Sorry I’ve been pretty sick this past week so I didn’t get to this as soon as I would have liked but better late than never. Anyways on to Part 3 of my series….THE LAST 4 YEARS: Payroll and Attendance. In this post I wanted to discuss some of the numbers that are recorded off the field. While these numbers still have somewhat of an effect on the field it doesn’t entirely reflect the outcome. In other wards the more you spend doesn’t always equal success (Hello top 4 teams in payroll) or the more you win doesn’t equal more butts in the seats (Hello Florida Marlins). But let’s not worry about wins for right now and take a look strictly at the almighty dollar.
Payroll
#1 New York Mets————414.28 Million
#2 Los Angeles Dodgers—–382.84 Million
#3 Chicago Cubs————–371.68 Million
#4 Philadelphia Phillies——-366.44 Million
#5 St. Louis Cardinals——–354.51 Million
#6 Atlanta Braves————-354.08 Million
#7 San Francisco Giants——352.49 Million
#8 Houston Astros————332.48 Million
#9 San Diego Padres———246.68 Million
#10 Arizona Diamondbacks–243.86 Million
#11 Cincinnati Reds———-238.32 Million
#12 Colorado Rockies——–209.25 Million
#13 Milwaukee Brewers—–196.01 Million
#14 Washington Nationals—190.26 Million
#15 Pittsburgh Pirates——–155.61 Million
#16 Florida Marlins———–148.05 Million
So not really a suprise there once again. We all know who the big spenders are and we also know who the non-spenders are. Although I still love the fact that the Padres have a better record than 5 of the teams that are spending way more than them. Anyways onto the other half of this post the attendance.
Attendance
#1 Los Angeles Dodgers——-14.68 Million
#2 St. Louis Cardinals———13.48 Million
#3 San Francisco Giants——-12.74 Million
#4 Chicago Cubs—————12.64 Million
#5 New York Mets————-12.31 Million
#6 Houston Astros————-11.88 Million
#7 Philadelphia Phillies——–11.66 Million
#8 San Diego Padres———-11.31 Million
#9 Atlanta Braves————-10.12 Million
#10 Milwaukee Brewers——-9.46 Million
#11 Arizona Diamondbacks—8.96 Million
#12 Colorado Rockies———8.71 Million
#13 Cincinnati Reds———–8.40 Million
#14 Washington Nationals—-7.54 Million
#15 Pittsburgh Pirates——–6.97 Million
#16 Florida Marlins———–6.07 Million
Year after year I hear Padre fans criticizing how much the team spends. So when it comes to seeing if a team was spending to much or not enough I came up with a formula that by no means is 100% accurate but at least kind of paints a picture of where teams stand. I took the attendance rankings (how much the fans spend) and subtracted the payroll rankings (how much the team spends) to see if a team was spending to much or not enough.
Teams Spending to Much
New York Mets ———- +4
Atlanta Braves ———– +3
Philadelphia Phillies ——- +3
Cinncinati Reds ———- +2
Arizona Diamondbacks —- +1
Chicago Cubs ———— +1
Teams Not Spending Enough
San Francisco Giants —– -4
Milwaukee Brewers ——- -3
St. Louis Cardinals ——- -3
Houston Astros ———- -2
Los Angeles Dodgers —– -1
San Diego Padres ——– -1
Teams Spending Just the Right Amount
Colorado Rockies ——— 0
Florida Marlins ———– 0
Pittsburgh Pirates ——– 0
Washington Nationals —- 0
Interesting enough of the teams not spending enough list there are 9 playoff appearances over that span, 6 appearances for the spending to much category and only 1 appearance for the just right list. So that’s where the not 100% accurate comes into play but like I said I’m taking on field success out all together. I don’t expect anyone to believe that if you spend less you will make the playoffs more often. On field performance affects attendance while to a point payroll affects on field performance. But if we break it down strictly regarding payroll and attendance that formula gives us a good idea of the cash flow for each team compared to others. So the Padres are pretty close to where they should be payroll wise opposed to attendance. And considering we have a better record than 5 of the teams ahead of us in attendance I don’t see why our total isn’t higher. Plus we have a brand new state of the art ball park to boot. So the next time someone complains that our payroll isn’t high enough maybe John, Sandy & KT should complain that the attendance isn’t high enough. Speaking of payroll…………..Part 4 of this series will be about the correlation between payroll and wins……….Does spending money equal success??
Filed under: Stats, The Last 4 Years ('04-'07) Series
.
[...] Sdpads1 continues his look at the Padres’ past four years. The latest installment covers payroll and attendance. [...]
Shouldn’t the fact that the Giants spent $80 million on stadium payments that other teams didn’t have be counted when judging who “spent enough”?
Forbes.com does an annual Business of Baseball article that lists revenue and franchise value. The Giants are usually ranked between 7-11 in MLB, right where their pasyroll usually falls.
Hey Ted thanks for reading…..yeah I was basing this strictly on payroll only. I, like you, know there are many other factors that go into running a team, but say Team A is paying for one thing that Team B isn’t paying for ….it’s possible that Team B is paying for something Team C isn’t paying for and to make this little post work I either needed to keep it strictly to something EVERY TEAM spends money on or include all the expenses for every team which would just take forever and actually be impossible for an average joe like myself (and even possibly Forbes.com) to get all that info together.