Dipoto Gets Extension

NWinAZ said:

I have lived in Southern Cal for 4 years, AZ for 8, WA for remaining 40 and if I had pro athlete money I would pick somewhere other than WA. That is just me of course, but AZ and Cali were just so much cleaner in the areas I lived. Seattle has always looked dingy to me like Portland.

Click to expand...

wazzu31 said:

Most FA’s have families and our winter weather isn’t great. It’s the opposite for NFL and NBA free agents. Our weather is great in their offseason. It doesn’t bother me in the least but to me, but I’m also not concerned about uprooting the family and the most time I’d spend with them it is raining or overcast. Of course become a perennial power and it won’t really matter like Boston, NY, Philly and Chicago.

All the guys in the minors I knew were single so didn’t have to worry but generally if you are going to sign a big contract you will live in that area.

Click to expand...

seahawksfan234 said:

Makes sense. Obviously none of us have been a highly sought after free agent or a free agent in general, but it would be neat to hear about the thought process behind it.

I'd also be curious to know how many players have a home/location that they live in during the offseason outside of where they play.

Considering that many professional players seldom play their entire career with one franchise, if it was me I'd pick a place for my wife and kids to live and just rent a place in the city I play during the playing season that way you don't have to deal with moving/buying a new home/changing schools/etc. But that's probably a product of the fact that I prefer the status quo and hate dealing with the logistics of all of that.

Click to expand...

wazzu31 said:

Your last part makes sense, except like I was saying how long the baseball season is most players don’t want to be away from their family that long. I’m just going off of what I am seeing in today’s athlete. Back in the day most father who were athletes missed out on a crap load of stuff of their kids. It seems in modern day sports dads are trying to be there more in terms of births, weddings, graduation etc or whatever else that was unthinkable when I was growing up.

Like I said, I’m mostly basing it off of athletes who are family men, which most Latin ballplayers are. It’s just my observation but could be completely wrong.

Side note, if money was spent into turning Seatac and Boeing Field into world class airports the travel wouldn’t be as big of an issue IMO.

Click to expand...

seahawksfan234 said:

Yeah that's definitely fair.

I'm kind of biased because I hate dealing with the logistics of moving/moving itself and having that uncertainty. Kind of funny this came up because I was just talking to one of my best friends about moving. Her parents are selling their house and moving to North Carolina from Vancouver, WA and I was telling her how I'd hate having to deal with selling a house, buying a new one and moving all my shit across the country.

I normally fly half a dozen times a year or more and the difference between airports doesn't really bother me all that much. I'd estimate I've probably been in around 30 or so airports, maybe more and the only ones that I had an issue with were Newark (my gate got changed at least half a dozen times and the terminal was so packed that I literally couldn't find a place to sit at a bar or in the regular waiting seats), Grand Cayman (it was just a shitty, small, old airport) and Pristina (small airport that I don't even think had any bars, but I got there at like 4am).

Click to expand...

wazzu31 said:

I’ve only been to a handful of airports. And every single one was better outside of one my experiences at LAX and that was only because the water main broke at the Alaska dock so we had no water so no bathrooms, no bar, no anything except overpriced deli food and warm bottled soda or water.

I despise moving too, just my wife was an Army brat and she is use to it or gets that 3 year itch where she has to move so I’ve become use to have criteria when it comes to relocating. I am mostly basing my whole philosophy on my feeling in today’s player. Today’s professional athlete (maybe excluding NBA player) is ten times more caring about being a legit father than players back in the day. So the location actually, to me, has become more important than money. It appears in order it goes winning, location, then money for athletes who have family (at least in the NFL, MLB and NHL) the NBA I’m not sure because my wife watches those NBA wives/girlfriends shows and all the NBA guys seem to have wives and side chicks but the women fight with each other and give the dudes a pass because he has money. In baseball you can’t do that 81 times a year or in football 8 times a year. 41 seems like a good number of separating your real family and good times.

Click to expand...

seahawksfan234 said:

Yeah I guess I'm pretty much indifferent when it comes to airports. As long as I have a bar to sit at, I'm happy until I see how much my bill is. I actually don't think too much about the airport as I'm going through it. I think I might have a bit of a skewed perspective of SeaTac because whenever I enter I'm excited for the vacation I'm about to go on, and when I get back I'm normally happy to be home. I know that they've been renovating and I believe recently opened a new terminal with a really nice Alaska Lounge.

Your second paragraph you bring up some good points. I think people like your wife who have moved a bunch are just used to it as you mentioned. The only time I've lived outside of Seattle or the suburbs were the 6 or so months I spent in Europe but that was different since it was just temporary. Due to the inflated property prices in the Seattle area I'm considering relocating just due to that since I'm at a place where I want to purchase something, but I keep putting it off because this has been home to me my entire life.

Regarding the players, it would be really interesting to see some journalist collect anonymous polls from different players across different sports and see what they prioritize in terms of where they'd want to play. Even though I haven't started a family yet, I think I agree that it would be winning, location then money. The contracts these guys are offered I'd assume would all be relatively similar. I hate losing more than I love winning and I assume many professional athletes feel the same way.

Click to expand...

wazzu31 said:

With airports I guess it is different strokes for different folks. I’ve just never showed up at SeaTac either way and been like wow, that airport I just gave from sucks. It’s always the other way of why can’t SeaTac be that cool or whatever.

Well shit, right now you better start looking for your forever home. If shit goes south in November like it appears your interest rate will be through the roof.

I think for most winning is the number 1 thing, obviously there are exceptions. But winning franchises attract free agents. I get the appeal of NY because of the endorsement options but there is zero reason anyone would really want to live in Boston or Philly for half the year or even the entire year. We in Washington are spoiled because within driving distance we have everything any American could want in terms of scenery, stuff to do and the different types of people.

Click to expand...

NWinAZ said:

I guess I have always been a small town guy (around 40K in my city) so Portland/Seattle always bothered me. Then I saw Phoenix and San Diego later in life and realized a big town can be clean and have friendly people and so forth.

Click to expand...

seahawksfan234 said:

I loved San Diego as a tourist. If you like small towns, College Station, TX is really amazing. The population is listed at about 100k, but it doesn't feel like it's really that many people there.

Click to expand...

seahawksfan234 said:

I know SeaTac is renovating their central terminal and opening another I believe. It's funny because when I first started flying I always thought SeaTac was so big and I didn't know where anything is. Now it feels small to me and I've memorized where everything is.

I've procrastinated really hard about purchasing something irrespective of the interest rates because I feel like I'll probably stay in the Seattle area but I feel like the property market in Seattle has probably hit it's peak and could be in a bit of a bubble due to all the people moving here. I'm not all that adverse to renting, it's just obviously not a good investment. On the bright side the longer I procrastinate the better my credit score becomes and I have more for a down payment.

Even with all of the endorsement options in those markets, I wouldn't want to pay the state and local taxes they impose in those areas. I've never been to Philly or Boston but I'd imagine when you have the money of a pro athlete, I'm sure it would be just as comfortable as anywhere else.

But to the main point, I think if the Mariners ever build a winning franchise it could be a very attractive destination.

Click to expand...

NWinAZ said:

I have heard good things about College Station. Not sure if I would enjoy the weather, but I survived AZ so who knows.

Click to expand...

wazzu31 said:

I’m not trying to hate on SeaTac because Boeing Field sucks too, I have just enjoyed nearly every other airport I’ve been too.

Without question Seattle has hit its limit in terms of a bubble, there are actual vacancies in units now which was unthinkable just a few years ago. But our local taxes seems to be catching up and the appellate courts ruling on the Seattle Income Tax it appears there might be an avenue our legislature can finally their White Whale which is a state income tax.

Without question. It’s much like Seahawks how they use to have to overpay for free agents but now players are taking normal market value or sometimes less to come play. If you win they will come, and more importantly if you win there is a better chance they will want to stay instead of being forced into another Tino situation.

Click to expand...

seahawksfan234 said:

I've never flown out of Boeing Field before. Only airport I've used in Washington is SeaTac. Paine Field recently opened and it looks really nice but I've yet to take a flight from there. What is it specifically about SeaTac you don't like?

Funny thing is I've hesitated on finding a place because I foolishly believed the housing market had hit it's peak back in 2017. Luckily my sister didn't listen to my advice on selling her condo. Without getting too much into politics; I understand the desire for a state income tax - but I'd only support such a measure if it was accompanied by offsetting other state and local taxes which would never happen. Also my aversion to raising tax rates is that I don't believe the government spends the money well. I'd rather my tax money be used to send the homeless somewhere else than paying for them to stay here.

I think the Seahawks are a prime example of how you can turn around a franchise's perception. Aside from 2005 the Seahawks were good enough to consistently win the division, but they were never as elite as they were under Carroll. We seldom had nationally televised games and now we consistently get them.

Click to expand...

wazzu31 said:

I’ve never flown out of Boeing Field either, but that is where all of my work flies into and Boeing Field hasn’t upgraded itself into first world territory where if it rains they can’t land a plane.

I’m mostly thinking Seattle has hit its peak because it is going after employers and as of right now Bellevue is becoming the spot with their massive tax exemptions for Amazon and trying to lure other tech companies. Once this venture happens, I’m just betting the value of a house in Seattle will go down. My sister in law works in Seattle and we were just searching online and for the first time in I don’t know how long there were vacancies. Pricy but still available. I’ll never support an income tax, for exactly the reasons you stated. They suck at spending money and won’t get rid of all their other taxes. We all got to vote to say yes on privatizing Spirits and as soon as it passed the State said F you to the voters and levied a huge ass tax on liquor.

The Seahawks (even though there is a cap) was just the first analogy I could think of. Generally baseball to football analogies don’t work except with Seattle sports. Paul Allen came in, spent a crap load of money and IMO went about it the right way in not trying to placate to the fans who didn’t know the name of a single player. IMO the Mariners have spent so much time and energy on the casual fan. They are professional franchise but have ran it like it’s a minor league franchise.

Click to expand...

seahawksfan234 said:

I might be a bit ignorant on this but I don't even know what flies in and out of Boeing Field. I didn't even know there were many flights in and out of there. If I had to guess I'd assume it was just for testing planes so I don't know.

Funny you mentioned Bellevue because that's where I've been considering purchasing something. I'd likely try to get a job in downtown Bellevue and just walk to work. Pretty sure a comparable condo there wouldn't cost more than in Seattle. I don't want to have to commute to work. The living experience in downtown Bellevue is 500x better than Seattle. No fucking homeless people. This probably makes me sound like a prick but I just hate seeing people in that position and don't want to look at it on a daily basis.

Yeah that's my issue with taxes in general. Ideally I would support higher taxes federally and locally if it was (1) increased for the highest earners along with (2) cuts to the middle class and (3) if the money were spent correctly. Unfortunately (2) and (3) would never happen.

The thing that frustrates me about the Mariners is that they know this team is going nowhere yet our average ticket price is 8th highest in MLB as of 2018. Lower the damn ticket prices, get people in the door and you'll probably make enough off concessions to make up the difference. If the tickets were cheaper I'd make the effort to go more often since I love going to the games so much.

Click to expand...

wazzu31 said:

Boeing Field for the most part is used for commercial business and to my knowledge the wealthy folks. The Seahawks and Mariners fly and land there except when it’s raining really badly or there is heavy fog. They still haven’t gotten first world runway lights so it can be dangerous when landing.

I just know Amazon is moving at least their new cooperate office there and Bellevue has passed all kinds of business but also resident friendly ordinances, such as homeless/drugged out people get the option of to move along, a shelter, rehab or jail. My sister in law works for the SPD so she has been looking in Bellevue too but it’s still too pricey for me plus I work in the south sound.

That’s the kicker in our state, it was unconstitutional just a few days ago to have an income tax unless it was uniformed across every income level. But that dumbass ruling kept the uniformed part but left a huge gray area now on whether our money is property before we’ve received it.

Without question it would make more business sense to do that. Even if they don’t receive as much money from the gate they will get more revenue from concessions, beer, merchandise etc. That is realistically the primary way minor league franchises stay afloat, they do everything possible just to get people in the stadium because they will spend money once inside.

Click to expand...

seahawksfan234 said:

I actually didn't know that's where the Mariners and Seahawks fly in and out of. What's the purpose of that? Quicker?

Downtown Bellevue is just so much nicer and cleaner than downtown Seattle. Bellevue is ideal because my recreational activities all consist of eating out and getting drunk and there are some great places in Bellevue to do that. Also it's nice to be able to go to that big park there and not see any homeless people. Sorry to hear about your sister-in-law. Working in law enforcement in Seattle must be fucking awful. It harps back to that Seattle is dying video, but if all that is true I can't imagine the vast frustration that SPD employees deal with.

I would be really interested to see the justification in not drastically lowering ticket prices and/or offering great deals on the shittier seats. Front office shit and the obvious criticisms of the franchise aside, they're running a franchise worth almost $2B and I'd assume they'd do everything to maximize revenue. Without getting too theoretical, it goes back to what you learn in an introductory economics class. When demand goes down you should lower prices and try to find a spot that maximizes revenue.

Even in the hypothetical situation where lowering ticket prices doesn't lead to an increase in revenue, at least you'd be doing a favor to the fans who still go out of their way to pay money to attend the games. I really believe they'd get a bigger draw from that then offering gimmick bobbleheads or giveaways.

Click to expand...

wazzu31 said:

I think because it is less crowded with people, better security, I’m not totally sure. I don’t know anything about other pro franchises but I’m sure it’s typical that most athletes don’t fly out of the big airports but could be mistaken.

Ya, I feel bad for her and all police officers. She let us park at her precinct and walked us to the Key Arena for an event my wife and I were attending and some of the shit that was said to her and listening to the calls over the radio made me realize there is no way I could ever do that job or at least in a Metro area. There was this chick who was lost and was backwards on one of the one way streets so she was trying to calm the lady down and direct traffic to let her turn around and she was just getting yelled all sorts of insane stuff when she was trying help the lady and make sure there wasn’t an accident.

I think most clubs don’t drastically drop prices is kind of the same reason owners in the NFL have/guess now had an agreement to not give out fully guaranteed contracts. Just the way it appears is that it is an ole boys club where they try not to show another one up. The NBA owners were fine with the Clippers owner being who he was until that taped leaked of him being an outright racist, I mean a dude who was that vulgar had to have shown signs of that somewhere along the lines before. If one owner drops the price because of performance then other fan bases might turn on their owner and take money out of his/their pockets. Pure speculation though so not sure.

The whole bobblehead only really bugs me because that’s how the Mariners have seemed like that’s all they have cared about since 2003. This is just my personal feeling/frustration is they seem to cater to the casual fan. I’m sure I’ve already wrote it but it’s the exact opposite of what the Seahawks and Sounders did. They basically said F the casual fans and spent money on the resources to keep the hardcore fan and winning will attract the bandwagon or novice fans. With the Mariners (and baseball as a whole nowadays with their full court press on getting millennials into baseball) they care more about the people not watching or sometimes tune in instead of the people they have hooked regardless. It’s a decent strategy until the hardcore fan dies off or become so apathetic and all that is left is fans who only come when you give them something for free, just a poor strategy I personally think.

Click to expand...