Cardinal's new TV Deal.

[bjf1984]

Illustrates just how tough it is going to be for "small market" teams moving forward.

Clubs without the Yankees/Dodgers/Angels/Rangers/Diamondbacks/Cards type TV deals are going to have to compete with about 1/2 the financial resources.

Cards new deal will pay them about $60 million per year........Buccos get around $20 million per year (IIRC) for their TV rights.
I think the Phils are at about $100 million per year - about the same as the Diamondbacks.....and I am sure the Yankees are well above that.

Angels, Dodgers, and (IIRC) Rangers all each signed huge TV deals recently as well.

 

[lionlurker]

Somehow the Pirates and the Penguins need to get together and start their own local network. It can never happen with Lemieux being the owner, since he and Nutting hate each other, but if the team is sold maybe something can happen along those lines.

 

[psulongago]

In addition to the 100M the Phillies also get an undetermined amount of $$$ from their ownership stake in Comcast SportsNet.

 

[Player2BNamedL8r]

St. Louis is a baseball city...maybe the best in the county, so even though they are incredibly similar in terms of market size to Pittsburgh, it's a much harder sell to a historically football town. Though Pitt. used to be a baseball town, it'll take a lot more than a recent resurgence of the Buccos to get people to part with their $$ for a baseball-only channel.

 

[Nittany Ziggy]

St. Louis is a baseball city...maybe the best in the county, so even though they are incredibly similar in terms of market size to Pittsburgh, it's a much harder sell to a historically football town. Though Pitt. used to be a baseball town, it'll take a lot more than a recent resurgence of the Buccos to get people to part with their $$ for a baseball-only channel.

They are not even close to similar markets. Similar size cities? Yes, but not baseball markets. From Pittsburgh you have Cleveland 2 hours to the north, Baltimore 4 hours southeast, Washington 4 hours southeast, Detroit 4 hours northwest, Cincy 5.5 hours southwest, Philadelphia 5.5 hours east and 2 NY teams 6 hours northeast.

The Cards draw from a much larger geographic area that includes southern Illinois, Southern Indiana, Memphis, Nashvill, Little Rock, western Kentucky, etc. There are a lot of TV sets in those markets/regions. Before the Braves moved to Atlanta, people there were primarily Card's fans. Dave Halberstam's classic book "The Boys of Summer" refers to Atlanta fans driving all night (and drinking 2 cases of beer) just to watch Bob Gibson pitch on a Suncay.

Juat like NCAA FB and the B1G Network, It is all about TV sets!!

 

[OaktonDave]

The "small market" argument isn't what it used to be. While there is no debate that some teams are successful by spending big on FAs, there is also a wave of teams that are largely being built with their farm systems. The Cards have been exceptionally successful without being big free agent spenders and aren't likely to change their approach. The road map that seems to be increasingly popular is building through your system and supplementing it with some select big signings. I'm not arguing that deep pockets don't help or that you can't spend your way to a contender, but it's fair to say that teams like the Cards, Pirates, Nationals, Royals, Astros, and Cubs look pretty good with rosters largely built through the farm and trades.

 

[wbcincy]

The "small market" argument isn't what it used to be. While there is no debate that some teams are successful by spending big on FAs, there is also a wave of teams that are largely being built with their farm systems. The Cards have been exceptionally successful without being big free agent spenders and aren't likely to change their approach. The road map that seems to be increasingly popular is building through your system and supplementing it with some select big signings. I'm not arguing that deep pockets don't help or that you can't spend your way to a contender, but it's fair to say that teams like the Cards, Pirates, Nationals, Royals, Astros, and Cubs look pretty good with rosters largely built through the farm and trades.

Just wait until the effects of the recent swing in international signings show up in 3-6 years. The big markets are out spending fortunes that the small markets cant. The Dodgers just spent something like $30M over the supposed "cap" on IFAs, and just said, "whatever, we'll pay the $25M fine" for doing so. The Yankees did something similar the year before. When you look at the top 20 IFAs over the last couple years, and where the vast majority signed, it's a disturbing trend towards the big markets. It's a lot tougher for the small markets when they can only build through the draft, but the big markets are building through both the draft and internationally.

 

[nits74]

Just wait until the effects of the recent swing in international signings show up in 3-6 years. The big markets are out spending fortunes that the small markets cant. The Dodgers just spent something like $30M over the supposed "cap" on IFAs, and just said, "whatever, we'll pay the $25M fine" for doing so. The Yankees did something similar the year before. When you look at the top 20 IFAs over the last couple years, and where the vast majority signed, it's a disturbing trend towards the big markets. It's a lot tougher for the small markets when they can only build through the draft, but the big markets are building through both the draft and internationally.

And I'm convinced this is exactly what MLB wants (for obvious reasons).