Cuba ball

[JohnU]

EXHIBITIONS NEXT YEAR.

WHO KNOWS after that?

CUBA BALL

 

[Redsfan1507]

They say if you don't learn from mistakes, you are bound to repeat them.

Dennis Rodman has a buddy in N. Korea that is interested in an NBA fanchise, too. We could probably make a deal with a MLS team in Venezuela or Columbia, if we wanted to cut out the middlemen in Mexico, Cuba and the U.S. Congress, and barter soccer loot for cocaine directly.

Not saying it wouldn't be good for Cuba, but last I checked, lifting sanctions and offering economic benefits to countries run by communists, extremists and despots don't make them better neighbors or more benevolent landlords.

Their money is worthless. Not sure which is the unhealthiest import- the Cuban cigars (which are widely regarded as the best in the world, but can be deadly) or the ballplayers (who would be thrilled making $1,000,000 but MLB insists on paying them $100,000,000 anyway) which may prove equally (financially) deadly.

Cuba has a lot of great beaches, rotting hotels, cigars, baseball, and pre-1960 Big 3 automaker cars. They also have substantial sugar cane, rum, illegal drugs, STD's, infant mortality, illiteracy and political unrest available for import too. Less than 10% of the Cuban population remembers non-communist rule, and none remember a non-black market controlled economy.

One might want to consider these, and the requirements for players to "escape" Cuba to sign big MLB contracts, and the denial of their family members exit visas until that extortion is paid, before planning to put a franchise there that U.S citizens would attend.

Expansion would be safer and more politically and economically viable in Puerto Rico or Mexico.

 

[JohnU]

I'd buy into Puerto Rico if MLB could subsidize the millions of terribly poor people who would maybe save up enough money to see one game every other year.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

I think the MLB interest in playing exhibition games outside the continental USA market has less to do with franchising out and more to do with social media revenue. Internet revenue is the cash cow they're peddling, not new franchises. The national TV deal is secure into the future, MLB.TV and At bat type apps fuel the MLB future revenue expansion.

It's amazing how many people living in poverty have cell phones and internet. It's a different world than the one we grew up in.

 

[JohnU]

MLB can also count on about 20 percent of the All-Star balloting from places where the voters are lucky to find Chicago on a map that shows Illinois and Idaho. I won't start my rant about the AS game, since it's not part of the deal. But baseball always was a global sport despite soccer's claim otherwise. The Pacific Rim and all of the Caribbean play it. It's big now in Germany, Holland and is growing in Australia.

But for Cuba to be a force in pro baseball, they first have to get their ballparks in shape, after the rest of the economy and social agenda get fixed. I could see a game or two there since it's an easy hop from Miami but they are no closer to rejoining affiliated ball than Venezuela is.

Puerto Rico at least doesn't require a visa.

It's hard for us to imagine how poor most of that part of the world is -- so very close to our shores. P.R. is one of our damned possessions. They do better than D.R. does. I imagine most people can access the Internet, probably through the church or some American aid operation.

 

[chico ruiz]

exactingly correct mr. hit & run. the 'interactive push' is what i call it. cord cutting and corresponding marketing trends. that's where the huge advertising dollar potential is. television as we know it is very quickly becoming a thing of the past. it's all about the mobile devices and cheaper delivery systems. mlb has been working on integrating meerkat-like interactive platforms for the last 5 years or more. just walk into one of the mlb fan caves and you will see what i mean. there's a lot of techies hanging around. businesses are getting more, and more, savvy about this contemporaneous communication set of (everything at once) global villaging, and baseball has actually been part of the vanguard. the pips and edids are flying gentlemen.

in other words, they want fans to interact, in real time, on their device (all elements being on screen simultaneously), effortlessly, and continuously. they want to keep up interest in the game with accessibility being paramount. accessibility = $$$ in the short term. accessibility & increased participation = $$$$$$$'s in the long term.

btw, i can't ever remember seeing the words 'benevolent' and 'landlord' used in the same sentence. funny stuff 1507. reminded me of a dennis miller bit on the fox news (entertainment) network.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Lol. Not a FoxNews fan. They paint liberals in an embarrassing, libelous light...although no worse than MSNBC spins conservatives. Neither is news. They're both preying on ignorance.

I'm just growing a little tired of MLB trying to drain every drop of financial blood above all other priorities. IMO, they need to figure out how to sell baseball better in Florida before they go peddling in Cuba.