NL wild card

[BobC]

Originally Posted by packs

Why would you want your team to have a low payroll? I'll never understand the haters and small market fans. Your owner can spend the same amount of money as every other owner but chooses not to because they don't care about your team.

How can that be a rallying cry for anyone?

I don't think they really can all spend the same amount. Unlike the NFL, which I believe handles all the TV contracts and deals for the entire league, and then shares the money among all the teams, MLB teams I believe are much more on their own when it comes to TV and contracts. It was Steinbrenner who I believe was the first to really make a big difference when he started putting the Yankees games on their own cable network. Big market teams get bigger paydays because advertisers pay more to advertise in larger markets.

Now of course the owners of smaller market teams could, if they're rich enough, just spend tons of their own money to try and compete more easily against the big market teams, and simply have their franchises operate at a loss every year. But then don't forget, MLB teams are, and always have been, businesses first. And even very rich small market team owners likely can't afford to just keep funding losing businesses year after year after year.