February 02, 2005
O's financial woes
From yesterday's Washington Post:
The deal has already had an impact at the box office. The Orioles said they sold 5,000 season ticket plans this weekend -- ten times as much as a typical winter weekend at Camden Yards.
Same paper next item:
Orioles owner Peter Angelos met in Milwaukee yesterday with Selig and MLB President Robert DuPuy in an ongoing effort to reach a financial agreement to offset the effect of the Washington Nationals.
I'm not happy with the Sosa deal from a strategy standpoint. It looks like the Orioles did it more to make a move than to address any specific need. (Although in fairness it appears that the Orioles interest in Sosa has been longstanding this winter; perhaps they were just waiting for the Cubs' price to go down.)
But on paper the trade looks good. The fact that the O's got a good reception at the box office for the deal is one reason to judge it positively. There's a lesson in that. If the O's put a good team on the field, people will be happy to support them.
That's what makes the meeting with Selig so unseemly. The Orioles' popularity and marketability is more dependent on Angelos than it is on MLB. If Beattie and Flanagan were drafting and developing players well, the fan base would be supporting the team enthusiastically. The O's should own this market. That they don't, is the fault of Angelos who hasn't decided on a plan how to run his team for over a decade now. When will Angelos get that? Posted by SoccerDad at February 2, 2005 05:41 AM | TrackBack