Getting up to speed - payroll and the Ricketts

[squally1313]

So a lovely cocktail of hubris and stupidity, at least based on their rhetoric hyping it up in the build up to it finally rolling out. Of course, they've similarly hyped up all over the other business ventures involving and (sometimes literally) around the Cubs and Wrigley, yet payroll is still what it is, and ticket prices keep going up, so I'm leaning more towards it was just lying.

They did lower ticket prices, but they are still top 5. Honestly, I think they are trying to pay down a lot of debt they incurred when they remodeled Wrigley. At the same time, they have massive tax breaks due to its "historic" status. But I think they've invested heavily in outside ventures that are tangentially related to the Cubs and using the Cubs to leverage those things. We don't know due to the less than transparent way MLB works.

Not accusing you of being pro-Ricketts or anything but like...this is the stuff that bothers me. You want to know an easy way to pay down debts? Just tap into that $26b your family got from the sale of TD Ameritrade. It's these dumb accounting games all these billionaires play to justify a growing profit margin or whatever other dumb terms they use that most of the public will eat up. If you spend money on the team in line with all the other major markets and suddenly you aren't making as much money as you'd like, go sell the horsefeathering team and cash in on the $1b+ increase in value since you bought them.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

I think the Ricketts are pricks all around. They are making money and lots of it but treat the Cubs like a mid market club. After getting the WS, they really haven't done dick to earn my respect. And their politics suck too.

[SouthSideRyan]

So did they lie about or completely botch the TV deal, or both?

 

Much like every other promise of revenue going right back into the team, they lied.

[SouthSideRyan]

So a lovely cocktail of hubris and stupidity, at least based on their rhetoric hyping it up in the build up to it finally rolling out. Of course, they've similarly hyped up all over the other business ventures involving and (sometimes literally) around the Cubs and Wrigley, yet payroll is still what it is, and ticket prices keep going up, so I'm leaning more towards it was just lying.

They did lower ticket prices, but they are still top 5. Honestly, I think they are trying to pay down a lot of debt they incurred when they remodeled Wrigley. At the same time, they have massive tax breaks due to its "historic" status. But I think they've invested heavily in outside ventures that are tangentially related to the Cubs and using the Cubs to leverage those things. We don't know due to the less than transparent way MLB works.

Not accusing you of being pro-Ricketts or anything but like...this is the stuff that bothers me. You want to know an easy way to pay down debts? Just tap into that $26b your family got from the sale of TD Ameritrade. It's these dumb accounting games all these billionaires play to justify a growing profit margin or whatever other dumb terms they use that most of the public will eat up. If you spend money on the team in line with all the other major markets and suddenly you aren't making as much money as you'd like, go sell the horsefeathering team and cash in on the $1b+ increase in value since you bought them.

 

Closer to 4 billion.