A Glass Ceiling: It’s time for new ownership of the Royals
Whoever came up with “Our Time” as the Royals 2012 marketing slogan should be cut or sent down to the minors: But there’s a much more serious problem.
With exactly one winning season to the Royals’ credit since 1994, I’ve long since adopted a “wait ’til next year” outlook on pro baseball success in Kansas City. It’s not very often, though, when I reach that point before the furnace has shut down for the spring.
This year’s dismal start—9-19 at press time, including an unheard of 12-game losing streak and an O-for-April home record—has even prompted owner David Glass to respond to talk that he’s looking to sell the team. He’s forcefully denied any intention of doing so.
Maybe he should rethink that. There’s no question that baseball fans in this region should be grateful to Glass. He played an important role in helping fulfill the late Ewing Kauffman’s vision for keeping the Royals in KC. But in the 12 seasons since Glass became sole owner, following six seasons of stewardship after Kauffman’s death in 1993, the Royals have gone 677-971, a winning percentage of just .418 percent—among the very worst in baseball.
Contrast that with the .518 percentage over the final 12 seasons of Mr. K’s ownership: 1055-990, a stretch that concluded with a painful three-year downturn that started in 1990. Despite that skid, the stretch included two World Series appearances—one resulting with a World Series Championship in 1985—and another pair of playoff seasons.
As I said, I have great respect for David Glass, his business success and what he’s done for the community, but if it’s truly “Our Time,” it’s really the loyal fans’ time for a change.
While the eye-popping payrolls of teams like the Yankees, Phillies or Red Sox occasionally fail to bring home World Series rings, they do have some correlation with on-field success throughout the season and over the long term. And the fact is, the Royals’ payroll of $60.9 million is the third-lowest in baseball.
Yes, I realize the challenges that face small-market pro teams, but the league has long since adopted a revenue-sharing model that has been criticized for dispensing money that lower-level teams don’t need to avoid going into the red. Some, in fact, receive more in revenue sharing than their entire player payrolls—the Royals are more than likely one of those subsidy teams.
Whether the Royals are receiving subsidies or not, they have clearly been in a position to make money. If you figured—quite conservatively—an average ticket price of $30, another $10 for parking and a single concession purchase of $15 for each of the rough-ly 20,000 fans the club has averaged in home games for the past few years, you get north of $64 million in revenues in a hurry. Add in another $20 million a year from Fox Sports and its TV contract. If you include in any revenue-sharing money, sponsorships, receipts from luxury suites, merchandising and a whole host of add-ons, you quickly surpass the $96 mil. price that Glass paid to acquire the team in 2000.
I can’t even fathom the share of cash the Royals will enjoy by hosting MLB’s All-Star Game in July—$60 for parking and a sellout of 40,000 tickets. All Star Strips go for about $600 each—you do the math.
Other small-market teams rise and fall in the standings based on the quirks of the game: some teams gets unusually hot for a season, there are no injuries, the bad breaks go against the other teams. We’ve seen those low-payroll teams get to, and win, the Series, and we’ve seen their favorable conditions reversed, sending them back to the rebuilding drawing board.
But there’s something different about KC. It’s not just that the Royals are failing. It’s that they’re failing on a programmatic level. Jackson County residents foot the bill for the stadium, and people across the region pony up for the tickets. We have a stake in the outcome here, and I’m not alone in wanting an owner committed to winning.
As a small business owner who has made a company commitment to supporting the Royals this year—to the tune of about $1,500 per employee—I have my own opinion: Mr. Glass should realize the return on his investment (the team he bought for $96 million is now worth $354 million, according to Forbes) and take immediate steps to sell to someone who not only shares Mr. K’s commitment to Kansas City, but his passion for producing a winner.
We’ve seen an example of what effective pro sports ownership looks like with the innovation that is driving success of Sporting Kansas City; that team is winning over fans, putting sell-out crowds in the seats at Livestrong Sporting Park and winning on the field. All of that can be traced to the influences of the ownership group, which includes Cliff Illig and Neal Patterson, as well as from Robb Heineman as the soccer team’s CEO.
If we could twin that kind of leadership and vision with the intensity, and inclusion, of George Brett, we would produce a winner in this town yet again.
Until then, fans may move to another city or we’ll have to wait until next year.
Joe Sweeney
Editor-In-Chief & Publisher
JSweeney@IngramsOnLine.com