From: snichols@adobe.com (Sherri Nichols)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Baseball and Billions
Date: 26 Aug 92 16:04:28 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated

In article <1992Aug26.140129.4647@cis.ohio-state.edu> miked@pterodactyl.cis.ohio-state.edu (Michael Davey) writes:
>	Yes, she did. re-read the original post. She suggested that not 
>spending money on the game would force the owners to change their
>behavior.

I did more than suggest it.  I stated it plainly.  Not spending money on
the game would force owners to change their behavior.  How could it not?
Especially now when we're starting to get a group of owners who have made
substantial investments to buy teams.  If you've spent $100 million to buy
a team, you're not going to run it as a hobby, you're going to run it as a
business, and if attendance drops, you're going to take measures to
increase it.

>>I think we all agree that if ticket prices doubled, there would be a
>>corresponding decrease in attendance.  We might go, but just not as
>>often.  Love or no love.
>	Your counterexample is inappropriate. Any drastic changes in the cost
>would obviously curb our participation; however, because the owners are
>"good business people" they are able to gradually increase the cost and charge
>the maximum possible and still fill the stadiums. This may be good business, 
>but it is also rather mean-spirited. Whatever happened to making an honest 
>profit, not the greatest profit possible.

Who says that baseball owners have been raising prices to the maximum
possible?  Have you taken a look at how ticket prices have risen in relation
to inflation?  Have you compared baseball ticket prices to movie ticket
prices?  

>	I was not suggesting tying the owners hands. I was simply positing that
>the owners are not perfect and simply having lots of money does not 
>automatically mean you have the baseball know or respect for the role The Game
>plays in our culture to make prudent decisions.

Let me ask you a question: do you think baseball owners are worse now than
they were in the past?  Why?  

>	I never said double headers help revenues. I used them as an example
>of something which actually lowers revenues, but which there seems to be 
>a strong demand for from fans. Or more accurately, from prominent sport
>writers.

Ah, here's an important tidbit.  Never confuse what fans are willing to
spend money to do, with what prominent sports writers, who never pay to see
a game, are willing to do.  

>6+ hours plus travel time. The point you have missed again is that obviously
>the money is the issue and I maintain that it should not be the only issue
>when it comes to making decisions about the game.

Why should now be any different than the last 150 years of baseball?

> The DH was introduced by
>AL owners to try and increase attendence by making The Game more exciting.

What a concept: try to give the fans something they enjoy!

>In the European soccer leagues, where the tradition and love for the game
>of soccer is just as strong as it is for baseball here, there are no domes
>and no artificial turf, and the owners make money. Lots of money, in fact.
>It is unfathomable to me how the owners here can maintain that they have to
>compromise the integrity of the game in order to turn a profit, when in other
>countries they factor the traditions of the game strongly into their business
>decisions.  If it works there it can work here.

If people demonstrate, by spending more money on something, that they like
that something, you think the owners should eschew it because it doesn't
reflect the "tradition" of the game?  Where do you draw the line between
change that's good for the game, despite its break with tradition
(breaking the color barrier), and change that you think is bad for the game
(obviously the DH and artificial turf)?  Why is your opinion on that matter
more important than all the AL fans who've made it clear that they prefer
the DH?  Or those fans in Houston who prefer to watch a game in comfort,
rather than being eaten by mosquitos?  

Sherri Nichols
snichols@adobe.com
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball