Are the Red Sox being RUINED by private equity?

12 comments

1. Not surprised at all by this awful take David. The Red Sox used to prioritize winning, and no longer put the same emphasis on it. Go back and look at any number of their player transactions since 2019 and you'll see that that's true. You don't trade betts and devers to make your team better. When there's no baseball in 2027 it will be because of greedy owners and PE execs like yourself. Do the baseball world a favor and just stop putting yourself out there.

2. They traded Mookie Betts and Rafael for financial reasons.

3. The point of the video was not prioritizing profits over "winning", but prioritizing profits over working class fan enjoyment and meaning. A lot of that includes wishing their team goes after free agents; but it's also feeling that most of the business model focuses on attracting people who can pack the suites or can afford 10 streaming subscriptions.

   You have many great takes, David; but you are, at your core, a person who doesn't believe that there are somethings out there that have inherent public value. Baseball isn't steel manufacturing. It doesn't give any purpose to society other than its own beauty. So focusing on running a team and the sport efficiently can only go far, and at some point, you just have to open the damn gates (metaphorically) and just let people enjoy it. If that can't happen, why bother having the sport at all?

4. Private equity is not evil. It just optimizes investments and maximize his profitability. Though it may mean that some baseball heroes that don’t deliver around the goods that are overpriced get shipped somewhere else.

5. As a Red Sox fan who used to go to 15-20 games per year, I now go to 2 or 3. And I don’t subscribe to NESN anymore. Why would I pay the second most expensive night out in MLB when the ownership pinches pennies every chance they get in the name of making billionaires richer

6. 4 rings in 22 years…totally ruined. The video in question doesn't even mention franchise values until the last minute.

7. It's enshittification. Extracting value at the expense of the end user. Baseball should lose its anti-trust exemption. Fuck all these billionaire owners and private equity firms.

8. Entertainment is a business. Of course the owners want profit.

9. Yes. They are being ruined by the ownership. It is very difficult to have hope for them anymore.

10. John Henry is 💩. His top priority is Liverpool, not the Red Sox.

11. Sports entertainment is a business, just as Hollywood and Broadway musicals. and with any business the goal is the make a profit. Mr Samson is correct: profits are performance. what is the point of winning championships if the team goes broke in 5 yrs. whats the point of wining awards for best musical or best picture if the movie/show doesnt make a profit?
    and they just gave there top prospect and there top pitcher long term deals. and they signed another pitcher to a 5 yr deal at market value.

12. Private equity even has its filthy, grubby hands on kids' leagues.