As soon as we get an owner committing real money to the team, we get the Dodgers.
January 17, 2026
As soon as we get an owner committing real money to the team, we get the Dodgers.
13 comments
It’s so much more complicated than that though. Yes, if the Royals had an infinite money cheat code, you could get the Dodgers but the Royals are a business. They don’t have infinite money. Could the ownership spend more than they are spending now? Probably. But you also have to consider the size of the Royals’ market and how much revenue the team could realistically take in.
I’m not saying the team couldn’t eventually grow. Winning championships and having superstars like Bobby will grow the team. But that takes time.
Shohei Ohtani was an extreme investment that is making the Dodgers more money than they know what to do with. And, realistically, that deal only would have worked for an established, big market team. The Angels never got the same clout or following that the Dodgers did with Shohei. Shohei plus the Dodger brand equals money printer.
All that to say, the Royals just don’t have 2.2 billion to intelligently spend. They should spend more and invest in the team but they are not the Dodgers.
The Royals?
more than half the MLB is below them, so not like they are a budget team. I get that there is “usually” a correlation btw spending and winning a World Series but seems like we are in a good spot to me.
Let’s go lockout!
I posted this in the MLB forum, but here’s the math:
Income:
25k/year * 82 games * $50 average ticket price = $102.5M
Concessions: 1/2 of average ticket price as a baseline = $61M
TV contract: $40M
Revenue sharing: $60M
merch concessions: $15M
Minor League Revenue: $30M
Total Revenue: $310M
Expenses:
Front Office Salaries, Scouting Salaries, Coach salaries, equipment, travel, farm system salaries+expenses, Gameday staff, promotions, concessions COGS, facilities maintenance. That math takes a bit longer but I bet staffing each game is $175k; that’s $15M right there. You can easily see how expenses are $75-150M total.
Let’s say expenses are $125M against Revenue of $310M. That leaves $185M total for payroll, assuming the owners are willing to live on Ramen and not take a profit. That’s not a good assumption. Rather, let’s assume the owners have $1.5B into the team and need a minimal ROI of 4% (essentially the same as a Risk Free 10-year T-note). That’s $60M they’ll pull out. It’s unrealistic to expect anyone to treat ownership of a team as a charity, even if they are willing to take only a small amount of profit from ownership. Sure, it has happened in the past (Paul Allen/Blazers, and now perhaps Steve Cohen) but these owners are far, far wealthier than is our ownership group. Paul Allen also had zero children and had already given away twice what the Royals are worth as a franchise at the time of his death.
Which leaves $125M for Royals payroll. If the owners were beyond rich with other income streams, maybe they go up to $185M. Beyond that, they’re doing the Peter Seidler and losing money, which isn’t sustainable if you aren’t Steve Cohen rich.
Championships are obviously nice, but the Royals seem competent enough to mostly put in .500+ seasons. I would be happy with that. I just want to watch my team play competitive baseball.
In 2031, when Bobby’s opt outs start, I think $35 million is going to be easy to beat. Hopefully the Royals will have the budget and winning culture to get him to sign on again, and for the rest of his career. That would be very nice.
I will be happy if we can stay competitive in be in the playoff race towards the end of the season. This team probably should make the playoffs but I think it will be close
My positive spin. If one team has all the top talent that keeps the talent out of our division and out of the AL.
Needs to get worse. I’ll be cheering on the Dodgers until we get a complete collapse and the owners put in a salary floor, cap, and a league-wide TV deal. No more regional solo team TV deals.
The royals definitely are an example of a team that spends above the relative belt but could never go much higher to gain ground. Media media media rights. People should understand that Sherman and other billionaires don’t have billions of dollars lying around (ironically LA ownership group probably does). So that is one thing to note when people bring up owners should just spend more. So now it’s well why don’t they spend more money they make from the team? LA & NYY (two I know the range of) make $300M+ annually just from their local TV deals. And we of course aren’t considering still all the tickets, jerseys etc. sold. The royals make $50M from their media deal annually. That is the crux of the issue is that media rights in the MLB (much like no salary cap) are terrible and the worst of the major sports leagues. They don’t nationalize the rights and that’s what needs to be fixed too. When a team can cover a $400M payroll with just their local tv deal, and you have a team like the royals only able to cover less than half of their payroll from their tv deal, is out of whack and does make it structurally impossible for teams to spend like the top teams. They need to direct even more money, which they already do share money from their local tv deals, towards smaller markets. Something for example like only 80% of TV deal funds can go to payroll and operations if you make $100M+ from local deals, those funds are shared amongst teams who make less than $100M from their deals. In that scenario, a team with a $100M can only spend $80M and a team like the royals get a nice bump to use towards payroll and sub $100M teams would have to use 100% of tv revenue towards payroll.
It is beyond annoying hearing the brain dead argument from people that small market teams and cheap billionaires should just use their blank check too. Yes their absolutely pathetic payrolls and you can put in a floor, but the royals are a perfect example of a team that spends above their weight, and if they were able to compete for top tier talent in FA, they could really be a top top team. People don’t understand media rights and the economics of an MLB team and if they say just spend more, it’s the ultimate tell
Frankly I’m impressed we’re in the upper half of the bulk of teams, excluding the deep-pocket outliers
13 comments
It’s so much more complicated than that though. Yes, if the Royals had an infinite money cheat code, you could get the Dodgers but the Royals are a business. They don’t have infinite money. Could the ownership spend more than they are spending now? Probably. But you also have to consider the size of the Royals’ market and how much revenue the team could realistically take in.
I’m not saying the team couldn’t eventually grow. Winning championships and having superstars like Bobby will grow the team. But that takes time.
Shohei Ohtani was an extreme investment that is making the Dodgers more money than they know what to do with. And, realistically, that deal only would have worked for an established, big market team. The Angels never got the same clout or following that the Dodgers did with Shohei. Shohei plus the Dodger brand equals money printer.
All that to say, the Royals just don’t have 2.2 billion to intelligently spend. They should spend more and invest in the team but they are not the Dodgers.
The Royals?
more than half the MLB is below them, so not like they are a budget team. I get that there is “usually” a correlation btw spending and winning a World Series but seems like we are in a good spot to me.
Let’s go lockout!
I posted this in the MLB forum, but here’s the math:
Income:
25k/year * 82 games * $50 average ticket price = $102.5M
Concessions: 1/2 of average ticket price as a baseline = $61M
TV contract: $40M
Revenue sharing: $60M
merch concessions: $15M
Minor League Revenue: $30M
Total Revenue: $310M
Expenses:
Front Office Salaries, Scouting Salaries, Coach salaries, equipment, travel, farm system salaries+expenses, Gameday staff, promotions, concessions COGS, facilities maintenance. That math takes a bit longer but I bet staffing each game is $175k; that’s $15M right there. You can easily see how expenses are $75-150M total.
Let’s say expenses are $125M against Revenue of $310M. That leaves $185M total for payroll, assuming the owners are willing to live on Ramen and not take a profit. That’s not a good assumption. Rather, let’s assume the owners have $1.5B into the team and need a minimal ROI of 4% (essentially the same as a Risk Free 10-year T-note). That’s $60M they’ll pull out. It’s unrealistic to expect anyone to treat ownership of a team as a charity, even if they are willing to take only a small amount of profit from ownership. Sure, it has happened in the past (Paul Allen/Blazers, and now perhaps Steve Cohen) but these owners are far, far wealthier than is our ownership group. Paul Allen also had zero children and had already given away twice what the Royals are worth as a franchise at the time of his death.
Which leaves $125M for Royals payroll. If the owners were beyond rich with other income streams, maybe they go up to $185M. Beyond that, they’re doing the Peter Seidler and losing money, which isn’t sustainable if you aren’t Steve Cohen rich.
Championships are obviously nice, but the Royals seem competent enough to mostly put in .500+ seasons. I would be happy with that. I just want to watch my team play competitive baseball.
In 2031, when Bobby’s opt outs start, I think $35 million is going to be easy to beat. Hopefully the Royals will have the budget and winning culture to get him to sign on again, and for the rest of his career. That would be very nice.
I will be happy if we can stay competitive in be in the playoff race towards the end of the season. This team probably should make the playoffs but I think it will be close
My positive spin. If one team has all the top talent that keeps the talent out of our division and out of the AL.
Needs to get worse. I’ll be cheering on the Dodgers until we get a complete collapse and the owners put in a salary floor, cap, and a league-wide TV deal. No more regional solo team TV deals.
The royals definitely are an example of a team that spends above the relative belt but could never go much higher to gain ground. Media media media rights. People should understand that Sherman and other billionaires don’t have billions of dollars lying around (ironically LA ownership group probably does). So that is one thing to note when people bring up owners should just spend more. So now it’s well why don’t they spend more money they make from the team? LA & NYY (two I know the range of) make $300M+ annually just from their local TV deals. And we of course aren’t considering still all the tickets, jerseys etc. sold. The royals make $50M from their media deal annually. That is the crux of the issue is that media rights in the MLB (much like no salary cap) are terrible and the worst of the major sports leagues. They don’t nationalize the rights and that’s what needs to be fixed too. When a team can cover a $400M payroll with just their local tv deal, and you have a team like the royals only able to cover less than half of their payroll from their tv deal, is out of whack and does make it structurally impossible for teams to spend like the top teams. They need to direct even more money, which they already do share money from their local tv deals, towards smaller markets. Something for example like only 80% of TV deal funds can go to payroll and operations if you make $100M+ from local deals, those funds are shared amongst teams who make less than $100M from their deals. In that scenario, a team with a $100M can only spend $80M and a team like the royals get a nice bump to use towards payroll and sub $100M teams would have to use 100% of tv revenue towards payroll.
It is beyond annoying hearing the brain dead argument from people that small market teams and cheap billionaires should just use their blank check too. Yes their absolutely pathetic payrolls and you can put in a floor, but the royals are a perfect example of a team that spends above their weight, and if they were able to compete for top tier talent in FA, they could really be a top top team. People don’t understand media rights and the economics of an MLB team and if they say just spend more, it’s the ultimate tell
Frankly I’m impressed we’re in the upper half of the bulk of teams, excluding the deep-pocket outliers
Why aren’t the Dodgers on this list???…oh shit