by badgermit » Fri Oct 15, 2010 7:02 pm
More importantly - the current Red Sox ownership took an old, dilapidated dump of a ballpark - Fenway park, built in 1912 - and turned it into a place that people actually want to go to now. They made gradual changes, keeping with the theme of the oldest ballpark in America...all very tastefully done. And they gradually increased the seating capacity from ~32K people to almost 40K people. The downside of this is that they are on average the most expensive tickets in baseball. But they do this because (1) demand and (2) they need to charge more in order to sign the best players.
Fenway has been sold out for something like 8 years....and that means 81 home games per year. That is a lot of sellouts.
These guys are good....they find creative ways to make money, they stay true to community and the original purpose of the team. They put smart people in positions for them to excel. They think outside the box - building excellence throughout the organization to try to sign younger players and develop them as a way to competing with the giants more effectively. They put ruthless business people in positions where they are needed. And they know that only winning will bring success and money. Not only that, but these guys are FANS.
my $.02 - speaking as a huge Red Sox fan and lifelong Boston resident - and someone who has followed Liverpool for years now (I chose Liverpool as the team most like the Sox and the team that I would support when we first started getting English football over here). This is the best thing for Liverpool, I just know it.
Getting money/free-of-debt is one thing. But getting management and an organization that knows what it is doing is something MUCH MUCH more valuable.