Astros Owner Jim Crane said his biggest challenge since buying the team in '11 was the TV deal "that went haywire" with the net formerly known as CSN Houston, according to a Q&A with Joe Martin of the HOUSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL. Crane discussed the TV deal, technology and the team's offseason spending, among other topics. Below are excerpts from the interview:
Q: What's been some of the biggest challenges since you've been owner?
Crane: We did not anticipate [CSN Houston] being a problem when we purchased the team, and it had a really a big impact on us financially the past couple of years. That's fixed, and we're moving forward.
Q: There's been a lot of offseason moves by the Astros, and the spending has been up compared to years past. Is there a catalyst for that?
Crane: Quite frankly, our hands were tied because of the TV deal last year. Last year, we didn't get paid more than $50 million. The year before, we didn't get paid $25 million, so that affected our budget on being able to spend some of that money. This year, AT&T and DirecTV came in and bought the network out of bankruptcy. We'll get our rights fees this year. We have some more resources that we were able to go out and put into players. We basically have said that we had to have a good minor league system, and we could complement that with a number of free agents based upon the amount of revenue we had. We had to run the business. That's where we're at now.
Q: How has technology impacted decisions in baseball?
Crane: When I bought the team, we didn't have anything. We were working with a different way to do things, and we brought in a lot of sabermetrics technology. I think we're one of the most-sophisticated teams now in regards to our analytics and information.
Q: What's something you want to see change in the game of baseball?
Crane: With the NFL, all the TV money goes into one pot, and then it's split up evenly. In baseball ..., there are only two revenue sources -- it's people in the building and your local TV deal. If somebody has $50 million more than me in their rates fees, that's tough to deal with. ... That's a problem to get parity and everything running on an even playing field. That's the biggest issue (HOUSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/6 issue).
