The "con" in contraction
John C. Baker
Tribune) sports editor. Fingers crossed that he can find space. I have
borrowed heavily from some in this group, Rich and "digitalballparks", you
in particular have my thanks.
___
The cons on contraction
Less than a week after one of the best World Series ever, baseball owners
have committed one of their biggest blunders by voting to contract the
league and eliminate two teams.
While Major League owners have refused to publicly identify the two teams
to get the boot, speculation is that the Montreal Expos and another team
variously identified as Minnesota, Florida or Tampa Bay, would be the
victims. Even the Oakland Athletics have been mentioned as possible
candidates.
But just about everyone says the Expos will soon be history, so we'll
concentrate on their case. Critics primarily point to Montreal's abyssmal
attendence (just over 7,000 per game this season) as a reason the Expos
should be contracted. They say no one wants to play in Montreal and that
Canada doesn't want or deserve a place in America's pasttime.
Rubbish. Too many people simply look at Montreal's attendance and base
their contraction opinions on the low numbers without looking at the root
causes. Let's examine the facts.
Fact one: Stade Olympique is an ugly, cavernous ballpark that suffers
greatly from being enclosed in a city where the summers are short, but
beautiful. Who wants to be stuck inside on a beautiful day?
Fact two: Montreal fans have been the most-abused in baseball the past
decade. The magical 1994 season (where the Expos had the best record in
baseball when the strike began) was erased into a ``what might have
been.'' The continual contraction and relocation rumors have given
Montreal fans little reason to support a team that the baseball
power-that-be would not guarantee would be there the next season. In
addition, baseball's economic situation led to ...
Fact three: When teams such as the New York Yankees make more than $50
million in television rights alone in a season (sure to go up next year as
the Yankees start their own cable TV venture) and the Montreal Expos'
total revenue is less than that, then there is no way the small market
team can compete in today's baseball world. No wonder fans won't come out
_ they are being guaranteed a loser.
There is another economic issue, specific to the Expos and Toronto Blue
Jays. Major League players are being paid in U.S. funds, but the Expos
take in Canadian money. As the exchange rate slips, the Montreal franchise
is effectively being forced to pay more just to meet salaries which have
not changed. It is difficult to suceed under those circumstances.
Others point to the Francophone culture in Montreal as a reason the 'Spos
have not succeeded in drawing fans in recent years. Bull. Quebecois have
always supported the team. When the Expos were drawing two million fans
per season in the 1980s, and had higher attendence than the New York Mets
as recently as 1997, French-speaking fans made up the vast majority of the
fans, as they do the local population.
If anything, the problems with Montreal's attendence can be attributed to
a management which has completely ignored and alienated its
English-speaking fans with poor marketing and by not providing an English
radio contract in 2000.
The Expos are currently drawing no worse than the A's did in the late
1970s, or than Cleveland did until Jacobs Field was built in 1994. Why was
there no talk of contraction then?
It almost seems as if Montreal is being punished for not having the local
and provincial governments support multi-millionaires by building a new
baseball stadium. The current multi-millionaire owner, New York art dealer
Jeffrey Loria, last year sabotaged a new stadium deal just weeks before
ground breaking after he backed off a pledge he would not seek a
retractable-roof stadium, doubling the cost of the project.
If Major League Baseball has the rumored $200 million each to buy out two
teams, why doesn't it have the money to help the threatened cities build
new stadiums?
Gold Glove winner Orlando Cabrera and up-and-coming star pitcher Javier
Vasquez have both said this week that they wish to stay in Montreal. So
players enjoy the eclectic, multi-cultural city. The two million fans that
Expos drew in the 1980s indicate that the support for baseball can exist.
Finally, if contraction takes place and the Expos and, say, the Twins are
folded, what kind of precedent does that set? Fans in Oakland, Florida,
Pittsburgh, Kansas City and other towns should worry about that. (And if
the goal of contraction is to ``improve the quality of play,'' why not
contract 26 teams? Then you would no doubt have four great squads.)
The curtain may be about to go down on baseball in Montreal. When and if
it does, baseball will have shot itself in the foot in its efforts to,
quoting Commissioner Bud Selig last spring, ``recognize the
internationalization of the game.''
If that day comes, I will quietly say, ``Au revoir nos amours,'' and also
bid an ``au revoir'' to Major League Baseball for the season. Until then,
I won't give up hope.
John Baker is a South San Francisco resident who has been an Expos fan for
24 of his 30 years.
Bruce Marshall
John C. Baker wrote:
>I sent this to my local newspaper's (San Mateo Times, owned by Oakland
>Tribune) sports editor. Fingers crossed that he can find space. I have
>borrowed heavily from some in this group, Rich and "digitalballparks", you
>in particular have my thanks.
>
Great letter, now, if only Bud Selig would read it, and use his brains
to understand it, baseball may just continue in Montreal. Wasn't it
just a couple of years ago that rumours were going around that Mexico
City would get a team in the next expansion?
Bruce
Michael Heimlich
"John C. Baker" <jc...@axe.humboldt.edu> wrote in message
news:jcb10-10110...@10.0.1.51...
Matt Mauler
They certainly wouldn't want to read the truth.
Digitalballparks
nice work!
From what I've seen in other newsgroups and popular opinion, Jeff Loria's
poor me thing is really working... nobody sees the wolf in sheeps clothing.
Loria has developed an incredible talent of being able to do just enough so
as to make people feel like he's doing everything he can for his team while
quitely and actually sabotaging everything that could make his team great.
It's almost like watching the movie Major League, where they were doing
everything they could to make the team lose.
--
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"John C. Baker" <jc...@axe.humboldt.edu> wrote in message
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