Making the pitch: What a sale could mean for the Blue Jays
New owner could affect everything from performance to payroll
Rogers is evaluating selling the Blue Jays, a move that would secure a healthy profit for Rogers Communications — the $165-million investment made in 2000 is now valued at $1.3 billion by Forbes magazine.
But what would a sale mean for the Jays, Canada’s only major league baseball franchise?
A new owner, and a changed relationship between team and broadcaster, could profoundly affect the on-field product, not to mention the payroll.
Two months after a group that included Yankees legend Derek Jeter bought Miami Marlins, the team’s new bosses are began a cost-cutting campaign that includes trading the team’s most marketable player, all-star outfielder and 2017 NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton.
Where the Marlins risk alienating their few remaining fans by dumping their best-known player, a prospective Jays owner stands to inherit a large, loyal customer base.
The Jays finished 76-86 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014, but the club still posted the fourth-best attendance in the majors, averaging 39,554 fans per game.
“Wins and losses affect the upside price (but) they don’t affect the downside price,” said Brian Cooper, CEO of MKTG, a Toronto sports sponsorship consultancy.
“It’s more about market size, broadcast rights and a historical fan base . . . It’s not a bad time to sell. Look at attendance.”
After a sale, the club’s near-term, on-field future would depend on the type of owner that takes control. A cost-conscious corporate owner might be frugal on salaries, while a wealthy individual more concerned with winning than profit might remake the Jays in the image of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In May 2012, the Dodgers sold for $2.1 billion to the Guggenheim Group, and the new owners have spent the five ensuing seasons spending lavishly on player contracts. Under its new owners, the Dodgers, runners-up in the 2017 World Series, have boasted the highest payroll in the majors every year since 2014.
“You could all of a sudden see the payroll go up $30 million,” said Norm O’Reilly, a business professor and chair of Ohio University’s sports administration department. “That could be great for the team if all of a sudden they’re in the market for a big free agent.”
The Jays’ last big roster makeover highlighted how interdependent personnel, on-field success and broadcast dollars have become.
After the 2012 season, the club traded a slew of prospects for a series of veterans that included pitcher R.A. Dickey and shortstop Jose Reyes. Months later, Sportsnet executives invited media to Rogers headquarters to explain that the Jays made those moves to strengthen the Rogers-owned broadcast network. A contending Jays team was meant to boost TV and radio ratings, along with corresponding ad revenue, from August through the fall.
Although it’s not clear exactly how the on-field success affected Rogers
“There’s a direct correlation with the success of their earnings per share after we started experiencing success.” JOSE BAUTISTA FORMER BLUE JAY STAR
overall, Jose Bautista noted the corporation’s rising share price when he lobbied for a lucrative contact before the 2016 season.
“There’s a direct correlation with the success of their earnings per share after we started experiencing success,” Bautista said at the time.
“Are they going to put it out in the media and say, ‘Because of the Jays we made all this money?’ No, but you can read between the lines.”
While the Jays spent the 2012 offseason reloading to contend quickly, the Houston Astros were suffering in the service of long-term success, gutting the club’s big-league roster, investing in analytics and scouting, and posting three straight 100-loss seasons. Houston fans grew so indifferent that the Astros twice posted games with 0.0 ratings.
This year’s World Series title appears to justify the club’s early 2010s futility, but the anemic ratings helped Comcast SportsNet to declare bankruptcy before being bought by AT&T in 2014.