MLBPA Attendance Concerns

[overseascardfan]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25463072/mlb-players-concerned-rebuilding-teams-attendance-drop

Obviously this hit close to home with ARZ about to lose 3 big pieces. MLBPA worried that attendance is going to continue to drop for rebuilding teams, which of course they mean teams that are tanking. ARZ is without question trying to cut payroll and if they can find a club willing to take all of Greinke's contract he will be next to go. ARZ doesn't have money to sign FA's supposedly (even with a billion dollar television deal) so this team could lose 90+ games next year so of course attendance is going to be down. The problem is management couldn't have picked a worse time to suck because they are trying to get a new stadium and no one is going to want their tax dollars to go to a poor product.

What concerns me is the MLBPA looking to get owners to agree to a lottery system for the draft to prevent tanking but news flash teams tank in NBA too. Small market teams rely on the draft to build their ball clubs so if a team drafts in Top 5 for years and drafts well then can become contenders, look at HOU. The only difference is lottery system or not, teams can find stars in later rounds, so even if they are picking at the top of the draft they can still be successful if their scouting department is on point because the MLB draft pool is so deep with HS and college talent.

 

[Dback Jon]

Want to stop tanking?

Put in a salary cap, and a salary floor, more revenue sharing. NFL model.

 

[Dback Jon]

"Last offseason, the union filed a grievance against four clubs that it claimed were not trying to win," said MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem, citing a case against Miami, Oakland, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. "One of those clubs made the playoffs, another club won 90 games and a third club was in contention through the trade deadline. I don't think the players' association has any credibility on opining on how clubs will perform."

 

[overseascardfan]

"Last offseason, the union filed a grievance against four clubs that it claimed were not trying to win," said MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem, citing a case against Miami, Oakland, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. "One of those clubs made the playoffs, another club won 90 games and a third club was in contention through the trade deadline. I don't think the players' association has any credibility on opining on how clubs will perform."

The only thing I agree on about the article is that attendance will go down if this team does not field at least a competent team next year. Not making playoffs is understandable if they plan on dealing all their top players but they need to prove there is a plan for the future by getting young talent in deals for these players and hitting on all these extra draft picks they have since it looks like they won't be big spenders in the next few years. I do agree with your suggestion DBack Jon in that following the NFL model will help with keeping baseball competitive but it won't completely solve tanking, it hasn't for NFL or NBA. I don't think making a draft lottery solves it either because teams with most losses still have best chance and will continue to lose if there is a franchise player that year in order to increase their chances of landing that player.