Tiger Geist

I was talking to my dad about this while in Lakeland last week, and then Buster Olney started talking about it… and Mack Avenue Tigers had an excellent write-up about it… so its probably time i get my thoughts on paper.  Namely.. what’s going on with the Detroit Tiger’s finances.

Here are my thoughts:

1. I don’t trust any baseball team’s numbers.  They only report what they feel they have to report, based on attendance and payroll.  They may not have to report on merchandising, hot dogs, parking.  Its not an apples to apples comparison as what you get in the NFL, which has a salary cap.  The books are NOT open.
2. I can’t see how the (probable) dead contracts of someone like Dontrelle Willis really matters.  Its all talk — it’ll be written off as a loss on Illitch’s taxes.  People get paid big money to hide this stuff.  And rich people don’t like to pay taxes (nor do I, for the record).
3. Illitch has a ton of money.  Its called Illitch Holdings.  Mike may be worth X, but even his son is on the payroll (CEO).  They’ve got some cash.
4. Mrs. Illitch owns a casino.  By herself.  Unless they suddenly don’t get along, i’m sure she’s willing to give her husband a loan.
5. Mr. Illitch loves baseball.

The biggest comparison I can see here is to the DeBartolo family and the San Francisco 49ers.  Ed dumped all sorts of cash from the family’s fortunes into the football team that technically lost money in the their heyday.  Probably tons of money.  I’m not sure if the Illitchs are willing to dump money into the Tigers, but make no mistake, they could if they wanted to.

Interesting was an article by Marc Stein on a potential NBA lockout.  Here is what struck me:

“It’s not so much that NBA business is bad,” one high-ranking team executive told ESPN.com. “It’s not go-out-of-business bad.

“The problem is that a bunch of owners are getting killed in their non-NBA business. If owners are losing 30 percent or more of their net worth, they have no choice but to require their teams to make money. Owners can’t subsidize teams if their real businesses struggle.”

So, by this comparison, we should worry about the Tigers if the Illitch’s start laying off some of their 17k employees in Illitch Holdings.  I’m guessing the casino business is just fine, and I know the Red Wings (with the NHL salary cap) has to be a cash cow right now.  I’m sure the Tigers can handle a $10million loss for the year.  And, honestly, there is no value to sell off.  Ordonez, Robertson, Willis, and Guillen have NO value in the current market.  You’d have to toss in some major talent (and cheap) — Porcello, Perry, Verlander.  And that’s a short term payroll gain that will cost you down the line.  Attendance is the name of the game.  The April weather — any cold fronts coming in? — is as much as the enemy of the team as the state of the economy.