Meet the Yankees of 2006: Shrinking payroll

I'll leave the luxury tax question to other more mathematically minded posters, but you reminded me, Ronster, about what a wonderfully wacky owner we have. On one hand, he's The Boss who makes grown men cry (or at least shave). On the other, he's a sucker for every reclaimation project who comes along. Everybody says how corporate we are, including me, but we're anything but boring thanks to him.

<< big revenue teams trickle cash down to the smaller market teams in an effort to keep them competitive >>

that's what MLB's public relations dept tells you, but the reality is that it's just a way of helping owners in smaller markets make money.  and that's what nobody really wants to talk about.  baseball is big business these days -- and every single owner is in the game to make money, above all else.  sure, some -- probably most -- also have a love of the game.  and there are surely some who feel they are giving back to the community.  but the bottom line is that making a profit comes first.  if they aren't making money, they're gone.  that's the nature of these guys.  he who dies with the most toys wins.  that's the only scorecard they really ultimately care about.

i don't care what they say publicly about what their profits or losses are.  every team is privately owned, and so the true financial numbers are not available.  but even if they were, they'd still be meaningless because every team owner has vested interests in many other companies which makes it impossible to untangle true costs and revenues.  way too many accounting games to be played.  

what the luxury tax is really all about is just maintaining everyone's overall profitability.  if owners of small market teams think they can maximize profits by plowing the money back in to the team, and thus increasing ticket sales, media revenue, etc. then that's fine.  if they feel the return isn't there, then they pocket the money.  that's fine as well.  the big market teams need these operations to stay in business, or the whole thing comes crashing down.  but it's not about competitiveness -- it's about seeing that everyone remains profitable.

as far as compensation for the luxury tax paid, if the owners felt like that would improve overall profitability, then heck they would do that.  but apparently things are working fine now as they are.

don't get me wrong -- i really don't have any problem with any of this.  it's just the way capitalism works, and there's nothing wrong with that.  we just don't like to talk about greed -- it's one of the seven deadly sins, you know!  so we talk about issues like competitiveness instead.

as a Yankee fan, i think Steinbrenner is the best possible owner any team could have.  although he's no different than any of the other owners in that he's in it mainly to make money -- he also passionately cares about winning.  it's still second to profits, but a close second.  that's what makes him truly unique.