Will the Twinkies follow the lead?

[Guest USAFChief]

Why stop at $20 million more?

 

 

Because their revenue supports that, unless they've quietly backed off their promise to spend something a little north of 50% of revenue on MLB salary. Forbes estimated their 2011 revenue at $213M. 52% of that is $110M. There's $10M more to spend.

 

And for the record, the "52% of revenue" model was for the Metrodome. There really is no apparent reason MLB salary should have to stay at that number with the move to TF. The money they spend on other things (travel, minor leagues, other salaries, insurance, etc) doesn't change much just because you move into TF. If they needed (for example) $50M to fund all their other expenses, why wouldn't that same $50M still be enough? What new expenses do the Twins have with the move to TF, other than the cost of their contribution, which we were told was ownership's contribution, not part of operating expenses. Forbes estimated the Twins operating revenue (profit) at $26.5M in 2011. Are you telling me the Pohlads couldn't be happy with a new stadium and $16M in profit? There's another $10M.

 

And if they were happy just roughly breaking even year to year, and pocketing the paper profits of increased team value (roughly $450M in the time the Pohlad family has owned the Twins), they could add another $15M on top of that.

 

So yeah...Twins payroll could/should be $120M. Easily.

 

That is, if the Pohlad family cared about winning more than profits. They don't. Maybe you're ok with that. I'm not.

[spideyo]

Because their revenue supports that, unless they've quietly backed off their promise to spend something a little north of 50% of revenue on MLB salary. Forbes estimated their 2011 revenue at $213M. 52% of that is $110M. There's $10M more to spend.

 

And for the record, the "52% of revenue" model was for the Metrodome. There really is no apparent reason MLB salary should have to stay at that number with the move to TF. The money they spend on other things (travel, minor leagues, other salaries, insurance, etc) doesn't change much just because you move into TF. If they needed (for example) $50M to fund all their other expenses, why wouldn't that same $50M still be enough? What new expenses do the Twins have with the move to TF, other than the cost of their contribution, which we were told was ownership's contribution, not part of operating expenses. Forbes estimated the Twins operating revenue (profit) at $26.5M in 2011. Are you telling me the Pohlads couldn't be happy with a new stadium and $16M in profit? There's another $10M.

 

And if they were happy just roughly breaking even year to year, and pocketing the paper profits of increased team value (roughly $450M in the time the Pohlad family has owned the Twins), they could add another $15M on top of that.

 

So yeah...Twins payroll could/should be $120M. Easily.

 

That is, if the Pohlad family cared about winning more than profits. They don't. Maybe you're ok with that. I'm not.

They have added costs because they are solely responsible for maintaining all the locker room and training room facilities, the actual playing field (which has a MUCH higher upkeep than the astroturf), and they have no other tenants to share the cost of security/housekeeping/retail/concessions contracts. Don't forget too, that they spend a considerable amount of time and money winterizing and de-winterizing much of Target Field, which is something they never had to do at the Metrodome. They also have a much larger office staff, because they handle all the planning, sales, and setup of non-baseball events at Target Field.

 

The flip side of course, is that they also make a ton more on concessions, retail, and non-baseball events than they ever could at the Metrodome. I think in the long run, the revenue will probably exceed the additional cost, but right now they are still covering a significant initial investment to get the whole place up and running that goes way beyond just the cost of construction.

 

Keep in mind too, that any extra profit won't just be added to payroll or the Pohlad's pockets. They have a state of the art ballpark right now, but they will need to be continually re-investing money to maintain it and improve it to keep it a state-of-the-art ball park.

[kab21]

kab21, but they didn't help the present either. This team is as bad as last year's, and not really much younger (not by choice anyway, if Pavano and Baker were healthy....). If you don't have players in the minors, and you won't sign FAs that are really good because at some point the contract "will be bad contracts", how do you get better, other than luck?

Even if they spent an extra 20M this offseason they would still be a bad team. Not only do those bad contracts hurt future teams but they also block young players that have been given a chance this year. Attempting to rebuild a team thru FA usually ends disastrous results unless you're spending like the Yankees. You get better by pumping a lot of money into the draft and int'l FA's. And the Twins did this.