Mix And Match

Let me begin today with a Public Service Announcement:

  • As of today, we are halfway through calendar year 2025 meaning we are closer to the year 2050 than we are to the year 2000.
  • Tempus fugit.

My long-suffering wife often accuses me of worrying about things in the future well before they could possibly happen.  She is right, of course; it is not one of my few if any attractive traits.  So, let me apply that idiosyncrasy of mine to a sports situation today.

The Tampa Bay Rays would be in the playoffs as a Wild Card team if the season ended now and they are within hailing distance of first place in the AL East.  So, let me project the Rays into the MLB Playoffs and suppose for a moment that the team gets hot in October and makes it to the World Series.  What’s the big deal?  The Rays have done that before …

  • The Rays home field in 2025 is Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, FL.
  • The seating capacity there is 11,026.
  • MLB takes tix off the top to spread around to “corporate partners” and political figures who can be useful to MLB and the like.  Suppose that comes to 5000 tix per game.
  • That would leave only about 6,000 tix for sale to the public which will make what is left of the Rays’ fanbase feel very badly.

For the record, the smallest paid attendance for a World Series Game was all the way back in Game 5 of the 1908 Series between the Tigers and the Cubs.  Attendance that day was only 6,210.  In the scenario I just posited, the record for the smallest paid attendance could be in jeopardy.

So, here’s the question.  What would be worse:

  1. Move the World Series to a large stadium somewhere (Atlanta or Miami are the closest ones) thereby making any and all local Rays’ fans make their way to some “foreign outpost” where they may be outnumbered even in what would nominally be Rays’ home games?
  2. Keep the games in Tampa at a minor league facility and deal with the fact that some loyal fans will be left out of the World Series through no fault of their own?

That is one reason that Rob Manfred earns the big bucks …

Moving on …  The NBA Champion Oklahoma City Thunder made a big splash in the offseason already signing Shai Gilgeous-Alesander to a 4-year supermax contract worth $285M.  [Aside:  That works out to just under $870K per regular season game over the contract lifetime.]  SGA won the league MVP in the recently concluded season and was the best player overall in the NBA Playoffs at the ripe old age of 27 – – his birthday is next week.

He was not always a member of the Thunder.  He was drafted by the Hornets who traded him to the Clippers the day after the Draft for Miles Bridges – – who was taken with the pick after him – – and a future second round pick.  He played in LA for one season.  Soon after his rookie season was over, SGA was involved in a trade that now looks about as lopsided as any trade that comes to mind:

  • Clippers got: Paul George.  That’s it.
  • Thunder got:  SGA and Danilo Gallinari and 5 first round picks from the Clippers and 2 first round pick swaps with the Clippers at the Thunder’s choosing.

It’s painful just looking at that swap this morning …

Switching gears …  Last week, the WNBA announced that it would be expanding by 3 teams between now and 2030.  The WNBA is clearly on the upswing in terms of live attendance figures, TV audiences and sponsorship interest.  Let’s not cat carried away; all those measures are hugely positive for the league, but the WNBA remains a niche sport in the US.  Nonetheless, the league will expand in the following way:

  • Cleveland will join the league in 2028
  • Detroit will join the league in 2029
  • Philly will join the league in 2030.

According to a report I saw on the AP site, each team had to cough up a $250M “expansion fee” to get a seat at the table.  That same report said that 7 other cities bid for franchises but that these three cities won the lottery for this round of expansion.  The other cities were:

  1. Austin
  2. Charlotte
  3. Denver
  4. Houston
  5. KC
  6. Miami
  7. St. Louis

It seems to me like a good idea for the WNBA to expand one team at a time.  If there were to be three new teams in the league all in one season, there would be a dispersal of talent that could significantly degrade the product – – and that is exactly what the WNBA must avoid.  All is looking up at the moment regarding the WNBA; they need not stumble now and lose momentum.

Finally, this comment from Pat Summitt:

“We keep score in life because it matters. It counts. It matters. Too many people opt out and never discover their own abilities because they fear failure. They don’t understand commitment.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

3 thoughts on “Mix And Match”

  1. I can envision this discussion actually happening:

    Rob Manfred to corporate big shot: MLB may not be able to provide you with as many seats at all World Series games if Tampa wins the AL. There are simply not enough seats available.

    Corporate big shot: Well Rob, you have a problem. We have a deal and expect you to make sure the tickets are available.

    RM: We can’t manufacture seats in Tampa and that’s where the games will be played if the Rays win the AL.

    CBS: So, you have an easy solution after all.

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