Menu
Franchises

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).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2014/10/20/Franchises/MLB-Cardinals.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2014/10/20/Franchises/MLB-Cardinals.aspx

CLOSE