Mariners franchise now worth $710 million...12th highest in MLB

[cezero]

Things really looking great for ownership!

M's are actually in the top 10 for overall growth over the last year, with a 10% increase in franchise value. That's sure to go up even more in the coming years, again, regardless of the actual performance of the team.

The Business Of Baseball - Forbes

 

[seahawksfan234]

The Mariners deserve an award for making so much money while fielding such a bad product.

 

[PolarVortex]

The Mariners deserve an award for making so much money while fielding such a bad product.

12th in value, 21st in payroll. Typical.

I hereby officially pass the Fraud Mode title to the Mariner ownership. Marshawn, you've been redeemed.

 

[Tech_God]

Well well...... I guess 12 years of failure can earn you quite a bit of money. sheesh! I just want to see some new ownership.

 

[wazzu31]

I'm not sure how to do the links things, but isn't this exactly what Geoff Baker wrote 2 years ago about the Mariners positioning themselves for a sale? They were cutting money everywhere possible about making them competitive but spending money everywhere possible for raising the value of the franchise.

The Seattle Mariners are a sleeping giant in terms of a business with it's popularity in Asia and Latin America. Then you have a world class stadium and facilities throughout the organization. It is one of the top organizations that an owner can buy. You buy the franchise and only have to spend the money to purchase the team then spend money on the big club. Of course the franchise needs to completely overhaul the scouting and developmental personel but things can look up quickly for a franchise who has an ownership that actually cares.

 

[RegentDenali]

Many people don't realize the kings ransom this team was pulling in behind the scenes from Ichiro being on the team. Not only would thousands of japanese tourists be at games all the time and buying up his merchandised items at the team stores, but remember how anytime he was at bat, the advertising billboard behind home plate was either Nintendo or other major Japanese companies like Kikkoman, etc... Those Japanese companies paid top dollar to the Mariners for that advertising during his at bats because the Japanese sports programs and news every night would show them all.

It flooded the teams coffers, but most of it went right to the owners pockets and not the product on the field. And now you have the broadcast deals, including the recent one with Dish and Direct tv networks for broadcasting the Root Sports channel which is now majority OWNED by the Seattle Mariners. A big reason the Mariners finally openned up the wallet for Cano was the these recent deals. In the longterm, you're talking billions in revenue to Root sports/Seattle Mariners.

 

[Logicallylethal]

Why cant Paul Allen own every northwest team by default?

 

[RegentDenali]

Why cant Paul Allen own every northwest team by default?

Most US pro leagues have clauses that majority owners cannot be involved in the ownership of other sports leagues in the same city because the conflict of interest issues.

Allen pulls it off because the Seahawks are in Seattle and Blazers in Portland.

 

[seattlefan75]

forget paul allen give me mark cuban that man will show up to all 162 games and have a payroll bigger than the dodgers

 

[cezero]

lol, yeah

i'd love cuban to own the team, but he's alienated himself with MLB far too much for it to ever happen.

 

[Destroydacre]

forget paul allen give me mark cuban that man will show up to all 162 games and have a payroll bigger than the dodgers

If the Mariners had a new owner who went to just one game, they'd have an owner who went to an infinitely higher percentage of Mariners games than the current regime.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

With Ichiro gone I expect these #s to continue plummeting.

 

[wazzu31]

Most US pro leagues have clauses that majority owners cannot be involved in the ownership of other sports leagues in the same city because the conflict of interest issues.

Allen pulls it off because the Seahawks are in Seattle and Blazers in Portland.

Are you sure about that? There lots of rumors about Allen and the Sonics if he could find a take for the Blazers and I remember an article in the Tribune about how Allen had no interest because he doesn't like baseball. And I'm pretty sure the Suns and Diamondbacks had the same owner didn't they?

Mark Cuban is the wet dream of any fan but with the Cubs and Rangers situations it seems MLB wants no part of him. That's the one thing is pro sports that needs to change is that they are all separate entities and no other franchise or commissioner should have a say in who they sell it to etc.

 

[Banned 10x]

Imagine if this team put out a consistent winner, they would be top 5.

 

[Destroydacre]

Are you sure about that? There lots of rumors about Allen and the Sonics if he could find a take for the Blazers and I remember an article in the Tribune about how Allen had no interest because he doesn't like baseball. And I'm pretty sure the Suns and Diamondbacks had the same owner didn't they?

Mark Cuban is the wet dream of any fan but with the Cubs and Rangers situations it seems MLB wants no part of him. That's the one thing is pro sports that needs to change is that they are all separate entities and no other franchise or commissioner should have a say in who they sell it to etc.

I don't know about the bylaws of other leagues, but I believe the NFL would allow Allen to own an NBA team in Seattle (MLB or NHL too) because they are in the same city as the Seahawks. However he would not be able to own another team in any sport in a city such as Houston because they have an NFL team. He gets away with owning the Blazers because there is no NFL team in Portland.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Imagine if this team put out a consistent winner, they would be top 5.

Easily

 

[RegentDenali]

If the Mariners had a new owner who went to just one game, they'd have an owner who went to an infinitely higher percentage of Mariners games than the current regime.

reportedly the reason the Nintendo chairman bought into the majority stake of the Mariners because his son was a baseball fan. But since the Mariners ownership resembles the CIA when it comes to transparency or interaction with the public, it's still very confusing what is going to happen now that Hiroshi Yamauchi passed away.

For estate planning purposes, Hiroshi Yamauchi transferred control of his majority shares (55%) to Nintendo of America about 10 years ago, even though with the agreement, he still maintained control of the franchise.

So I'm not sure who will be the longterm boss of the Mariners from an ownership perspective. The minority owners, Chris Larson (30%) and billionaire John Stanton (10%) are the next biggest owners, but Larson, who could of made a move to take majority ownership has had financial issues the past decade including a messy divorce and lots of debt.

The Mariners org also now owns Root sports channel so it's even more complicated.

So going forward, who is truly going to call the major shots for this team =