JackNicholson1974

So help me if the issue is the COVID lawsuit and it is just now being brought up

Not really. Fans generally follow a team in any sport by where they live. Players change teams but teams do not change cities. You could probably get rid of all the MLB players and never have them play again and in a few years they wouldn't be missed much other than a footnote in MLB history. 10 years from now how many of the current Brewers will still be on the team? I 100% agree that if these 1200 players quit and never played again that the Brewers and baseball would move on without them and be just fine. However if they quit and started playing on the other side of town as a different team, in a different league, I would be hard pressed to not follow that team instead - along with that entire league of those 1200 players.

I think we can move along on this as it appears that through the 27 pages of comments, that my point was lost. I once upon a time prefaced all of this by saying “set the logistics of new league aside” to try and illustrate my point that players provide value not the owners. I am a fan of a league which has the best players in the world playing here in the USA. If there were a team called the Milwaukee Sturgeon playing with all of these players vs a team called the Chicago Bandits with all of the Cubs players, etc etc, that is the league I am watching. If you feel you would not watch those teams and instead would pay $50 a ticket, $18 for parking and $12 for a beer to watch whoever donned a brewer jersey then you are more committed to the Brewer name than me!

I cant imagine it would have worked all that well if the players union started a new league, but what do I know!!! I dont watch the XFL because it is shoddy players, but if Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams were playing against Russell Wilson and DK Metcalf I would!

If the game is the product then why dont they broadcast Indy league baseball nationwide with a huge TV contract? It's because the players are third-rate, that's why. The product is the best PLAYERS in the world, playing the game. If these 1200 players played in a different league in the United States, with 30 teams, all different team names and a few different cities, different mascots and different uniforms, then that is the league that would get the TV contracts. It would be disingenuous to ignore that reality. I think you are very much underestimating the number of fans who are cheering for the name on the front of the jersey first and foremost, rather than the name on the back. Fair enough. I respect your opinion immensely. I simply feel that if all of the players on the Brewers started playing in a new "league" called something like the National Association of United States Baseball - and all of the others players from all of the other teams joined this league, that I would be clamoring to watch that league, and not the Milwaukee Brewers full what I can only presume would be AAAA players and guys from current indy leagues. If that would be your jam - and the jam of majority of baseball fans - then yes, the owners should absolutely hold fast as the players on their own are "worthless". I happen to think its the other way around, and we can all agree to disagree.

If the game is the product then why dont they broadcast Indy league baseball nationwide with a huge TV contract? It's because the players are third-rate, that's why. The product is the best PLAYERS in the world, playing the game. If these 1200 players played in a different league in the United States, with 30 teams, all different team names and a few different cities, different mascots and different uniforms, then that is the league that would get the TV contracts. It would be disingenuous to ignore that reality.

if owning a team was not profitable the owners would open their books and show all the world what a money pit it actually is. The fact that they dont tells me that the information would NOT benefit their cause if made public.

The Royals just sold for 1 billion and the Marlins for 1.2, so yeah I think 1.3 is about right.

also when the average career length is under 3 years; when players who play less than 3 years never make over 1 million dollars a year; and those players often times make peanuts for years and years in the minor leagues, I dont know if we can call the two sides "The Super Rich" and "The Ungodly Rich"

Yeah!! Screw the players! Am I right fellas! If they dont like it they can go form their own league that I am sure nobody will want to watch and we can watch replacement players in major league uniforms because that's all we really want as fans!!! Go Owners! Okay, all sarcasm aside. I applaud Max Scherzer. It would be easy for a player to say "I got mine" and not care about future generations or current guys making minimums. But he sees that 60% of players on 40 man rosters make less than 1 million a year. That the AVERAGE major league career is about 3 years, meaning that the AVERAGE guy who devotes his entire life, working through minors making minimum wage, would on AVERAGE expect to get 3 contracts worth about 600k a year. and he wants to help CHANGE that for those guys. I suppose though, he could have said to the owners, nah, I will take 10 million a year, you guys go ahead and pass the other 34 million on to younger players and I am SURE the owners would have gotten right on that. EDIT - Ok, Ok,I know, more sarcasm. Sorry. But really though. Why in this country are billionaires completely infallible to a segment of the population. Take a look at the owner, what they paid for their teams and what they are worth now. https://www.forbes.com/teams/los-angeles-dodgers/?sh=4b08e11323ae 25 of the major league teams were purchased for under 500million, and most for under 250 million and more than a couple for well under 100 million. No franchise is worth less than 1 billion and many "investments" have returned over 1,000%. Yet nobody gives the owners the grief that Scherzer gets. And none of these owners are responsible for growing the value of major league baseball. The players are solely responsible for that, yet the owners are just 30 guys making billions and we get ********* that 700 guys make less than 1 million and 500 make over a million, and when they're careers end, maybe some of them put some of that money back into their hometowns via youth sports, community investments, etc. While billionaires are spending their money trying to give themselves space vacations and become immortal.

would that mean we are in for four, 4-team divisions? I hate small divisions, but if everyone is making the playoffs anyone, then I guess it doesnt matter.

Come on with the it’s harder to be an owner. If an person wins a 2 billion dollar lottery he can instantly become a majority owner of an MLB team. Can he instantly pay the same amount and bat clean up for an MLB franchise. You insinuate that being a ball player is dumb luck. It is a lifetime of work. That isn’t guaranteed. Being an owner takes already having billions and then writing a check. I can see we will not see eye to eye on this, and that’s fine.

So if say there are 8 minority owners on a team, what the heck are they all doing on a day-to-day basis for them to warrant 5 million dollar yearly salaries? I cant believe the amount of lapdogs here licking the boots of the owners. They bring NOTHING to the game at all. Nothing. Their ownership of a team is a narcissistic hobby for them And guess what, when they turn 33 their earning capacity doesnt drop by 90-95%. They can own the team until they die. Or sell it for many times what they paid for it. EDIT - From Jeff Passan this week: "Sports is a unique industry. Typically, workers make a product. In baseball, they are the product. The game of baseball is the framework, and in it exists two classes: players and owners. Players spend their entire lives chasing the major leagues. Just making it there is improbable. Staying long enough to make life-changing money is a miracle. Owners, on the other hand -- at least those who don't inherit their teams -- join the baseball world just as they would a country club: by buying membership. If you went and got the next 1,200 best players in the world, the product would suffer greatly. If you handed MLB teams over to any 30 competent businesspeople, the sport would not suffer. Actually, it might improve. It doesn't take a billionaire to leverage a spot in a legalized monopoly with profound built-in revenues."

If all players on every team were replaced, the fans would have no idea that product was any different. Until all the players that left started their own league and then the fans of the Brewers and Yankees would wonder why they are watching what amounts to AAA or independant league level baseball. Put logistics to starting a league aside. But lets not pretend that fans root for laundry. They only root for laundry because the laundry is being worn by the best players in the world. Take those players out and things become far less interesting.

I have no problem with an owner taking home "Only" 40 million a year. Or am I misreading this? This isnt an owner making 1/3 what his employees make, its an owner making 40 million a year after running a business he didnt create, that he didnt start, that was running before he showed up and that he only got into because he was already a multi billionaire and the day after he bought the franchise it probably appreciated 10% and probably has darn near doubled in value since. Also the owner brings ZERO value to the franchise. ZERO. Value is brought by TV rights, market size, attendance, fan enthusiasm, players, a city paying for a stadium. Nobody says "my favorite team is the Brewers because I am a big Mark Attanasio fan, and if he ever sold the team I would stop watching." So I dont back the owners much. The players sacrifice everything for a CHANCE to play in the majors and their careers are short. Many major leaguers never see a 1 million dollar pay check, a majority never make it to free agency. Yes they should be able to get everything they can. Pro owner fans always gripe that Max Scherzer types make 35 million a year. 30 teams x 40 man rosters = 1200 players. 450 of them make 1 million or more. About half that make more than 5 million a year. And those are generally guys who have put in a decade making far less than that. I am eager to buy tickets this year to see specific players. Acuna, Tatis, Betts, Guerrero Jr, Judge, Soto. Those are the guys that drive the value fans pay for.

badger hockey is at an inflection point here. This was one of the best programs in the country for many decades. It has been over a decade since they were relevant now. Teams in places like Western Michigan, Miami of OH, Omaha and Huntsville are routinely better than Wisconsin. This must end. If they dont get this fixed now, Wisconsin will become something akin to Nebraska in football or Indiana in basketball. Just an afterthought in their conference and nowhere near being relevant nationally. This has been embarrassing.

This video is an eye opener.

I turned from optimistic to very pessimistic over the past week.

When they are not meeting to get to the finish line for over a week or a month at a time, what the heck are they doing to further this thing along. Dont tell me they are internally discussing the next move. It does not take that long and besides, every move and contingency should be known by both sides. I get the sense that neither side wants to appear to get anything done for fear of losing bargaining position. which is the stupidest thing ever as the only ones who suffer are the fans.

23 bucks a month is pretty steep, for Brewers only. If you are buying this, then you are dumping cable, I presume you might be looking to get Bucks games and then there are Badger games. Could easily run you $50 a month for all of those. and if you live in a market with MLB NHL and NBA, plus a college team on Bally, wooo boy. I honestly dont know if I would pay $23 a month for Brewers only.

Would you rather watch a league full of the current players, with different or no owners and different team names or would you rather watch a league with the current owners and team names but with replacement players? I know logistics would be a nightmare and that it is 98% unlikely, but thinking outside the box, if the "players" owned the teams, collectively, like a co-op of some sort and hired financial managers with fiduciary duties to the players were hired and paid very well to run the teams finances, it could be done.

Can anyone out there comment on the legitimacy of this website? https://www.collhockeystore.com/ I want to buy my son a Wisconsin Cole Caufield jersey fir Xmas. Alternatively, if you know of another place to get one…

Mertz has not been very good. O line as well

Wait so is this all in an attempt to dodge taxes?

Almost certainly yes. It took me a minute to figure out that you weren't talking about the fresh Prince of Bel-Air here. And he gets a World Series ring. What a year for the guy!