Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sunday, August 26, 2007
A major complaint of Pirates fans concerns the fact owner Bob Nutting keeps the team's payroll among the lowest in baseball. At the start of the season, the Pirates' payroll was $30 million less than any other team in the Central Division, an enormous gap. What's more, annually, the team's payroll is at or near the bottom of the Central Division.
Since it has been reported the team is turning a significant profit, it's understandable fans want more money put into player salaries. After all, the common wisdom is the higher the payroll, the better the chance of winning.
As the result of this and the fact the team is in the midst of a 15th-consecutive losing season, Nutting is regularly skewered by fans and the media.
Allow me, for a minute or two, to play Nutting's Advocate.
Why should he raise payroll? What's in it for him?
By most indicators, the ticket-buying public -- as opposed to the whining Pirates-obsessed public -- is content with the product Nutting puts on the field at PNC Park. The team's attendance is close to what it was last year, when the All-Star Game was a lure for season-ticket buyers. Without the All-Star Game as a carrot, attendance is down less than 600 a game.
In July, a well-organized protest asked fans to leave their seats after the third inning of a home game as a show of discontent. There were about 27,000 fans at the game. About 5 percent of the fans joined in the protest. That means about 95 percent of the fans were signaling, if not their approval of the way the team was being run, at least their acceptance.
In an astonishing display of product approval, 142,948 tickets were sold for four home games between Aug. 16-19. Three of those games featured fireworks and concerts. Some say such promotions cheapens the attendance figures. They're missing the point. The Pirates, through expert marketing, have developed a fan base that likes baseball but loves the extra promotions the team regularly has -- be it fireworks, bobbleheads or other giveaways.
There are other reasons why Nutting should be slow to increase payroll.
Although increasing payroll might give a team a better chance of winning, it is by no means a guarantee. For example, the Houston Astros entered the season with a payroll of $87.7 million, almost $50 million more than the Pirates. Going into the weekend the Astros had two more wins than the Pirates. That means the Astros, compared to the Pirates, are paying about $25 million for each additional win. The Cincinnati Reds have a payroll that was $31 million higher than the Pirates. They also had more wins than the Pirates.
So when Nutting ponders increasing payroll, sure he sees what Arizona is doing with a $53 million payroll and what Cleveland is doing with a $61 million payroll, but he also sees Houston and Cincinnati.
But here's what might be the clincher for Nutting. Suppose he does increase payroll and suppose, unlike Cincinnati, the Pirates get appreciably better. Suppose they are flirting with or are above .500 and it's not utterly ridiculous to mention the Pirates and wild card in the same sentence. Let's say the excitement this amount of winning generates raises attendance to an average of 30,000. That would be an increase of about 7,500. At, roughly, $30 a paying customer over the course of the season, that would translate into about $18 million in additional concession and ticket revenue.
You don't get good players for $18 million. Sure, that more than covers a season salary for one player. But the good players, the ones who can change the fortunes of a team, want four- and five-year contracts. Who's to say the additional player or players will make a difference? And if they do, can they maintain that difference for the life of that particular contract?
The Pirates' steady losing has been accepted by the ticket-buying public. But what happens if the team gets decent or even good for a year or two? Maybe the taste of success will turn them into baseball fans who want more than gimmicks? Maybe if the team goes bad again they'll no longer be happy with just promotions and stop coming to games.
In effect, it could be counterproductive -- in terms of profit -- to increase payroll.
Nutting is a bottom-line guy, not a baseball guy. From the little we know of him, profit trumps victory. Fans might not like that, but it's his team and he has the right to set payroll where he wants. That's particularly true if increased payroll does not necessarily increase chances of victory.
First published at PG NOW on August 25, 2007 at 8:03 pm
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