Smartest Spenders in Sports

[ArtistFormerlyKnownAsBKR]

Bloomberg Business Week ranks Bolts 13 of 32.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-24/smartest-spenders-in-sports-2014

I think the methodology is a little questionable, but interesting fodder for discussion.

[Mister Hoarse]

It a weird list. Seems all over the place, like the sample sizes may be too small for a decent metric.

[Steve]

The thing that is sort of ironic is that we did a really bad job of managing the cap in Norv's last season, and are still suffering from that.

[ArtistFormerlyKnownAsBKR]

If you look at it for all sports, one thing you see is a franchise like the Padres (which only has one season over .500 in the last five yrs but hasn't been the dregs) gets ranked fairly high because they they don't spend. So the ranking seems kind of skewed to those teams that manage their finances "well" versus having much to do with success.

[Mister Hoarse]

Yeah, I noticed that. Seems to reward losing for profit.

[Steve]

It's just a limitation to how they compute it. Spend no money, win a few games, you have a low "$/game won" ratio. The implication is that if you kept spending the same ratio, you would win more games overall. There is just a limit to how far you can take that. Ultimately, teams would really like to spend a moderate amount of money and win a lot of games and still get a low "$$$/games won" .

And traditionally, there are plenty of teams that spend a lot of money and still suck. So, their "$ per game won" is through the roof.

[ArtistFormerlyKnownAsBKR]

It's just a limitation to how they compute it. Spend no money, win a few games, you have a low "$/game won" ratio. The implication is that if you kept spending the same ratio, you would win more games overall. There is just a limit to how far you can take that. Ultimately, teams would really like to spend a moderate amount of money and win a lot of games and still get a low "$$$/games won" .

And traditionally, there are plenty of teams that spend a lot of money and still suck. So, their "$ per game won" is through the roof.

And that's precisely the case on the baseball side. Go back to the link and look at baseball only. Padres are the only one of the top 7 ranked teams that hasn't been in the playoffs in that five year span. #8 is Florida. Teams ahead of them, like SF, Texas and StL have all spent a lot more money than the Padres but all three have had a number of playoff appearances and all have made the WS. StL and SF have won it. So they've spent and had success. The Padres haven't spent anything and they've been sub-.500 every year but one. they've managed to be just good enough to look good in this kind of analysis, but it's clear they aren't trying to win. Tampa Bay had a WS appearance and has been pretty competitive on a Padres budget. But they actually have good ownership, management and scouting/development. That said, they do invest money in the farm system. SD has even scrimped on that.

Their strategy makes sense if the goal is to just be good enough to get people to come out and buy nachos, beer and pennants. It's the absolute worst combination of factors (from a fan perspective) in professional sports. Just crass economics.

People complain about the Spanii but at least they are trying to win. They haven't always been able to do that and they are competing financially with an outdated facility (read not nearly as many boxes as their competitors), but I've never understood people ripping on them for being cheap or trying to bilk their fans.

[Mister Hoarse]

And that's precisely the case on the baseball side. Go back to the link and look at baseball only. Padres are the only one of the top 7 ranked teams that hasn't been in the playoffs in that five year span. #8 is Florida. Teams ahead of them, like SF, Texas and StL have all spent a lot more money than the Padres but all three have had a number of playoff appearances and all have made the WS. StL and SF have won it. So they've spent and had success. The Padres haven't spent anything and they've been sub-.500 every year but one. they've managed to be just good enough to look good in this kind of analysis, but it's clear they aren't trying to win. Tampa Bay had a WS appearance and has been pretty competitive on a Padres budget. But they actually have good ownership, management and scouting/development. That said, they do invest money in the farm system. SD has even scrimped on that.

Their strategy makes sense if the goal is to just be good enough to get people to come out and buy nachos, beer and pennants. It's the absolute worst combination of factors (from a fan perspective) in professional sports. Just crass economics.

People complain about the Spanii but at least they are trying to win. They haven't always been able to do that and they are competing financially with an outdated facility (read not nearly as many boxes as their competitors), but I've never understood people ripping on them for being cheap or trying to bilk their fans.

Yet you come back for more with the Clippers?

Crass Economics logo:

[thelightningwill]

And that's precisely the case on the baseball side. Go back to the link and look at baseball only. Padres are the only one of the top 7 ranked teams that hasn't been in the playoffs in that five year span. #8 is Florida. Teams ahead of them, like SF, Texas and StL have all spent a lot more money than the Padres but all three have had a number of playoff appearances and all have made the WS. StL and SF have won it. So they've spent and had success. The Padres haven't spent anything and they've been sub-.500 every year but one. they've managed to be just good enough to look good in this kind of analysis, but it's clear they aren't trying to win. Tampa Bay had a WS appearance and has been pretty competitive on a Padres budget. But they actually have good ownership, management and scouting/development. That said, they do invest money in the farm system. SD has even scrimped on that.

Their strategy makes sense if the goal is to just be good enough to get people to come out and buy nachos, beer and pennants. It's the absolute worst combination of factors (from a fan perspective) in professional sports. Just crass economics.

People complain about the Spanii but at least they are trying to win. They haven't always been able to do that and they are competing financially with an outdated facility (read not nearly as many boxes as their competitors), but I've never understood people ripping on them for being cheap or trying to bilk their fans.

Ticket-guarantee political scam

Unnecessary blackouts http://voiceofsandiego.org/2013/12/0...ego-taxpayers/

Back in the day when Alex ran shit, our team sucked and the season ticket prices kept going up

[ArtistFormerlyKnownAsBKR]

Ticket-guarantee political scam

Unnecessary blackouts http://voiceofsandiego.org/2013/12/0...ego-taxpayers/

Back in the day when Alex ran shit, our team sucked and the season ticket prices kept going up

You blame Spanos for accepting guaranteed revenue? Or the elected dumbasses that negotiated it?

[ArtistFormerlyKnownAsBKR]

Yet you come back for more with the Clippers?

Crass Economics logo:

I complain about the Padres just like I used to with the Clippers. But unlike the Clippers, the Padres dont appear to care about winning games.

[Beerman]

The ticket guarantee was stupid. What was even worse though was the city refusing to work with the chargers on the land sale to build the new stadium there 10 years ago. The city has only itself to blame for a multitude of issues that go way beyond the Chargers. It's been a circus at city hall for a decade now.