mil butts

[BrockFloodMaris]

Define profit?

If I buy stock at $150,000,000 and it appreciates over 30 years to $2.55 billion, and some years had dividends (operating profit) and others did not, did I profit?
Yes, not operating profits every year, but having a 17-fold value increase is extremely good. And I can hang on to the stock, knowing that when I sell it, it will bring that enormous value gain.

P.S. - They bought the team for $150 million, but then sold the parking garage for $150 million, so they made back their investment in year one.

When BDW talks about the profitability of the Cards, he is not talking about stock value. He is speaking of operating profit. I don’t get to tell him how to spend his profits any more than he gets to tell me how to spend mine.

[Carp4Cy]

So…

You want an owner who will operate the club as a public service?

Good luck with that…

Plenty of billionaires own sports teams as a hobby and would spend out of their own pocket to see a championship. Steve Cohen does it - and what else is he going to spend it on? Pretty much ALL college boosters and NIL donors operate this way. Where are they seeing a profit?

If we could have an owner like Cohen who would just spend freely to see a winner AND invest it smartly and agressively, I and most here would be happy fans and love the guy.

[bretto12]

You can't really believe that you're going to find an owner willing to invest 2.5 Billion dollars and then lose money every year, so he can chase championships.