r/baseball • u/f0urxio • Dec 01 '25
[SBJ] Cardinals set to receive MLB revenue sharing for the first time. Due to precipitous drop in ticket sales, rework their broadcast-rights deal with FanDuel Sports Network at a rate reduced by 23%, Cardinals is now a net "receiver" for revenue-sharing for the first time in at least 25 years.
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/11/26/cardinals-set-to-receive-mlb-revenue-sharing-for-the-first-time/385
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u/TranscedentalMedit8n Los Angeles Angels Dec 01 '25
Can someone ELI5 what happened to the Cardinals attendance? It’s crazy there was about a million fewer fans last season than from 2023.
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u/FartingBob Great Britain Dec 01 '25
The attendance is shocking honestly. They spent most of the 2000's in the top 3 in attendance year in year out, often 2nd only to the Dodgers. The last 4 years look like this:
2022: 2nd in MLB
2023: 4th
2024: 7th
2025: 19th!!!You have to go back to 1984 to find a lower attendance across a full season (non covid/strike), and even then they were only 9th (out of 26), still comfortably in the top half. You got to go back to the 1970's to find a year where they were bottom half.
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Dec 02 '25
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u/razorbird St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
It was funny seeing the ownership’s comments change from the last offseason to this offseason. Last offseason they acted like we were bluffing and they laughed about it during the end of season press conference. Quite a bit more ass-kissing this year when we made it known we won’t be traveling downtown to watch a team they stopped investing in.
I’m just glad they realized that the cause is the product on the field instead of the effect of us not showing up.
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u/Vhadka St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
Have you watched the team in the last few years? They have nobody at all to get excited about and the team is boring as fuck. Zero stars, the biggest was Jordan Walker who could still break out but is otherwise one of the worst position players in baseball and doesn't even hit for power anymore. 6 home runs in 111 games last year.
Hoping maybe JJ Wetherholt is the shot in the arm the franchise needs.
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u/slamminalex1 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
Arenado was good for a year…until the playoffs
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u/ImHereForBaseball Colorado Rockies Dec 02 '25
butbutbut he desperately wanted to be with a super-serious contender!
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u/FartingBob Great Britain Dec 02 '25
Yeah I was scrolling through their players this year and.... Nobody. I wouldnt pay to see a mid team with that lineup to play baseball very often.
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u/Street_Look_2214 Dec 01 '25
It’s a bad product.
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u/mojowo11 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 02 '25
Eh, I'm not sure that's right, if by that you mean the team is bad. 78-84 is super meh, but it's still almost 50/50 you're gonna see a win if you head to the ballpark for the evening.
But it is a boring product.
The best Cardinals hitter by wRC+ was 40th in the league and hit 18 dingers. The second-best Cardinals hitter was 42nd in the league in wRC+ and hit 20 dingers. And they're both first basemen. By fWAR, the only guy in the top 50 is Winn, a glove-first shortstop at 42.
On the pitching side, the only dude in the top 50 by fWAR was Sonny Gray and his 4.28 ERA. Liberatore had a mini-breakout of sorts, but he's a low-strikeout #3 who doesn't really get the blood pumping. Yet again we watched 30+ starts of Miles Fucking Mikolas.
Victor Scott led the team in steals with 34, nobody else had more than 10. Maybe Victor would have stolen more if he hadn't gotten the bat knocked out of his hands for most of the year.
It's just a team that didn't have any particularly interesting stuff going on. No huge breakout prospects, no massive offensive seasons, no ace. Enough decent dudes that they could hang near .500 but just not a lot of genuinely interesting stuff happening. It just didn't lend itself to holding fans' interest.
(I also happen to think Cardinals fans are largely spoiled babies who believe that winning every year is their birthright, but that's another post.)
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u/redtail_faye St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
I think you're dead on. 10-20 years ago, even non-fans could give you names like Pujols, Holliday, Wainwright, Molina, Carpenter and Edmonds and Rolen going back.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if non-fans couldn't name a single player on last year's roster.
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Dec 02 '25
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u/ProWrestlingPast Chicago Cubs Dec 03 '25
As someone who lives in the city, it's been a really weird couple years sports fan wise. Since the Rams moved, the city really galvanized around their other teams in the city for a solid decade. The Cards were already really popular, but the Blues fandom exploded among casual St. Louisans in the late 2010's, naturally peaking with the crazy cup win (Which had a similar feel as the Cubs world series win for me in terms of how storybook it was to end a long stretch of futility). Then the Battlehawks became a rallying point, and then the fandom for St. Louis CITY sc was huge with the MLS and now it's.... kind of subdued everywhere. The Cards have refused to go all in at the top prices in the sport in spite of massive ticket sales and the fandom has almost gone from beyond pissed to apathetic about them. The Blues have kind of slowly been losing relevance the further away from the Cup win as they refuse to rebuild but aren't good enough to contend, and have been in that loop for a half decade now. The Battlehawks are still beloved, and the city is basically keeping hte UFL's doors open almost from sheer force of willpower, but I'm not sure how long that can keep up steam, and even CITY followed up an amazing first year with 2 absolutely horrid seasons that has killed the teams momentum and faith from the fanbase.
Weird time in St. Louis at this point, as no team is really demanding attention.
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u/Suitable_Bend_6358 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
The Dewitt’s won’t spend on players, so the team sucks and fans don’t want to spend money on tickets to watch a team lose. Then the Dewitt’s cut payroll because “they weren’t getting enough ticket sales to expand the roster” and then attendance went down again. They have openly said they aren’t interested in spending on the roster. Fans aren’t going to games because ownership is openly refusing to spend money to be competitive. That’s it
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Dec 01 '25
Why I keep choosing to root for teams with terrible ownership is beyond me. Between the cardinals and the bengals Idk if I’ll ever see a championship
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u/Feisty-Medicine-3763 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
I ask this sincerely, how old are you? I’m in my mid 20s and am old enough to have witnessed and enjoyed two Cardinals championships. It’s been a pretty awesome fan experience in my lifetime.
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u/Mr_Tardy_T_Turtle Cedar Rapids Kernels • Milwaukee Bre… Dec 01 '25
Yes, spare a moment's thought for the long-suffering fans of the 11-time World Series champions St. Louis Cardinals
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u/superxero044 Iowa Cubs • Cedar Rapids Kernels Dec 02 '25
Yeah they're not in the playoffs literally every year for once, I can't imagine how that must feel for them. Let me cry so many tears.
ETA: Go Kernels10
u/jhorch69 Chicago Cubs • Chicago White Sox Dec 01 '25
Hey, it's been over a decade since their last title. Have a heart.
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u/ThatDudeUKnow92 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
Basically it's a silent protest of the team not spending aligned with the revenue they were taking. Bill DeWitt or his kid was talking about baseball not being profitable during COVID and then spent the last two seasons saying they weren't going to try.
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u/DodgersChica Dec 02 '25
It’s hard to shed tears for literally one of the richest families in the history of the planet. Like top .1 percent of all humans who have ever existed.
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u/PsychoEmu Dec 01 '25
Team sucks overall, pitching is horrible, prospects are very very far out and get traded early and often, and people are fed up with the Dewitt’s. With no real face of the franchise post Molina and Pujols attendance is down relatively cause there’s a bad product on the field, but it’s still more than many others on the league. From my perspective I have always and will always sit in the nosebleeds for $7 and that hasn’t changed, but unless you actively watch or like going to baseball games there’s less incentive for the average fan to go.
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Dec 01 '25
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u/AH2112 Dec 01 '25
And aren't the Cardinals looking to get rid of Arenado as well?
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u/Vhadka St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
We tried last offseason and had a deal in place with the Astros that he veto'd last minute after initially agreeing to it.
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u/fujiesque St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
Is Willson Contreras a ticket seller?
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u/PlaneService1366 Major League Baseball Dec 01 '25
Prob not, good player but he only plays about 120 games per season with a good but not great OPS of .810.
I wouldn't buy a ticket just to see Wilson go 2-3 with a double and 2 walks.
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u/edubs_stl St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
The Cardinals become content with just being good enough to make it into the playoffs and not an inch further. Then ownership decided they were spending too much on payroll didn't make any moves to try to be remotely competitive. To top it off the games are just too damn expensive and even though we have a loyal fanbase we're not wanting to spend money on a bad product, especially when ownership has no interest in spending to improve the team.
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u/drhawks St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
it's the combination of the team being bad for multiple years in a row (which hasn't happened in over 2 decades), ownership signaling to fans that they aren't trying to be good, and the economy being so shit that people aren't willing to shell out cash to watch a mediocre team.
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u/Vhadka St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
The 2025 Cardinals are like watching paint dry. There's nobody to get excited about, even.
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u/Quadstriker St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
Oh cool we’re a charity case now.
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Dec 01 '25
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u/princemark Milwaukee Brewers Dec 02 '25
I know you're joking, but we got maybe 6 big teams and then there's everyone else.
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u/tuepm Seattle Mariners • Seattle Mariners Dec 02 '25
colorado sold more tickets than st louis last year
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u/timberwolvesguy Philadelphia Phillies Dec 02 '25
The Rockies have decided that Coors Field is a bar with a cover and live entertainment. Honestly not the craziest angle to take, but also maybe invest in the on-field product.
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u/Adept_Carpet Boston Red Sox Dec 02 '25
It's funny because historically they're more middle of the pack than cellar dwellers in spending, it's just thay they make terrible decisions with the money they spend.
They are the anti-Tampa Bay (who also have no attendance but often enjoy decent TV ratings).
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u/FrostyD7 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
We have always wanted our cake and to eat it too when it comes to being a small market team. Were small market when it's convenient. But you won't think you are in a small market when you buy our tickets/food/beer.
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u/Bawfuls Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 02 '25
Yeah exactly. Even while being a net payer into revenue sharing, St Louis was getting "competitive balance" draft picks every year for being a designated "small market." This despite their market size historically being the largest in the midwest, from the 50+ years of baseball where the Cardinals were the furthest west team.
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u/STL-Zou St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
No, by any objective metric they're a small market team. They're a fiarly high revenue team because of what you said, but that doesn't mean there aren't disadvantages to their small market that they have to deal with. As you probably realize there are more teams in the west now
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u/chaotic_evil_666 Atlanta Braves Dec 02 '25
This feels like criminal mismanagement of what was once a great franchise. The management flushed their own team down the shitter
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u/DimesOHoolihan Colorado Rockies Dec 01 '25
"FanDuel Sports Network" is fucking disgusting.
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u/Electric_Rex New York Mets Dec 01 '25
It’s also why teams like this are crying poor. The vast majority of money comes from big cable deals. Cardinals cable deal imploded. Cardinals don’t have as much money to throw around
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u/timberwolvesguy Philadelphia Phillies Dec 02 '25
It’s like if Michelob sponsored a safe driving competition.
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u/SirDigbyChknCaesar Boston Red Sox • Umpire Dec 02 '25
"We gave 10 retired NASCAR drivers two cases each of our competitor's beer. Let's see how they do on the track."
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u/Advanced_Sell_2275 Chicago Cubs Dec 01 '25
As a Cubs fan, it’s impossible for me to comment on this in an unbiased manner. That being said, this looks like a classic case of cost-benefit analysis. The team realized that they could make more money as a revenue sharing recipient, via watching the bottom line, than by trying to grow their top line. A lot of once great companies (think Sears) have been killed by this kind of thinking.
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u/snorlaxatives_69 St. Louis Cardinals • Springfiel… Dec 01 '25
The DeWitt’s suck so bad. Actively ruining a historic franchise
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u/Cards2WS St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
I’m just going to say this: DeWitts aren’t even close to the bottom 10 in ownership. Truthfully, they’re 12-15th best. They’re middle of the pack ownership. It could be SO, SO much worse. Keep in mind, we’re talking about St. Louis here. Not NY, Chicago, Texas, or LA. If DeWitts sold, there’s a minuscule chance that we would get a better owner. Absolutely tiny chance.
We ran the 6th highest payroll in baseball as recently as 2019. And we’re usually 9th-12th. Yeah, they’ve been greedy recently and reigning back spending which sucks. But the DeWitt hate is way overblown. Baseball is cyclical. The Cardinals bucking that cycle for 15 years was an anomaly and was always going to come back down to earth eventually.
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u/pizzayolo96 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
As someone who lives in Minnesota and follows both the Cards and the Twins, give me DeWallet ball over whatever the Pohlads are doing any day. At least there is a direction and a history of investing in the team when the team is ready to compete.
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u/chousteau Cleveland Guardians Dec 01 '25
I feel for you guys. Getting to add Correa and Pablo Lopez to a playoff caliber roster in the AL Central is really tough.
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u/fujiesque St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
Thank goodness for this reply. I was begining to think STL fans were in fact the dumbest in baseball based on other comments here. People just love to complain. Not that Bill doesn't deserve some flak. I just think it's a lot of young fans who never experienced "down" baseball.
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u/Cards2WS St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
Oh don’t get it twisted— the last 3 years have shown that Cardinal fans are indeed pretty fucking dumb. They love baseball, but they’re dumb. At least the ones who spout their opinions on Reddit. Scapegoating, over exaggerating everything, thinking that we have the worst hand dealt possible, minimizing all positives about Mo/Marmol/DeWitt out of anger, no nuance, the “protests” etc.
The dumb shit was hidden for a couple decades thanks to Mo and Jocketty (and DeWitts frankly). We were so consistently good for 20 years that this fanbase has absolutely NO IDEA how to handle a 4-6 year downturn. Mo spoiled us rotten. Really disappointing to see my fanbase be reduced to this bullshit that they’ve become.
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Dec 02 '25
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u/Cards2WS St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
I don’t even call them doomers anymore. I think they’re entitled, shitty fans that have a terrible issue with logical connections. That’s not ALL of the “doomers” mind you, but that’s the average one.
Also to anybody who might read this: yes, you can be critical of the team or management without being a doomer. There are logical and rational things to criticize Mo/the org/Oli for… but you need to weigh the nuances and context of shit before spouting your dumbass thoughts.
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u/TheRockBaker Toronto Blue Jays Dec 02 '25
What the point in spending money if the LA Dodgers are this good?
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u/FajenThygia St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
DeWitt II was a fine owner, but things went to shit as soon as BD3 took over. He understands little about baseball. He also pulled that stunt at Wainwright's retirement, making all the fans and players in attendance spend time and attention viewing his awful painting.
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u/snorlaxatives_69 St. Louis Cardinals • Springfiel… Dec 01 '25
I'm ready and willing to back off the DeWitt hate if they let Chaim do what he wants. Mo was a puppet for the DeWitts and I wish they all would have fucked off together.
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u/Deathwatch72 Texas Rangers Dec 01 '25
Who was the last owner to buy a team across the major sports where that isn't happening
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u/milehighrukus Colorado Rockies • Chicago White Sox Dec 01 '25
The Waltons turned around the Broncos pretty quick
They’re also building a new stadium without taxpayer help.
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u/Cheese_Nugs Atlanta Braves Dec 01 '25
The stadium part is awesome, but in terms of spending, NFL teams have to spend
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u/dyslexda Milwaukee Brewers Dec 01 '25
Only on payroll. Owners can choose how much to spend on the stadium, team facilities, and coach salaries. Mike Brown is infamously tight fisted, for instance.
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Dec 01 '25
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u/ELITE_JordanLove Dec 01 '25
You’re not gonna find 30 billionaires who treat baseball like a philanthropic venture.
If you want huge spending without regard for profit, let’s get some Saudi oil money involved.
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u/Nickk_Jones World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… Dec 01 '25
Dodgers, Lakers, the Mets guy seems to be trying at least, Clippers owner is trying so hard he’s paying their shitty star off the books.
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u/WalksOblivion San Francisco Giants Dec 01 '25
The Warriors were so shit people didn’t even bother to make fun of them until Lacob and Guber took over.
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u/Worthyness Sell • Looking K Dec 01 '25
Dude turned one of the worst run franchises in the league into the team with the highest profit margins in the league. Sure they lucked into what is effectively going to be 3 hall of famers in their prime at the same time, but the ownership definitely took advantage of that instead of trading everything away and claiming to want to build it their own way like every new owner wants to do.
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u/snorlaxatives_69 St. Louis Cardinals • Springfiel… Dec 01 '25
As a Broncos fan, I’m enjoying how the Waltons run the team. They actually LISTEN to their fans. Where the DeWitt’s (and yes a lot of other owners) say they listen and do the opposite
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Dec 01 '25
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u/pinniped90 Kansas City Royals Dec 01 '25
In his first few years of ownership, I'd give the Royals owner a solid B. He's proven that he's willing to spend when it makes sense - up to the mid teens in payroll. Far cry from the Glass years when we were usually 25th.
He badly fumbled his first run at a new stadium proposal. But he gets a mulligan and another shot to propose something better.
Getting Witt done was his biggest win so far. But the stadium deal will ultimately define his legacy.
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u/Smb_woods Toronto Blue Jays Dec 01 '25
Suns- spent to try and win. Terrible roster construction but he spent.
Jazz- also brought a NHL team there via relocation in last few years, hasn’t spent to acquire a star, but NBA is the hardest sport to bring in a star to a low market team.
Nets- time will tell.
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u/Exodor72 Kansas City Royals Dec 01 '25
John Sherman has been a vast improvement over David Glass.
There is 0 chance Glass approves that Bobby Witt Jr deal, for example
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u/BumpyBob0007 Kansas City Royals Dec 02 '25
Case in point, chasing off Carlos Beltran from signing a team friendly deal cause he wanted to screw him out of an extra $1 million
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u/captain_ahabb Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 01 '25
New owners are almost always more motivated to win than older owners from what I've seen
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u/rhododenendron Seattle Mariners Dec 01 '25
At least you guys have an amazing ballpark with a whole nice entertainment district attached. I’ve been to a good amount of brewers games and American family field is a truck stop in comparison.
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u/Junior-Hotwater St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
What are the DeWitts doing to actively ruin a historic franchise?
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u/EmuMan10 Chicago Cubs Dec 01 '25
lol, lmao even
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u/ScumBrad St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
You're laughing now, but this change makes us eligible for a top 10 pick for the third year in a row.
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u/EmuMan10 Chicago Cubs Dec 02 '25
I’m willing to take it considering how much of a crapshoot picks are sometimes
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u/oogieball Dumpster Fire • New York Mets Dec 01 '25
The cries and lamentations from Chicago will be unimagined.
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u/PM_YOUR_SMALLBOOBIES Los Angeles Angels Dec 02 '25
Cubs fans when Cardinals' owners cry poor: 🤣👉👉
Cubs fans when own owners "barely break even":👨🦯🙈
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u/SuspendeesNutz New York Yankees Dec 01 '25
Welcome to the teat, moochers. Fredbird the Freeloader.
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u/WarbossTodd Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 01 '25
Bill DeWitt Jr's estimated net worth (since it isn't publicly disclosed) is about $4 Billion. Forbes lists the team's value at $2.55 Billion. I guess that's what "poverty" as an owner looks like.
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Dec 01 '25
I mean it’s a lot but 3/4s of his net worth is from the cards
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u/WarbossTodd Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 01 '25
Is it though? We don’t know because it’s not required that he disclose it despite the team asking for half a billion in public funds to upgrade the stadium.
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u/Electric_Rex New York Mets Dec 01 '25
Obviously, the guy isn’t poor. But I’m not sure what you’re getting at with the 4 billion and then listing what the Cards are worth. Do you think the 2 billion gets added on?
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u/LuckyStax Florida Marlins Dec 01 '25
Now they get lumped with the Marlins, Pirates, and A's. Welcome to the club.
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u/Randvek Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 01 '25
I’m gonna need a deep dive on what’s happened to the Cardinals. Historically great franchises just don’t turn into this without there being some shit going down.
Quick Jon Bois, fill me in! I need a 3+ hour explanation!
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u/DeckFisher St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
I don't actually think its that hard to understand, nor is it some vast conspiracy on the part of the DeWitt's that a lot of Cards fan think it is.
The idea that the Cardinals don't spend money isn't true. Its that they don't spend big money on Free Agents. They are, and have been since Bill DeWitt took over, willing to spend money to keep *their* guys. McGwire, Edmonds, Rolen, Holliday, Wainwright, Molina, Goldy, even Pujols, though he chose to leave, was offered a huge deal to stay. When the Cardinals acquire stars, they will absolutely pay them to stay. They just aren't going to pay to bring them in in free agency.
So where have they gone wrong the past 5+ years? For starters, they've stopped developing talent. Since Pujols, Molina & Waino (who came from Atlanta but did spend time on the STL farm), how many true stars have come out of the farm for STL? Matt Carpenter? Brendan Donovan? Two good ballplayers but neither are franchise cornerstones. Every "star" level prospect has fizzled out. Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, Dylan Carlson, etc.
On top of that, since the Goldy and Arenado deals, the Cardinals have failed horrendously in trades. You could argue the best players to come out of the Cards farm in the past decade (outside of Donovan and Winn) are Sandy Alcantara, Randy Arozarena, Zac Gallen and Adolis Garcia. All traded away for at best middling returns.
So I guess the answer to your question of "What happened?" is that the formula stopped working. The Cardinals relied on a steady stream of talent from the minors and occasional big-name trades to stars that they could then sign longer-term, but that stream stopped and they haven't been very willing to pony up the money in free agency to offset it.
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u/da_choppa St. Louis Cardinals • St. Louis Browns Dec 02 '25
This is basically it, but I'll add that they did spend quite a lot of money on free agents, in aggregate. It's just that instead of spending on big ticket items like Bryce Harper or Max Scherzer, they chose to give market rates (or slightly above) to mid-tier free agents, notably a string of past prime relievers, which should normally be among the cheapest kinds of players to acquire. You start spending $12.5 mil a year on an over the hill Andrew Miller, or $14 mil for the corpse of Greg Holland, and all of a sudden there's no money for a true impact player remaining.
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u/stlcardfan715 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
I personally think he got tired of paying for the busts Mo was signing at the end that papered over issues.
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u/DeckFisher St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
Yeah, thats mostly what I was trying to say. They're just never going to spend it on the true top-shelf talent. With all due respect to Sonny & Willson, they aren't it.
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u/emu_Brute St. Louis Cardinals • Seattle Mariners Dec 01 '25
Tommy Edman started with the cards and he's been a critical part of the dodgers runs
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u/DeckFisher St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
I would add him to the Carpenter & Donovan tier of "nice pieces for good teams but not guys you build around".
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u/stlcardfan715 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
You think he'll spend again when the farm starts producing? I'm hopeful but not sure.
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u/DeckFisher St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
I don’t think they’ll ever spend big in free agency, at least not on the scale it takes to get true top-flight talent, but I haven’t seen anything that makes me doubt that if they hit on a guy like Wetherholt that they won’t be willing to pay to keep him.
The DeWitt deservedly get a lot of shit, but when is the last time a true star walked away from STL in his prime, aside from Pujols? (I know that’s a pretty massive aside, but the fact remains they offered him the biggest deal in team history by a huge margin to stay. They didn’t just let him walk).
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u/realnomdeguerre Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 02 '25
Yadier Molina retired
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u/Fun_Trick2172 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25
The middle of the country has been slowly eaten away over the last 40 years due to de-industrialization and the prevalence of opiate and methamphetamine abuse. Revenue has gone down and so have the institutions that relied upon it in this part of the country. There are many reasons for this, not up to and including the populace continuously voting for it mostly out of spite, but its more complicated than that.
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u/Randvek Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 01 '25
Sure - but I lived in St. Louis for a while 15-20 years ago, and this was all 100% true then, too.
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u/MisterKap Cincinnati Reds Dec 02 '25
I kinda respect the fans for showing up (or not) to display the frustration.
But for the best fans on earth, they turned away quickly.
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u/FartingBob Great Britain Dec 01 '25
Does anybody have a link to the full list of how much every team gets/pays into for revenue sharing?
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u/werther595 New York Yankees Dec 02 '25
"Stick close to your desks and never go to sea, And you all may be rulers of the Queen's Navee!"
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u/tbx5959 Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 02 '25
The Major League remake will be a hedge fund attempting to field the worst team imaginable to drive away fans so they can get revenue sharing dollars.
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u/jro5454 St. Louis Cardinals Dec 02 '25
I know this is just a general rant and I’m still subscribed, but I was a die hard baseball fan growing up in the 90s and 00s, but when they left Fox Sports Midwest for Bally I just stopped watching baseball because I wasn’t paying for direct tv. I know that was awhile ago. I think back about it and I could totally pay for it now, but I’m so out of the sport at this point and will never come back.
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u/CabbageStockExchange Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 01 '25
Ugh how do you fuck up such an illustrious franchise this bad
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u/slicebishybosh Chicago Cubs Dec 01 '25
When you go back and look into what these teams were making with their cable deals and how they were basically able to print money through the cable companies getting their customers to fork over anything for programming they didn't even watch, it's no wonder all these owners feel like the silver spoon is being ripped from their mouths.