The Padres are one among only four MLB teams, the others being the Pirates, Rays, and Marlins who are being taken to task by the players union for pocketing the revenue sharing and not spending enough money on their MLB payrolls.
The Padres are reportedly receiving somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 million to $40 million a year in revenue sharing alone and then spending only that amount on the payroll, basically then pocketing every penny from their ticket sales, which were about two million last season, concession, merchandise, advertising, parking, radio and TV and so on.
What preceded it, from what I read, were threats from the players' union to file grievances against the Marlins, Pirates, Padres and Rays for not spending their revenue-sharing checks the way the rules require them to.
sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?col...page=rumblings010129
The union reportedly targeted the Marlins, Padres, Pirates and Rays as teams that weren't investing enough based on the revenue-sharing formula outlined in the collective bargaining agreement. Those four teams ranked among the majors' bottom six in 2009 payroll.
Read more:
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...L#ixzz0e2HtZymy
Nothing against making a profit, but when the Padres have one of the lowest, if not lowest payrolls in MLB, in light of just getting a sweat heart deal with a new downtown ballpark with public assistance and funding, and yet are one of the top ten most expensive ballparks to visit for fans in the MLB, all while pocketing every dollar they make and not putting any of it into their payroll.....something is seriously WRONG.
No one is asking the Padres to compete with the Yankees. No one is asking for the Padres to break the bank. If the Padres just spent another $20 million for example, they could go out and get two solid major league free agents, one being a hitter to hit behind Adrian, and the other could be a stud catcher.
If the Padres did spend the extra $20 million, they still would be in the bottom of the league as far as payroll and they would have greatly increased their odds of making the playoffs and ironically enough, would made back the $20 million they spent, and even more in profits from extra revenues for being in the playoffs. It's like reaching over the nickels to pick up the pennies.
It's not right, something stinks, and has for awhile, and as fans you should expect more from this organization because they do have the funds and capabilities to do so and are in the end cheating the very loyal fans who support them by not putting their best foot forward....personally I refuse to go to any games until the payroll is increased to a respectable level, and if more fans did the same, the team would be forced to improve their product, meaning spending more money, which they should be doing in the first place. Until then, I'll just follow from the sidelines, and spend the same amount on the Padres from my pocket as the teams does on the payroll from their pocket....NADA!!!
This post courtesy of thehoch from the forums at Padres.com
