Comments for What is the Future of the Blue Jays and Rogers Cable? at http://bizofbaseball.com , comment 1 to 11 out of 11 comments http://bizofbaseball.com Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:23:51 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-441 Yes, I would like to see the Jays move out of the AL East also. As I wrote, I'm not certain RCI sees it that way. And yes, I'm all in favor of jacking the payroll ( and changing the Jays cheapskate ways in the Rule 4 draft ) to field a better team and in theory drive up tv #'s and attendance...but RCI doesn't see it that way evidently...and neither did Time Warner, News Corp or Disney.... There is scant interest in professional baseball outside the GTA ( save for Winnipeg and Quebec City who both draw well, especially the Goldeyes ). This is reflected not only in the small TV numbers for the Blue Jays but the poor support for independent ball in Ottawa ( it may be on it's last legs here ), Edmonton ( the Edmonton Journal recently reported that last season the Cracker Jacks drew less than 400 fans to most games ) and Calgary. The CBL was a catastrophe, folding at the All Star Break. No affiliated or independent league has moved into the Montreal area to replace the Expos. I'm not certain how the A ball franchise in Vancouver fares and this season will be the first for the Golden League in Victoria. Certainly a return the playoffs for the Jays would stimulate some interest in professional baseball in Canada...everybody loves a winner...there is no better example of when the Blue Jays were winning and drawing 4 million folks a season to Skydome. Thanks again for reading and commmeting. - Pete Toms Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:04:06 +0100 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-438 The problem with the sagging TV #'s outside of the GTA is in part the Jays are not targeting the audience correctly. There is no "National Pride" to being a Jays fan. However the bigger problem is that the Jays are in a crowded division of teams that are geography close and quite frankly better. These teams are more willing to spend the money in not only there player payroll but also in player development. Within close proximity to the Jays you have NYY/NYM/Boston/Detroit/ Baltimore and so on. It’s a baseball entertainment buffet, and I know people are going to say “the other teams face the same challenges” and yes this is true except the other teams have been around for a lot longer. These teams have deep foot prints, in baseball terms the 30 years the Jays have been around isn’t really that long. Also it’s not like baseball is a Canadian past time so it’s harder to get the audience to switch over. The Jays need to do a better job of branding the team, the best way to attract new fans or bring them back is by winning, and really that’s what it comes down to. I know people think they need a new stadium and yes they do, but not to attract people to the game, there are plenty of instances of teams playing in horrible stadiums and still selling the place out. I’ve been to Yankee stadium, Fenway, Wrigley and no offence to any of those teams or their fans but for comfort value the Rogers Center is better, but none of those teams have a problem selling out, regardless of their winning %. Just to touch on what you said in your article, I personally believe the Jays need to be moved out of the A.L. East. - Jordan Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:11:56 +0100 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-437 Jordan, thanks for reading. We agree that for an outsider it is impossible to know if the Jays are a positive or negative contributor to RCI's bottom line. Lies, damn lies...and accounting. And yes, no doubt it might be of benefit to RCI that the Jays "lose" money, for different reasons but certainly for the purposes of revenue sharing. It is not my intent to argue if RCI should own the Jays, but to point out that where there's smoke there's fire. Since I submitted the post, Jeremy Sandler reiterated the speculation concerning RCI's ownership and Beeston's uncertain future. ( I gotta bet the two are linked ). Woops, almost forgot. I agree with you that Rogers Sportsnet will broadcast 75% of the games. The past couple of seasons they broadcast about 100 but they will pick up the 20 or so that the CBC walked away from. I've already gone on WAY too much about this subject but TV #'s for the Jays are very poor outside the GTA. - Pete Toms Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:40:12 +0100 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-436 I was extremely unset when RCI bought the Blue Jays in the first place, they are a corporation known for bad management in respect to not really caring what the customers think. That obviously translates to not really caring about what the fans think. From the stand point of a fan I don’t see how not making a valid attempt to resign Burnett was in the best interest of winning (I didn’t want them to resign Burnett but that’s besides the point), and being the only MLB team to not sign a free agent to a major league contract this late in the offseason. One would think that considering the value of free agents have not been this low in years this would be the perfect time to open up the wallet a little and take some contracts on the cheap, considering the need to fill some holes. It’s not like the economy will be in a free fall forever, in fact it has almost hit the bottom for its projections as it is. From a business stand point laying off employees is one of the worst things you can do to massage the bottom line. It seems to me that RCI uses EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) as a way of measuring there profitability and since the quickest way to increase profits is to cut expenses and the biggest expense is in salaries. This is a noose that is hard to untie, basically its nearly impossible for a business to grow without adding employees, and it’s even harder to grow when your subtracting from your workforce, there was a need for these employees before the sagging economy, so what happened to the work they did? Also I was told by a friend that works at RCI that the Blue Jays expenses fall under a section of RCI’s accounting as “Other” meaning they are grouped in with whatever “other” expenses that RCI decides to put in that column, meaning the balance sheets for the Jays can be almost whatever RCI says they are because they can dump other debt on top (I have no firsthand knowledge of the accounting practice at RCI so take that for what it’s worth). I read a couple years back that although the Jays don’t actually generate a lot of revenue (because they don’t put a good product on the field) they are one of a hand full of teams in baseball operating without debt, since RCI owns the team, the stadium and all its facilities as well as the naming rights on the stadium and they also host 75% of the games on the network they own I’m inclined to believe this (sorry I can’t find the article). Considering RCI’s history of not caring what the customer thinks my personal opinion is that the Jays failures boil down to mismanagement, so long as they can keep making the bottom line look good, regardless of if making it look good is showing a loss, there is no reason for RCI to improve the product. Keep the luxury tax cheques coming because that’s all that really matters right...? Sorry for the long post. - Jordan Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:09:49 +0100 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-435 rich arm, thanks for reading. I'm 46 and a long time Jays fan. I'd miss em too (although I would still watch ball, heck I even go to indy ball here in Ottawa)...I hope the speculation that Rogers is gonna bail turns out to be wrong...I don't like corporate ownership of my team but I fear if they don't own it that there is nobody in the GTA that will... Jays 09 record - 75 wins - Pete Toms Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:29:46 +0100 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-434 A well written and researched article but you have me really concerned. I am a loyal Blue Jay fan and am at a loss as to what I would do if they moved to the States or disappeared. It seems we have a classic catch 22 situation. If attendance was anywhere near what is was in 90-93 there would be no concern. However you need a winning team to bring out fans and you need fans to satisfy the bean counters. I just hope we have a good season soon so attendance will increase. - rich arm Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:17:14 +0100 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-431 Freddy, thanks for reading. I don't think a new ballpark is forthcoming and that is one of the reasons that the future of MLB in Toronto is tenuous. After the Skydome debacle it would be political suicide to spend any public $$ on a new stadium. I'm skeptical that a 100% privately funded ballpark will happen. Were a ballpark built yes a retractable roof is ideal. Having said that, Target Field opens in Minneapolis next season with NO roof and it's pretty darn cold there too. They would have liked one also but the cost was prohibitive. - Pete Toms Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:26:29 +0100 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-430 that was a lot of words and i read em all. even the comments. i'm just curious if there was a new "ballpark" if this would be an open air facility or another retractable roof structure. i could imagine games on cold april nights, or meaningless september nights in 30 or 40 degree weather with less than 10000 fans. i almost think it would have to be another retractable roof setup. - freddy Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:38:53 +0100 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-426 MP, thanks for reading, couldn't agree more. The stadium has been a catastrophe from day 1 and it would be political suicide to build a new one with public dollars....so, you're right, where does that leave the Jays? You're right about the NFL also. Nobody can recoup a billion dollar investment in an NFL franchise playing out of the Rogers Centre. Although I'm much, much less certain about the NFL coming to Toronto than I was a year ago....my money is on the City of Industry project east of LA... The obvious location for a stadium is where it is now...but even if private money were found to build there...where would the franchise play during the demolition/constructions phase? My money is on contraction if MLSE doesn't want the franchise...and I question if they want it sans a new "ballpark"...although you need a second team to make contraction work...I don't think there is a viable market remaining in the US... Interesting times ahead - Pete Toms Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:38:34 +0100 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-425 There is no way the city of Toronto, the province of Ontario or the Federal government will fund the development of a new baseball-only stadium. If you want proof of where baseball stands in this country politically, look no further than the SkyDome itself. A magnificent monument to multi-purpose mediocrity. The public went nuts a few years ago when it was bought by RCI for $20M (considering taxpayers went into debt to help built it). On top of that, the SkyDome is an abyss for baseball, a cavern for concerts, and most agree it is unfit for the NFL. Unless some major structural upgrades are done at the cost of ownership, the Jays will need a new facility. If Toronto has a future as a hub for the two major league sports (read: NFL and MLB), ownership will need to figure out a plan, and fast. The land along the waterfront is all snapped up for condo development and waterfront redevelopment (ironically because the condos screwed it all up). I don't know even know where you could build both NFL and MLB stadiums without taking the teams 45 minutes out of downtown. - MP Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:58:15 +0100 http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922:what-is-the-future-of-the-blue-jays-and-rogers-cable&catid=67:pete-toms&Itemid=155#comment-423 This is a very well written but somewhat scary article. However I believe they could probably massively renovate rogers centre into a "blue jays field" for less money then it would take to create a build a stadium. - Andrewkw Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:49:52 +0100