owbc

Franchise record 16 threes in the first half.

Since buying the Cubs, the Ricketts family has done nothing but throw money at renovating Wrigley Field and buying/redeveloping property surrounding it to try and maximize gameday revenues - they had to refinance most of that development in 2019. This was all done under the assumption that it would quickly pay for itself with sold out stadiums and plenty of festivities happening even in the offseason for people to frequent and spend their money. The Cubs are a huge market with their own sports network/TV deal as of 2020, but the amount of $ it took to get them set up that way definitely has their day to day business operations desperate for the revenue streams it projected from fans on gameday. Those revenue streams just aren't going to come fast enough for them to justify not slashing player payroll as well - the fact they are willing to deal their best pitcher from last season because he was still under a big contract and consider resigning Lester coming off the end of his bloated contract and buying him out for $10M because he would cost much less longterm tells you everything you need to know about what their balance sheet looks like headed into 2021. They've also laid off over 100 employees in baseball/business ops in the past year. They are literally using their MLB profits to pay off their real estate debt. Not even trying to hide it. And we wonder why MLBPA is livid at the owners right now? On top of that, they have outraged a huge portion of their fanbase by moving TV broadcasts to an RSN which was a major reason Len Kasper jumped to the White Sox, who happen to be on the verge of being a serious playoff contender while the Cubs are tanking. Couldn't happen to a better organization...let the schadenfreude flow.

Financial Independence Retire Early It has a bit of a cult following online, but the basic idea is to save at least half your income by living simply and investing enough to retire very, very early. As you can imagine, it's popular with some in the 20-something tech crowd who are living in studio apartments while bringing in six-figure incomes.

The NL Central is going to suck in 2021.

As someone who lives in a tech city it sometimes feels like 'everyone' works in tech now. So it's interesting to hear these perspectives. With Amazon giving out so much stock-based compensation I think it is causing everyone else in tech to do the same. Even for mid-level managers. Getting back to the 'investment' perspective, I've seen a number of friends take 'Funemployment' time after working in tech for a few years and saving those lofty bonuses and stock grants. I have another friend who is practicing 'FIRE' and hopes to retire in his 40s. Although I think he's too intellectually curious to do that.

Say what you want about Bo Ryan's departure at Wisconsin, but I give him a ton of credit for making sure that Gard was his successor.

That's actually pretty unusual that a private company's retirement package is superior to public sector. Do you get a pension as well, besides the plan you contribute to yourself? Nope, no pension. I think it's becoming standard for private sector benefits to be better than public sector--at least at tech companies. I also switched to her health insurance since it was $50/month cheaper than my public sector plan (which has gotten way more expensive in recent years). The main point I'm trying to make is how crazy stock-based compensation is and how significant the transfer of wealth is that is occurring right now. I grew up in an average middle-class Wisconsin family and my father was smart with his money his entire life and built up a comfortable retirement. I could do the same thing with my government job and still be falling farther and farther behind the top 5-10% of the country. My wife's career was the first window I got into how things really work...obviously with compensation in the form of stock options there is a risk of them being worthless, but with the government pumping up the stock market it's more like 200-300% gains this year. And I'm like great, I made 10% on my retirement fund this year. The situation in the tech cities is all the same...when you get hired you get a bunch of stock options which vest in a year or two...at that point, especially with tech stocks the way they are, $50,000 suddenly appears in your bank account overnight. Which many are using as down-payments on houses. There's no "saving" involved, the money appears and you can suddenly afford a house. That's the way it is for first-time home buyers these days. And those are for entry level software-type jobs at Amazon...management/director-level compensation is completely off the charts.

I have a government job with a retirement plan in TIAA that I’ve been contributing to for a couple years now. My wife gets a quarterly stock vest from her company that is worth more than the entire value of my retirement account. Plus her company matches at a higher % than the government does. That’s the reality of the world these days.

Yes, if there's any lesson to be learned from the SEC (and the committee in general) it is to not schedule any game that you might lose, and to give yourself a bye week or an FCS team ahead of a tough opponent if possible. Scheduling FCS teams benefits everyone involved, except the fans who have to watch those games. But if COVID showed us anything it's that the whole machine doesn't really need fans in the stands. So who cares if nobody shows up to your FCS game.

As a millennial I despise talking to anyone on the phone, especially customer service. I also can't imagine watching baseball on the TV. Like you sit there and watch baseball on the TV? Like, what else do you do at the same time?

If they are .500 after 20 games I'm fine with that. All that matters is what they look like in mid-May.

The only fast food sandwiches that I devour on the regular are from Starbucks. A pre-packaged, reheated breakfast sandwich shouldn't taste that good, but they do. Combined with the easy mobile ordering so you don't have to wait. Perfection.

You're completely out of touch. I work a government job and our org has seen a 10% cut this year. Lost headcount. Extra work for everyone. We haven't seen a penny of any of these stimulus bills. The majority of this country is paycheck-to-paycheck. This country would be better off as a whole if the stock market was doing worse and that wealth was going to small businesses and hourly workers.

I don't understand this at all. It's pretty obvious that the 4-team playoff is very effective at getting the best 2 teams into the championship game. I mean, look at the gap in talent between Notre Dame and Clemson. The sub-division teams do not belong in the top 4, ever. This isn't basketball. If we want entertainment value, then yes, we should ditch the NY6 and make it all a playoff. The pathway gets a little harder for the top teams since there will occasionally be upsets. But generally an 8-team playoff would just further expose growing inequities in the sport and I can't imagine anyone in power would want that.

Some of the inflation is also related to tariffs. Especially construction materials. Yes, technically the corporations do not own the wealth. But the increased value is derived from government borrowing and gobbling up the market share of small businesses. So it's all related. The way I look at it is you might *think* you are doing well in the stock market, but if you are married to someone who has vesting stock options in one of these companies you quickly learn that you're making peanuts. I say this as someone who is benefitting from this and I think it's absurd. And then you think about the majority of Americans who have nothing invested and no pathway to receive any of it other than a $600 check.

Thanks--super helpful! I feel the same way--if I'm doing to do this I actually want to pick up some real skill which means structured lessons and learning some theory. It's tempting to want to learn songs but based on my piano lessons as a kid I know it's incredibly frustrating for me to try to learn something above your 'skill' level. Although there are some people who like to learn that way...

Just looking back at this from June...LOL. The share price of my wife's company is now triple its pre-pandemic value. This has to be the biggest transfer of wealth to corporations and the 1% in American history. It's so messed up.

I've always wanted to learn guitar and I'm finally getting at acoustic guitar for Christmas. So...how should I learn? There are a lot of options out there. Would prefer some structure and happy to pay a few bucks a month for a good online tutorial series.

It's fine if they want to go to 6 or 8 teams, but then they need to start paying the players on the playoff teams. Too many games and too much injury risk.

Will Wisconsin beat the spread?

We already knew the system was rigged but with dwindling revenue they are not even trying to hide it this year. I have zero interest in watching two blowouts followed by another Alabama-Clemson championship game. The only thing I'm interested to know is if Ohio State is actually good or not.

Great points here--I like the Yankees/Mets analogy.

In COVID times my wife’s company now pays for our gigabit Internet. As a public sector employee I’m kind of irritated that the “at least we have good benefits to make up for the low salary” thing is no longer true. I even switched to her health insurance this year since it is both better and cheaper than what the state offers. For Hulu I think we lasted about 3 days before we started paying for no commercials. When Internet is free and you don’t have cable it’s not a big deal to have a handful of subscriptions. I also benefit from being out-of-market for the Brewers.

I don't think revenue really matters at all in the long term. Revenue goes to payroll. Revenue goes down, payroll goes down. Value doesn't necessarily change. I think you have to take off your business hat when thinking about pro sports teams. These are toys for billionaires, like luxury cars or yachts. Nobody buys a Masarati because it's a good investment. Really the 'value' of a sports franchise is whatever a buyer is willing to pay for it, and in the case of pro sports teams there is way more demand than supply. There's some value in capital (stadiums etc.) but the main reason the Milwaukee Brewers are worth twice as much as they used to be is because billionaires have doubled their net worth in the last 10 years and the number of sports team toys has remained essentially constant. Just look at what people are paying for MLS teams, which is a sports league that bleeds money

I'm sure everyone is saying "Mission Accomplished" behind the scenes.