BOB:  Stadium shares and Cardinals stadium news

Postseason shares announced

In this day of multi-million dollar contracts, getting a postseason share isn’t as huge of a deal for most players as it was prior to free agency. Still, taking a look at the numbers is still interesting and this year’s full share for the world champion San Francisco Giants was $317,631.29. This is down from what the New York Yankees received last year which was just over $350,000. The Texas Rangers got $246,279.55 for a full share which is also down from the $265,000 and change that the Philadelphia Phillies earned last season.

A lot goes into the determination of the players’ pool. You take 60 percent of the gate receipts from the first three playoff games and add it to 60 percent of the of the gate receipts for the first four games of the League Championship and the World Series to determine the pot. Then it’s all split up amongst the 12 clubs that get a piece of the pie. All eight playoff teams get a piece as well as the four second-place teams in each division that didn’t make the postseason.

In an interesting piece, Maury Brown takes a look at the past few years’ teams that earned postseason money yet didn’t make the playoffs. Oddly, the Rangers have earned postseason money the past three years while only going to the postseason once.

Cardinals stadium games

Anti-public stadium advocates in St. Louis, Mo. are crying foul because they feel the St. Louis Cardinals owe the city a chunk of money. As part of their stadium agreement, the Cardinals agreed to give the city a portion of any profits made if a part of the team was sold and in 2009, owners sold more then 13 percent of the team. What has made the advocates almost as hot isn’t that the team didn’t send the city a piece of the profits, it’s the fact that the city doesn’t seem to care. When called out, city officials admitted that they really haven’t held the Cardinals accountable or even monitored the situation to make sure they’re getting compensated.

The Cardinals on the other hand are saying they don’t owe the city any money. They’re claiming the shares sold weren’t more than what they were valued at back in 2002 when the deal ws consumated hence there was no profit. The advocate group is questioning why the owners would sell their shares at an old price but the city doesn’t seem to want to look into it so it’s almost a moot point. In the meantime, the city says they trust the Cardinals to abide by the agreement without actually monitoring their compliance.

Scott Boras still under fire

Last week I talked about the heat super agent Scott Boras was taking because of the loans he made to Dominican prospect Edward Salcedo. The story has changed a bit but Boras is still sticking to his guns in saying he did nothing wrong. Boras claims he made the loan not before the prospect ran into problems verifying his age but after, calling it a goodwill story.

In the meantime, the league is asking the players’ union for an explanation. The issue is whether Boras violated the regulations that govern agents and the union said it’ll respond shortly. If it’s determined that Boras violated the rules, the potential penalty could range from a fine to the agent losing his right to represent players.

High Desert minor league team purchased by Main Street Baseball

Main Street Baseball LLC, which is owned by David Heller and Bob Herrfeldt, assumed full ownership of the High Desert Mavericks. The Mavericks were formerly owned by Brett Sports, which is owned by Hall of Fame third basemen George Brett and his brothers. This is Main Street’s second minor league team. They purchased the Quad Cities River Bandits back in 2007.


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