It has come to our attention that some parties disagree with our analysis of the Toronto Blue Jays' TV revenue dilemma under Rogers Communications. Namely, the Blue Jays themselves and their acolytes in social media.
In the piece we pointed out that increased market competition is resulting in enormous windfalls for MLB teams when they renew their regional TV rights. These teams are using this money to sign free agents and push their payrolls into the stratosphere previously occupied only by the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. But the Blue Jays have sunk to the lower third of MLB payrolls - this despite having the seventh-largest MLB market.
If we may characterize the objections to our tome, they might be summed up as the Rich Uncle Theory - as in, “we’re a little tight for dough, but we have a rich uncle who we can tap for cash”. Rogers, the Blue Jays and like-minded folk contend that with a rich corporate uncle like Rogers, the size of the TV rights and team payroll is not relevant. With Rogers bursting with cash, the team can access it anytime with a snap of GM Alex Anthopoulos’s fingers.
Except this Rogers uncle doesn’t seem to be hearing the plaintive cries of the ball team any more than our rich uncle is sending us Maserati money. Yes, the Jays are investing in development and drafting, and that’s admirable. But on other levels their enthusiasm seems faint. Free agents aren’t the only barometer of franchise health, but the inability to attract the game’s impact player to a large market like Toronto’s is not encouraging.
With the price of contracts for elite players getting jacked up elsewhere this winter, even keeping the Blue Jays’ homegrown players is going to test Rogers’ corporate strategy in the future. Will Rogers pay the going rate then? No guarantees.
Payroll is just the start. There are other issues Rogers money could address as well: the artificial turf of the Rogers Centre - just one of two such surfaces left in MLB - that causes free-agent stars such as Jose Reyes to say, “No mas” is another area where dollars seem scarce. Ditto the game-day presentation at the concrete anachronism by the lake. And then there is the long-term issue of what to do about Rogers’ stadium that’s getting older and was never very warm for baseball.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/b ... le2346031/