Mellinger: Clark Hunt must stand up to big-market NFL owners

[milkman]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

That's easy to say until you see the alternative. It happens in baseball all the time. People want to crucify the Yankees, when one of the biggest problems is that there are too many owners who under-spend on their teams because they're more interested in making profit than in putting the effort to field a World Series champion.

It sucks that you have to put a salary floor incentive to get owners to spend.

Think about your luxury boxes. Expensive seats. Who sits there? Rich guys who leave in the 4th quarter. Unfortunately, most of these owners are there to make money. Jerry Jones sucks as a spender, but I appreciate that he cares about winning, even if that's because winning leads to more money in his pockets. His problem is that he's so obsessed with winning that he micro-manages, the ssame problem Steinbreiner and Cuban always had.

These small market owners aren't making nearly as much as you seem to think, and if the salary floor gets too high, teams like Detroit and Buffalo will eventually be working in the red.

Jerry Jones, Daniel Snyder and Jerry Richardson, among others, are killing the golden goose.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by milkman

These small market owners aren't making nearly as much as you seem to think, and if the salary floor gets too high, teams like Detroit and Buffalo will eventually be working in the red.

Jerry Jones, Daniel Snyder and Jerry Richardson, among others, are killing the golden goose.

There's no doubt that richer NFL owners have it easier in that they can fail and still turn a profit. But let me ask why it's such a big deal for an owner to operate in the red. You bring up Detroit and Buffalo. Two teams that have had almost 10 straight losing seasons. Do these owners deserve to make money for doing shitty work? I would love for those guys to operate in the red so they can be fired.

There are a handful of owners I genuinely feel sorry for. Minnesota because they are hamstrung by a shitty stadium, and Jacksonville because it's a shitty market. The others? The fact that Buffalo can post that many losing seasons in a row and still keep the ownership tells you they're not doing too bad.

And I'm not at all convinced that it's easy at all to operate in the red. They share a shitload of revenue. And the majority of them are getting sweetheart deals from taxpayers and the city to keep the team there. Not only that, but they're building them expensive stadiums on the taxpayer dime that gives them the license to charge even higher prices and make more money.

So no, I have a very hard time believing owners are struggling. How many times have you seen an NFL owner sell their franchise because of money? Even really, really bad franchises with poor attendance numbers? Sweetest gig in America--even when you're horribly bad, you can still stay largely in the black.

[ChiefsCountry]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

The fact that Buffalo can post that many losing seasons in a row and still keep the ownership tells you they're not doing too bad.

Buffalo's owner has owned the team since the very beginning. As soon as Wilson dies the team is going to Toronto.

[Over-Head]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Buffalo's owner has owned the team since the very beginning. As soon as Wilson dies the team is going to Toronto.

Cant see it.
Not with the Tie Cats, and Argo's already eating up the biggest slice of the football market in Ontairo already.
Just because you bunch here on the CP don't like the CFL , don't mean it aint HUGE up here in Canuck land.
Moving the Bills into Toronto, would signal a death toll for the team.

Yes there are lots of NFL fans in Canada, but not enough to field a team, at least not until your recession down south gets to the point our Canuck buck is worth twice the amount of a Yankie green back (like yours was to ours 10-15 years ago).

Why else aren't cities like Edmonton, or Vancouver already feilding an NFL team?? TONNS of cash in the oil city, and lord knows Hongcouver is loaded.

Were a HOCKEY first country, with CFL and Baseball covering our sports markets.
We just don't have the markets or population density for it to be a viabale operation.

I mean hell, look on a map, you've got 4 eastern Canadian proviences, who do nothing but host farm teams, for "Upper Canadian" owners.
.
The first PRO team of any kind you find in Canada going from east to west is in Quebec, and theres NO provience in better economic shape in Canada right now than Newfoundland. Which only has a total population of 600,000 people.

[The_Doctor10]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Buffalo's owner has owned the team since the very beginning. As soon as Wilson dies the team is going to Toronto.

The Bills in Toronto experiment has been an unmitigated disaster. Fans aren't going to sell out on the CFL, which has one hundred years of tradition, for the worst franchise of the past 10 years.

Rogers Centre is also too small for NFL football. Toronto isn't building a dedicated NFL stadium; Canada doesn't finance new venues the way America does. Most of the cash put up has to be out of the owner's pocket. And the NFL doesn't like doing things that way.

[Titty Meat]

Originally Posted by milkman

These small market owners aren't making nearly as much as you seem to think, and if the salary floor gets too high, teams like Detroit and Buffalo will eventually be working in the red.

Jerry Jones, Daniel Snyder and Jerry Richardson, among others, are killing the golden goose.

You speak as if you've seen the numbers. Nope you're just talking out of your ass again.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by Bo's Pelini

You speak as if you've seen the numbers. Nope you're just talking out of your ass again.

I posted a link that showed the rough numbers a couple of weeks ago, but I imagine you're too stupid to comprehend those numbers, so I won't waste any time looking for that link.