Ohtani joining Dodgers on 10-year, $700M deal

$2M is pocket change to him as he gets roughly $50M per year in endorsements.

Yes good for him, the structure of the deal absolutely shows him to be more interested in rings than $. I'm so disgusted by Mariners ownership these days I might just jump ship to the Dodgers...but every few years I seem to try that and mostly fail.

are you in the pacific northwest, Max?

This signing is great for the Dodgers and great for Ohtani, but a potential disaster for the future of baseball.

The long shake out is that clearly the top tier FA's, are now only financially reachable by teams/owners that can and will overpay and happily pay the luxury tax. Boiled down, these means that moving forward, there are really only 5-7 teams that will be able to sign the top FA's, and maybe that list is realistically 2-3 teams.
Of course the media, particularly in LA and NYC, love this, as we learned from the last world series, if a NY or LA team is not in the series, they basically back burner it.

So...should the FA/luxury tax rules be changed?
To be blunt, no. Changing them to whatever, and the greedy deep pocket owners will still find a loophole to use their big bucks leverage.

Perhaps the only way to make this paradigm sane, is to not allow any deferred payments.

This is a very unusual case, as Ohtani is a world wide marketing commodity. I can't see any other free agent, regardless of how good a player they are, falling into this category.

This signing is great for the Dodgers and great for Ohtani, but a potential disaster for the future of baseball.

The long shake out is that clearly the top tier FA's, are now only financially reachable by teams/owners that can and will overpay and happily pay the luxury tax. Boiled down, these means that moving forward, there are really only 5-7 teams that will be able to sign the top FA's, and maybe that list is realistically 2-3 teams.
Of course the media, particularly in LA and NYC, love this, as we learned from the last world series, if a NY or LA team is not in the series, they basically back burner it.

So...should the FA/luxury tax rules be changed?
To be blunt, no. Changing them to whatever, and the greedy deep pocket owners will still find a loophole to use their big bucks leverage.

Perhaps the only way to make this paradigm sane, is to not allow any deferred payments.

San Diego has shown that you don't need to be in one of the largest markets in order to carry a high payroll. You just need an ownership willing to do so. The problem is not player contracts. The problem is cheapskate owners. As I said earlier, the Mariners could've signed Ohtani and still been outside the top 10 in payroll.

Yes good for him, the structure of the deal absolutely shows him to be more interested in rings than $. I'm so disgusted by Mariners ownership these days I might just jump ship to the Dodgers...but every few years I seem to try that and mostly fail.

are you in the pacific northwest, Max?

Indeed, born and raised

Oddly enough, I don't watch baseball. One deterrent for me is the extremely lopsided salaries from team to team. The Yankees and Dodgers, last time I checked, were ridiculous and that seems to often be the case. I'd prefer if there was a salary cap or other control. Also, as a Canadian, it's not a lot of fun to see the Blue Jays and Raptors constantly gutted and being practically used as elite training groups for other organizations to pilfer from.

Free-spenders and cheapskates alike also have to fund the operations, whether at a profit or at a loss.
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-07-07-public-subsidies-sports-stadiums-arent-going-away/

In most markets, teams are where they are because local governments distort the true cost of operating a sports team by offering incentives and giving away taxpayer funds to these businesses. The businesses and local govt then each find ways to leverage their interests on other people's money. And in the absence of support from either citizens or the local government, the teams can and do leave because there is always a municipality that will believe an optimistic economic analysis, even if flawed.

This enables the businesses to spend money that is not aligned with a free market environment. It causes price inflation and only hurts the consumers. And the true cheapskate owners take the subsidies and don't invest--they are the worst of the lot but they typically don't last long.

Anyone can easily find theoretical research supporting or not supporting the economics based on unknowable future assumptions, depending where you look. The real test is what does the city look like afterward. Eventually, just like the park that "pays for itself in 10 years", the reality is that true costs of maintenance and sustainment are not usually accounted for.

The key is what will fans, municipalities, and to a lesser degree, voters, pay? I have chosen to spend my entertainment dollars elsewhere but I am in a small pool of people who enjoy sports but no longer patronizes the businesses or their ad streams for the most part.

In most markets, teams are where they are because local governments distort the true cost of operating a sports team by offering incentives and giving away taxpayer funds to these businesses. The businesses and local govt then each find ways to leverage their interests on other people's money. And in the absence of support from either citizens or the local government, the teams can and do leave because there is always a municipality that will believe an optimistic economic analysis, even if flawed.

Quite the relevant topic today as it was announced this morning that the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards will be relocating from the Verizon Center in downtown DC to Alexandria, VA. The new site in the 'Potomac Yard' neighborhood is not very appealing, nor convenient for 99% of the DC metro population. As a former Caps STH for a number of years, I doubt I will ever desire to go to another game once they move in a few years. But Virginia Governor Youngkin just had his presidential aspirations quashed in November when Virginia voted for Democratic majorities in both the Virginia House and Senate, so he needed a big win. Reportedly, Virginia is offering a billion $ incentive to the owner of the Caps & Wiz.

P.S. The DC crowd eagerly chants "Let's Go Caps" at every game, but for some reason never got into "Let's Go Wiz". I wonder if the less-couth Virginians will take that up...

Yes good for him, the structure of the deal absolutely shows him to be more interested in rings than $. I'm so disgusted by Mariners ownership these days I might just jump ship to the Dodgers...but every few years I seem to try that and mostly fail.

More interested in rings by playing the system, ala Lebron.

Call me not interested in this sort of modern day success story...

Oops sorry--maybe off thread follow-on to Toady.
As for Ohtani, I don't see it as any different than what any person tries to do, which is self-interest. Not evil, not virtuous, just human. In this case, smart on his part.

yeah funny stuff and well played--the press release is chock full of the typical promises that no one ever goes back to verify, along the lines of the last article.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/monumental-sports-to-partner-with-virginia-and-regional-leaders-on-a-proposed-business-expansion-to-alexandria-302014134.html

Interesting take you had on that part. I used to live in NoVA until a couple years ago. They forgot to mention the Potomac Yard metro was approved a few years ago and oh...what a coincidence we now see this arrangement. :shocked:

The state executive definitely has a position pushing this, but the Alexandria city council is almost exclusively not the same political persuasion as Youngkin and went hogs wild for it too.

The VA legislature will take it up and while they may make cosmetic imprimaturs on the deal to make their mark, I expect that democrat majority to approve it as swimmingly as the D majority on the Alexandria city council did. But who knows--they may want to further embattle a lame duck executive.

I think if you control for the partisan political variable, you will find scarcely a difference in behaviors. Unfortunately, most of the differences end up being performative rather than substantive and the people affected end up being screwed whether they are gaining or losing a team.