- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 420,301
- Reaction score
- 43
Mark Attanasio was as surprised as anyone reading the news clips over the weekend.
The Milwaukee Brewers principal owner’s phone was flooded with messages Sunday after a report from Bob Nightengale of USA Today indicated that he was a prime candidate of other owners to become the commissioner of Major League Baseball in the not-too-distant future.
“There is no clear-cut favorite to become MLB commissioner after Rob Manfred retires in Jan. 2029, but several owners say they plan to push for owner Mark Attanasio of the Milwaukee Brewers to be his successor,” wrote USA Today.
Speaking with local media Monday prior to the Brewers home opener at American Family Field one day after the report, Attanasio was asked if he would consider becoming commissioner and relinquishing his role as owner.
“I got a number of people who sent me that tweet from Bob Nightengale, and I was tempted to call Bob and say, ‘Well, who's telling you this?’” Attanasio said. “Because I haven't had any conversations of the sort. My family and I love owning the team. It's a generational asset set for us. You'll see today, some years, we bring folks out to the field, about 40 family members here. I just love what I'm doing.”
So, not a firm no. But the head man of the Brewers certainly toed that line.
“Never had a conversation (about it),” he said.
Attanasio did, though, reveal an enlightening anecdote: He did interview for the commissioner job before it went to Manfred in 2015.
“I was interviewed when they were going through a process where Rob was clearly the right choice,” Attanasio said. “And I remember I said to the committee, ‘You know, I have no intention of selling the team.’ (They said), ‘Well, you have to interview anyway.’ So I showed up for the meeting.
“The first questioner says, ‘Well, why do you think you can do this job and not sell the team?’ I said, ‘Well, I didn't say that.’ I said that I would not sell the team. ‘Well, don't you think it's a conflict? I said, ‘Yeah, I think it's probably a conflict. But you all asked me to come in.’”
Attanasio could not own the Brewers and be commissioner of the league at the same time, but there is precedent for Milwaukee’s owner taking over as commissioner while keeping the team within his family. When Bud Selig became commissioner in 1998, his daughter Wendy Selig-Prieb took over as the team’s owner.
It was Attanasio that bought the team after that, becoming the Brewers’ principal owner beginning in 2005.
Attanasio has made it clear in the past that he has no intentions of ever selling the team, instead preferring to pass it off to his two sons.
The Brewers, as Attanasio was quick to point out Monday, have the fourth-most wins in the National League during his tenure as owner. They’ve also made the playoffs six of the past seven seasons after qualifying all of four times prior to that in franchise history.
Yet the Brewers’ payroll relative to the rest of the league has not increased over this period.
Milwaukee’s opening day payroll 10 years ago in 2015 was 20th among MLB teams. It reached as high as 17th in 2019 but sat between 19th and 22nd from 2020 through 2024 and is down to 24th this year, according to Cot’s Contracts.
“We manage our payrolls to our revenues,” Attanasio said when asked about this trend Monday. “Some of the other teams in the league have benefited from, generally, a media differential. I am always hesitant to speak on it, because it sounds like I'm making excuses here, and I don't want to make excuses.
“... The answer is, we have to be excellent in everything that we do. We have to have first-class facilities. We have to have a competitive team. We have to have a great experience here. We have to have great retail. I think we're top two in (TV) ratings, so huge fan support and huge sponsor support, I would add. I think the community definitely supports us to do the best that we can.
“But I’m cautious. Doug Melvin once told me the challenge with rebuilding is, how do you know you're going to get back? That was many years ago now, over 10. So for the biggest of markets, when teams overspend to try to win, then they then generally have to take a step back. Our strategy is to not ever have to take a step back and for the way we're running things now we, we don't have to.”
Attanasio added that he believes “everybody is trying to win” in the league.
“Even the teams that are rebuilding, they went hard to win, and now they're, in most cases, rebuilding in a way that's intelligent – quite intelligent,” he said. “I think that we would be better as a sport if every fan in every city felt that they could compete every year. But I can say in this city, we're going to compete every year.”
One system that some fans – particularly those in small markets – clamor for is a salary cap and salary floor. The complicated nature of that system makes it unlikely those are ever put in place in MLB, but Attanasio, as the owner of the team in baseball’s smallest market, was nevertheless asked for his opinions it.
“We’re going to compete whatever the system is,” Attanasio said. “What the (cap) system is, is complex and has so many constituencies. In a cap system in other leagues, certainly the NBA, it’s more of a sharing (system) and there’s more of a partnership with the players and the club owners. I think that sharing is good and keeping people down is bad.
“So, it’s complicated.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Would Brewers owner Mark Attanasio consider becomign MLB commissioner?
Continue reading...
The Milwaukee Brewers principal owner’s phone was flooded with messages Sunday after a report from Bob Nightengale of USA Today indicated that he was a prime candidate of other owners to become the commissioner of Major League Baseball in the not-too-distant future.
“There is no clear-cut favorite to become MLB commissioner after Rob Manfred retires in Jan. 2029, but several owners say they plan to push for owner Mark Attanasio of the Milwaukee Brewers to be his successor,” wrote USA Today.
Speaking with local media Monday prior to the Brewers home opener at American Family Field one day after the report, Attanasio was asked if he would consider becoming commissioner and relinquishing his role as owner.
You must be registered for see images attach
“I got a number of people who sent me that tweet from Bob Nightengale, and I was tempted to call Bob and say, ‘Well, who's telling you this?’” Attanasio said. “Because I haven't had any conversations of the sort. My family and I love owning the team. It's a generational asset set for us. You'll see today, some years, we bring folks out to the field, about 40 family members here. I just love what I'm doing.”
So, not a firm no. But the head man of the Brewers certainly toed that line.
“Never had a conversation (about it),” he said.
Attanasio did, though, reveal an enlightening anecdote: He did interview for the commissioner job before it went to Manfred in 2015.
“I was interviewed when they were going through a process where Rob was clearly the right choice,” Attanasio said. “And I remember I said to the committee, ‘You know, I have no intention of selling the team.’ (They said), ‘Well, you have to interview anyway.’ So I showed up for the meeting.
“The first questioner says, ‘Well, why do you think you can do this job and not sell the team?’ I said, ‘Well, I didn't say that.’ I said that I would not sell the team. ‘Well, don't you think it's a conflict? I said, ‘Yeah, I think it's probably a conflict. But you all asked me to come in.’”
Attanasio could not own the Brewers and be commissioner of the league at the same time, but there is precedent for Milwaukee’s owner taking over as commissioner while keeping the team within his family. When Bud Selig became commissioner in 1998, his daughter Wendy Selig-Prieb took over as the team’s owner.
It was Attanasio that bought the team after that, becoming the Brewers’ principal owner beginning in 2005.
Attanasio has made it clear in the past that he has no intentions of ever selling the team, instead preferring to pass it off to his two sons.
Attanasio on Brewers' payroll, salary cap
The Brewers, as Attanasio was quick to point out Monday, have the fourth-most wins in the National League during his tenure as owner. They’ve also made the playoffs six of the past seven seasons after qualifying all of four times prior to that in franchise history.
Yet the Brewers’ payroll relative to the rest of the league has not increased over this period.
Milwaukee’s opening day payroll 10 years ago in 2015 was 20th among MLB teams. It reached as high as 17th in 2019 but sat between 19th and 22nd from 2020 through 2024 and is down to 24th this year, according to Cot’s Contracts.
“We manage our payrolls to our revenues,” Attanasio said when asked about this trend Monday. “Some of the other teams in the league have benefited from, generally, a media differential. I am always hesitant to speak on it, because it sounds like I'm making excuses here, and I don't want to make excuses.
“... The answer is, we have to be excellent in everything that we do. We have to have first-class facilities. We have to have a competitive team. We have to have a great experience here. We have to have great retail. I think we're top two in (TV) ratings, so huge fan support and huge sponsor support, I would add. I think the community definitely supports us to do the best that we can.
“But I’m cautious. Doug Melvin once told me the challenge with rebuilding is, how do you know you're going to get back? That was many years ago now, over 10. So for the biggest of markets, when teams overspend to try to win, then they then generally have to take a step back. Our strategy is to not ever have to take a step back and for the way we're running things now we, we don't have to.”
Attanasio added that he believes “everybody is trying to win” in the league.
“Even the teams that are rebuilding, they went hard to win, and now they're, in most cases, rebuilding in a way that's intelligent – quite intelligent,” he said. “I think that we would be better as a sport if every fan in every city felt that they could compete every year. But I can say in this city, we're going to compete every year.”
One system that some fans – particularly those in small markets – clamor for is a salary cap and salary floor. The complicated nature of that system makes it unlikely those are ever put in place in MLB, but Attanasio, as the owner of the team in baseball’s smallest market, was nevertheless asked for his opinions it.
“We’re going to compete whatever the system is,” Attanasio said. “What the (cap) system is, is complex and has so many constituencies. In a cap system in other leagues, certainly the NBA, it’s more of a sharing (system) and there’s more of a partnership with the players and the club owners. I think that sharing is good and keeping people down is bad.
“So, it’s complicated.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Would Brewers owner Mark Attanasio consider becomign MLB commissioner?
Continue reading...
