From: john@sequent.com (John Vander Borght)
Subject: Re: Baseball finances query
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
Distribution: sqnt
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 23:12:59 GMT

kbanaian@bernard.pitzer.claremont.edu (King Banaian) writes:
>>
>>Also, it looks like a lot of the non-player operating expenses are
>>just made up -- Atlanta, San Diego, Pittsburgh, KC, and a bunch of other
>>teams have total operating expenses that, coincidentally, are double
>>player salaries.

>Exactly?  This is beginning to read like "My mind is made up.  Don't confuse 
>me with the facts."  Please post alternative data.

Why do you assume that these are the "facts"?  Do you believe everything
you read?

Do you really think that 13 of the 26 teams had EXACTLY 50% of their
expenses in salaries and 50% in non-salaries?  I wonder where all that
money is going?  Into the front-office salaries and bonuses maybe?

The teams can't even control what they pay the players, how could they control
their other expenses to exactly match.  Even if the teams did supply the
figures, there is no guarantee that they didn't fudge them in some way.
Every business I know plays games with their books (and not just in
depreciation etc.)  I'm sure that they wanted to make it look like they
pay 50% of their expenses to the players for bargaining power.

They are interesting numbers.  There are some things that stand out.  The
teams are spending an average of 45% of revenues on player salaries.  This is
lower than basketball where the salary cap is 55% and most teams are over
that.  Notice that only Cin, Oak, Pit, Mtl, SF, KC, Cal and Mil would be over
that cap.

On average, they have a 8.44% post-tax profit (I assume that the expenses
include taxes.)  That isn't too bad for any business in these times.

Team	  TR     PE     TE    TE-PE  PE/TR  PE/TE    NP  ANP
NYY	 $90.0  $29.8  $59.6  $29.8  33.11% 50.00% $30.4
Tor	  88.7   29.7   62.4   32.7  33.48  47.60   26.3
NYM	  91.1   35.2   70.4   35.2  38.64  50.00   20.7
CWS	  78.0   18.0   60.0   42.0  23.08  30.00   18.0
Hou	  46.0   12.1   31.5   19.4  26.30  38.41   14.5
Tex	  61.5   20.7   47.6   26.9  33.66  43.49   13.9
StL	  59.1   23.2   46.4   23.2  39.26  50.00   12.7
Bal	  50.6   15.8   39.5   23.7  31.23  40.00   11.1
Bos	  81.5   35.4   70.8   35.4  43.44  50.00   10.7
LA	  79.3   36.0   72.0   36.0  45.40  50.00    7.3
ChC	  64.5   29.0   58.0   29.0  44.96  50.00    6.5
Phi	  48.2   21.7   43.4   21.7  45.02  50.00    4.8
Sea	  44.7   17.4   41.8   24.4  38.93  41.63    2.9
Cin	  49.0   27.1   48.8   21.7  55.31  55.53    0.2
SD	  48.4   24.4   48.8   24.4  50.41  50.00   -0.4
Atl	  40.3   20.4   40.8   20.4  50.62  50.00   -0.5
Oak	  64.9   39.2   66.6   27.4  60.40  58.86   -1.7
Det	  51.6   31.1   54.4   23.3  60.27  57.17   -2.8
Pit	  45.8   24.9   49.8   24.9  54.37  50.00   -4.0
Min	  44.1   24.1   48.2   24.1  54.65  50.00   -4.1
Mtl	  39.4   21.8   43.6   21.8  55.33  50.00   -4.2
SF	  48.9   33.3   53.3   20.0  68.10  62.48   -4.4
Cle	  42.0   19.5   46.8   27.3  46.43  41.67   -4.8
KC	  53.6   30.4   60.8   30.4  56.72  50.00   -7.2
Cal	  54.1   34.3   61.7   27.4  63.40  55.59   -7.6
Mil	  38.8   26.4   50.2   23.8  68.04  52.59  -11.4
Total	1504.1  680.9 1377.2  696.3  45.27  49.44  126.9 4.88

TR:	Total Revenue
PE:	Player Expenses
TE:  	Total Expenses
TE-PE: 	Non-Player Expenses
PE/TR:	Percentage of Revenues spent on players
PE/TE:	Percentage of Expenses spent on players
NP:	Net Profits
ANP: 	Average Net Profit

-----
John Vander Borght
john@sequent.com
-- 
"Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty!"
John Vander Borght
john@sequent.com
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball