After keeping their Opening Day payroll below $100M since '08, the Mariners have "blown past that for next year without slowing down," because the team has a "much bigger safety net with which to practice their fiscally conservative approach to running a baseball team," according to Geoff Baker of the SEATTLE TIMES. The fact that the team will "be trying to win next season" is "monumental." Their recent RSN acquisition of Root Sports Northwest "plus added national TV revenue has the ordinarily risk-adverse Mariners so flush they feel safe gambling" on LF Nelson Cruz. The Mariners are "spending more because, after years of planning and biding time, they secured truckloads of new TV money." They have "surplus cash to throw around, make mistakes with, and still balance the books while growing franchise value." They "rolled the dice once by spending" $117M in '08, "got burned by a 101-loss season, and then ... went toward long-term debt." Fans "bought fewer tickets to see the losing Mariners," and "in turn, payroll dropped." Without a front office "outsmarting bigger-spending rivals, that approach solidified a consistent mediocrity." But the Mariners "caught a break, stumbling on to game-changing revenues." Back in '07, they "extended an ongoing TV deal" with FS Northwest to include seasons '11-20. The 10-year extension was "often reported erroneously" at $450M, but "worth more like" $750M. The Mariners "discovered an 'out' clause in their TV deal they could exercise" come '15, and they "approached FSN (later rebranded as ROOT Sports) and its parent company, DirecTV, wanting a new deal before that drop-dead date." Thus, '15 "became the Mariners’ Holy Grail." In April '13, the Mariners "had their deal," which Forbes estimated was worth $2B over 17 years. The team "should average at least" $25M more annually from local TV and up to $25M more annually "from new national TV deals as of last season." That is "potentially" $50M more each year for the Mariners (SEATTLE TIMES, 12/8).
CRUZ CONTROL: YAHOO SPORTS' Mark Townsend wrote Cruz' four-year, $57M contract "according to the Mariners ... means you're no longer safe parking your car outside Safeco Field." As part of the team's "Bring on the Boom" campaign the Mariners "are running to create some offseason buzz and perhaps even bring awareness to the product," the city of Seattle "has been declared a 'Nelson Cruz Home Run Zone'" (
SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 12/6).
