Going Deep
Professional baseball teams in Florida keep lagging behind
Is there ever a more innocent time?
Despite the dominance of the National Football League and the National Basketball Association's popularity with the younger generation, the MLB is still America's pastime.
And April is the beginning of yet another illustrious pro baseball season. To me, there is no better day in the year than Opening Day — yes, I capitalize it because I feel it should eventually be a national holiday.
But as a Floridian, I can't help but wonder: are we being cheated?
You would think there'd be no better state to field professional baseball teams than Florida with the year-round warm weather and the close ties with Latin America, where baseball rules all. But year-by-year, the state's two MLB teams — the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays — struggle to match up with the elite teams in the sport and always seem to be putting a lesser product on the field.
The answer to that is simple, really.
Since the MLB doesn't have a salary cap, team owners are allowed to spend as much as they want on player contracts. That means the owners with the most money are going to get the best players, while other teams will lag behind because they can't match up financially.
And how do they get that revenue?
By generating fan interest, of course.
The two Florida teams don't draw as many fans as any of the other teams and, therefore, owners don't make enough money and can't afford the high-priced talent.
Last season, the Rays (17,148) and Marlins (16,919) ranked 29th and 30th in the league in average attendance (out of 30 teams), respectively. To me, it's like a cycle: Fans don't show up for the games because they're not excited with the players on the roster and their teams aren't very good. Because of that, owners never draw the revenue to be able to afford the players that will get fans into the stadium in the first place.
So what's an owner of the Rays and Marlins to do?
The Marlins' approach
One option is to put all the chips in the middle of the table by going out and spending money to get the big-name players and hopefully the fans will show up.
But the Marlins tried that, and they got nowhere.
Back in 1997, then-general manager Dave Dombrowski took a gamble and decided he'd buy big-name, free-agent stars in order to put a competitor on the field. They knew they'd lose money at first, but they felt it was worth the risk to get the players and build a foundation of interest for the future.
The result on the field couldn't have been more perfect. In just their fifth year of existence, the Marlins became the first Wild Card team and the youngest franchise to win a World Championship.
But it didn't lead to the financial success the team was looking for.
Although throughout the stretch run of the regular season and through the playoffs the Marlins were regularly drawing sell-out crowds, owner Wayne Huizenga claimed massive financial losses and sold the team at the end of the 1998 season after seeing attendance drop about 600,000 fans from 1997.
With a new ownership group, they tried it again in 2003 when they won their second World Series. But just like six years before, it didn't lead to fan interest the following season.
The Rays' approach
Tampa Bay has taken a much more patient approach.
Despite trying to use fading stars like Fred McGriff, Wade Boggs and Jose Canseco early on to draw fan interest, the Rays have mostly developed young talent and kept their payroll at a minimum to not lose too much money.
Part of the reason for that may be because they play in an American League East division dominated by payroll giants like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Still, the Rays' front office has taken a lot of heat for allegedly not trying hard enough to put a quality product on the field.
But how can they?
The Rays haven't ranked better than 28th in the MLB in attendance since the 20th Century.
To me, it's a lose-lose for pro baseball owners in Florida because whether they put up the money to acquire high-priced talent or take a conservative approach and build from within, the fans don't show up.
Is there any hope?
Both teams are in plans to get a new stadium, which should help the franchises draw more fans initially. But once the excitement of a new ballpark fades, fans are going to want a team that has quality players on the field. And since teams like the Rays and Marlins don't have the equity to compete with big-market teams like the Yankees, Red Sox or most West-coast franchises, there is little hope for this problem to go away.
One thing is for sure: a salary cap needs to be put in place if these teams are ever going to compete on a level playing field.
Besides, with the great weather in Florida, there are a lot better things to do than watch an undermanned team struggle through 162 tedious games.
Alden Gonzalez is a student in UF’s college of journalism. He may be contacted at Alden@towerpublications.com.
