Sunday, December 17, 2006

Dodgers' Increase in Ticket Prices, Part 3

Earlier today, SoSG posted the difference in salaries between players lost this year (2006 combined salaries: $43.7M) and players gained in this offseason (2007 combined salaries: $37.5M). By this math, Frank McCourt should still have about $6M dollars to spend on other players, just to come up to par with the salaries of those lost.

But wait, he's also raising season ticket prices for 2007. And how much money will that bring in? At the LOW end, this comes out to an increase of 14%. Given attendance last year of 3,758,421 and an average ticket price of $20.09 last year, the Dodgers took in $75.5M in gate revenue alone. (Yes, some of this amount is split with the visiting team; however, the Dodgers always pull in crowds on the road, so for this exercise I've called it a wash.)

Adding another 14% to ticket prices, and Frank McCourt could spend another $10.6M just from incremental gate revenues alone. Add 40% (the top end of the ticket hike range), and there's another $30M to spend on other players. Heck, take $10M and put it toward a remedial math class at SMCC for Drew McCourt--that still would leave $20M that the Dodgers could spend toward Barry Zito or Manny Ramirez.

Frank McCourt, put your money where your mouth is. If you're going to pillage the Dodgers' best supporters, the fans, you can at least put that money back into the team lineup. Santa needs to bring us a power bat this Christmas.

4 comments:

Orel said...

Don't forget, Garciaparra and Saito got raises.

Steve Sax said...

I thought about including the figure for the three players we re-upped for 2007. But Nomar went from $6M + $4M in incentives (based on plate appearances, he took home $8.5M all-in) in 2006 to a $7.5M salary in 2007--a savings of $1M.

This $1M washes out against Saito's $750K raise and Martinez's $250K raise.

Lasorda said...

Well, I think the "power bat" that is out there is J.D. Drew's. . .

Steve Sax said...

Does that "power bat" come with a "power shoulder"?