Marc Topkin interviews Rays owner Stuart Sternberg about the state of the team, and Sternberg seems rather upbeat about the team and the prospects for a new stadium. DRays Bay, however, wonders about this:
Though there have been “some” years when they have made money, and they get in excess of $50 million annually from MLB while operating with payrolls in the $60 million to $70 million range, the net since taking over in October 2005 is in the red. “We have lost money from every point in time you can pick,” he said.
I don’t think this is a controversial statement. The accountants I know try to keep privately held companies slightly in the red to avoid taxes. You’re told to put the money back into the business.
He certainly can’t mean that the members of the ownership group have lost equity. According to Cot’s Contracts, Sternberg’s ownership group gained a controlling interest in the Rays in October 2005 after previously purchasing 48% of the club in May of the prior year for $65M, with a possible total investment of ~$200M. Vincent Naimoli had paid $130M for the franchise in 1995.
Forbes magazine valued the Rays at $650M in March, 2016. To say the team is a bad investment would be ludicrous.
Right. The idea with an entity like the Rays is to build equity. There’s a lot that can be done with that equity that doesn’t look like profit. So far, the Rays have not chosen to spend the equity on buying great players to win a championship, like the Yankees tended to do under George Steinbrenner.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2jXXEVj
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