Kansas City Zephyrs Assignment

Why? Owners suggest that the total future value of these payments should be expensed when the players are removed from the roster. Players suggest that the payments should be expensed as they are made. However per the rules of conservatism, the combined non-roster salaries should be expensed in 1984 and the salaries to be paid out in ‘85 and ‘86 should be listed as a liabilities on the Balance Sheet.

''And this idea of players making large amounts of money also says something uncomfortable about our society, where a ballplayer can make so much more than, say, a teacher. But it's not the fault of the players. The money is obviously there. It seems like the owners have a death wish about the

Teams with large payrolls routinely win at a higher rate than teams who cannot afford to spend the massive amounts of money other teams do. For example, in the last fifteen years the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, two teams which regularly are among the highest spending teams in baseball, won on average 94.7 and 86.8 games respectively. By comparison, the San Diego Padres and the Kansas City Royals, two teams who are not able to compete financially with teams with deeper pockets, won an average of 77.1 and 71.6 games respectively in that same time span (Major League Baseball). This disparity in season wins is a direct cause of Major League Baseball’s lack of a salary cap. Over the course of a 162 game season, teams with higher payrolls, and therefore better talent on their roster, will prevail more often than

The Major League Baseball Association (MLBA) decided to issue a luxury tax in February of 1997. Paul D. Staudohar a sports analysis provides further insight about the luxury tax "in a sports sense it 's a surcharge put on the aggregate payroll of a team to the extent to which it exceeds a predetermined guideline level set by the league." The apparent purpose of this "tax" is to prevent teams in major markets with high incomes from signing almost all of the more talented players and hence destroying the

Twenty-five million dollars made per year. Over one hundred fifty-four thousand dollars made per game. Over forty-seven thousand dollars earned per at bat. Sounds a little ridiculous, does it not? That is what current Texas Ranger shortstop Alex Rodriguez earns to play the game of baseball (azcentral.com). Baseball is a game that children have been playing in schoolyards and fields for the past one hundred years. It may not be a game anymore. On the Major League level it has become a business. This is where the problem starts.

College athletics is a very diverse organization involving a lot of students, mainly as the players, and non-students such as officials, coaches and others. The leading governing body for college athletics is the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA. College sports is itself a big industry involving sponsorships, TV networks, endorsements, retail products and marketing. But in spite of it being a big business, the players are not compensated for the work they deliver. This opens up two opinions: should players be paid, or should they not? Kristi Dosh’s article, “The Problems With Paying College Athletes”, (UNCLEAR)discusses where the coaches’ money come from to pay student athletes. On the other hand, Mark Cassell’s article, “College Athletes Should Be Able To Negotiate Compensation”, debates how athletes should be able to negotiate their compensation. This paper will evaluate the evidence of both Dosh and Cassell in order to determine which argument is more effective.

Many fans throughout the U.S. blame the high priced contracts on the athletes, but they are not the source of the problem. In a sense, the athletes are just getting their piece of the pie. What the athletes make

1. Based on the “Billy Beane: Changing the Game” case, explain how and why the Oakland A’s economic situation after 1995 shaped its:

In the Major League of Baseball, there is a blue and white team from Arlington, Texas, known as the Texas Rangers. In 2009, although the team had a substantial amount of talent on the field, they also had serious financial problems. The team has always been grossly undercapitalized. They depended on capital joint connections and loans to help pay for their bills. These problems lead to one of the biggest demonstrations of the economic crisis through the world of sports.

In Major League Baseball the general belief is that the more a team spends on their payroll the more games they will win. With the absence of a salary cap baseball may seam unfair to the smaller market teams who can't bare the salary costs that the larger market teams can. In Michael Lewis' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game Lewis depicts just how the Oakland Athletics have been winning in an unfair game for almost a decade. The A's are a small market team that doesn't have nearly the amount of money at their disposal that their competitors in the American League do. However this past season the A's won their fourth American League West championship in the last seven years while having the lowest payroll in their division. In

What happens if a retired non-roster player (e.g. Joe Portocararo) returns to the active roster while continuing to earn the same money promised him in his guaranteed contract?

     The second factor was the development of competing leagues. “Competing leagues such as the American Football League, the American Baseball Association, the World Hockey Association, and the United States Football League offered an alternative to athletes (Masteralexis, 246).” These leagues offered higher salaries to induce players to move from their original teams. When players left a team to for more money, it also increased the salaries of players who stayed on the team. Agents played a crucial role in determining what was best for athletes, and which league they should choose.

Environmental factor is another factor that Nor'easters must consider-Every business must take the environment factor into account for price policy establishment. They are in the category of constrictions that are carried out by the overall supervising office. Here, the commissioner for baseball has the regulatory powers and he can overrule some certain internal policies of any minor team that is in conflict with the core business objectives of the Major Baseball League (MLB). I strongly urge Springfield Nor’easters to consider this factor in the pricing policy and establishment of their organization.

The 10 year contract which Tom Hicks and his team proposed for Alex Rodriguez was one of the biggest ever in the history of Baseball. It was a major Investment decision for the group. The Group had taken over the Dallas Stars few years earlier and spent on buying quality players. This worked wonders for the team and Dallas Stars went on to lead the group. Tom Hicks had a policy of spending 50-55% of team revenue on team payrolls. If that is maintained he always gains an operating profit of 10-15%.

One fact that some part of players’ compensation is not paid immediately in cash. For the highest-paid players, the team agreed to defer their salaries for 10 years. Therefore, it helped them to save taxes and income. Some part of players’ compensation came in signing bonuses to be expensed as incurred. The other issue was that the retired players. They were not on the current roster however they were being paid according to the contract. Owners decided to expense the whole amount in 1984 because they were not active players and not serving to bring in their current revenues.