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Increased Ticket, Broadcast Revenue Could Boost MLB Cardinals' Payroll

The MLB Cardinals front office "expects the payroll to grow for 2015 after several years of hovering around" $110-115M and one year of "stepping back in total spending," according to Derrick Goold of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Cardinals Chair & CEO Bill Dewitt said, “We have forecasted increases over the next three to five years that will accommodate what we need to do with the young players we have. ... We’re forecasting fairly significant increases in the next three to five years.” DeWitt said the team has "the capacity for a higher payroll than we currently have." Goold notes the Cardinals finished the '14 season with a payroll around $115, and "within a few years the payroll could approach" $130M. Any rise in payroll is "linked to an expected rise in revenue." The team said that it "brought in more than 3.5 million" fans in '14. Officials said that Ballpark Village, the mixed-use development adjacent to Busch Stadium, is "several years away from being a revenue stream" because it has "building debt of its own to address." Meanwhile, this year did see a "significant boost in revenue from broadcast rights." The Cardinals have "escalators built into their rights deal" with FS Midwest, and there have been "discussions about the next broadcast rights deal." DeWitt said that he "expects any new deal to start" with '18, and "not rewrite the final three years of the current contract" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/20).

NOT ON TARGET: In Minneapolis, Patrick Reusse noted while attendance at Target Field has dropped 30% since it opened in '10, a "bigger hit is on the way" for the Twins in '15, "particularly in the tickets-sold category." The" incentive of being able to acquire All-Star tickets allowed the Twins to stay around 17,000 season tickets" in '14. Reusse: "I’m guessing even with the pleading phone calls they won’t top 12,000 in season tickets." Take away 5,000 season tickets per game and the Twins their sixth year in the new ballpark "would be at 1.85 million in official attendance -- their lowest total" since '01 in the Metrodome. If the Twins' payroll stays at $86M in '15, that would "once again put them in the bottom fifth in MLB" (STARTRIBUNE.com, 10/19).

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