Oct 25, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; A general view of McCovey Cove before game four of the 2014 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
Braves Plans For New Stadium May Only Keep Other Clubs Barely in Sight
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There was an election on Tuesday. Being an “off year” election day, you may not have even been aware of it. Yet there was a victory had by a Major League team that will change their fortunes and continue to keep their competitors firmly in the rear-view mirror.
San Francisco voters passed something that was generically called ‘Proposition D’… and it wasn’t close: the margin was almost 3-to-1. Seems there is a height restriction on buildings in the neighborhood around AT&T park. That restriction has been erased by Tuesday’s results.
According to the San Jose Mercury News:
"The proposal allowed for a waiver of height restrictions in the area around AT&T Park, enabling the team to go ahead with their so-called Mission Rock proposal. The club wants to build a high-rise district on a parking lot across from McCovey Cove behind the right field wall. The plans call for three towers that now can reach 240 feet in addition to homes, shops, offices, art studios, parks and a brewery, an area that Giants’ president Larry Baer told the Los Angeles Times will “have a Fenway feel, a Wrigleyville feel.”"
Okay, great… do they’re gonna do what St. Louis, the Rockies, and the Braves either have done or will do – try and leverage their park to create additional revenue.
Of course, in the case of the Giants, that statement severely undercuts what their overall goal really is.
The Giants already have a $200 million payroll. But they are looking downstate and seeing the Dodgers with a $300 million payroll. They want to match that.
As the SJMN points out, the Giants are already #3 in club revenue behind the Yankees and Dodgers. But now they want to add real estate revenue, plus there’s the expectation of another bump when their debt on the ballpark is paid off. That debt was refinanced in 2013 and was being paid at a $20 million annual rate, so it won’t be a huge impact, but money is money.
Which brings us back ’round to the Braves and all of the smaller market clubs. While the Cobb Stadium complex is intended to allow Atlanta to build new sources of revenue to bolster their payroll, nobody in their wildest dreams has suggested numbers approaching this kind of rarefied air.
Sure, by 2020 or so, the Braves will probably be able to count on a revenue stream that should put them in the middle of the pack for payroll, but that still cannot approach the out-of-sight numbers of the Top 5-8 teams (officially, the team is not commenting on how much of an increase they are expecting).
You can only do so much with the hand you’ve been dealt, but sometimes it seems that the more you run ahead, the behinder you get.
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