The Man-Ram Economy

I'm sure everyone has had enough of "recession talk." Honestly, at this point, if somebody told me there was a radio show or podcast called "Recession Talk," I wouldn't be surprised; which speaks for itself in the “topics that have been beaten into the ground” category.

It is interesting, though, how the economy has affected the sports world. So bear with me, and I promise I won’t ever talk about the economy again. Maybe.

Take a look at the MLB offseason, for example. Some of the free agents left on the market include Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn, Bobby Abreu, and Ben Sheets; big name players that would get equally big contracts most years.

In this market, however, everything is uncertain, and teams are just not offering the long term, big money deals. It’s just not good business. Because of this, most players would be wise to take a one year contract, and re-enter the free agent market next year. You know, once President Obama's magic spells have fixed the economy.

Many players, such as Manny, are still intent on signing the big contract, however. (To be fair, Man-Ram probably doesn’t know who Obama is, or what the word recession means.)

The problem is most teams are just not willing to give out long term deals to questionable (be it for age, health, or attitude) players right now.

Now, granted, most people would say this is a good thing. And it probably is. Not because the players don’t deserve the money they make, necessarily, but because it spreads out the talent.

For example the Nationals will be more likely to take a chance on a short term deal. They have some payroll flexibility, and are more likely to take a risk than teams that have been burned in the past. And lets be honest, it’s about time the Nationals best player is someone other than a guy nicknamed “Da Meat Hook.”

Simply put, it is just much easier for a team to commit to a player for one year, rather than three or four. That’s not to say teams can throw around absurdly large one year contracts, but a short term deal is much easier to handle.

And, sure, the big names like Mark Teixeira and C.C Sabathia still received the big contracts from the Yankees, but the Yankees don’t think like other teams. Long term financial ramifications don’t factor into their planning. Although, we’ll see how well that works out when they are trying to sell their $2,500 tickets to former Lehman Brothers employees…

Really, though, MLB attendance figures will be the most interesting thing to see.

There are far more seats in a baseball stadium than an NBA or NHL arena, making it hard to compare the attendance figures. Football stadiums are comparable in size to that of baseball, but there are ten times as many games in a baseball season than a football season. This makes it a lot easier to splurge one time a year on football tickets, rather than five times a summer on baseball tickets. Especially in markets that are really floundering, like Detroit. Luckily for them, with the Lions, there is no reason to bother splurging on football tickets, so they can just forget about sports for a year.

Seriously, though, when taking a look at how ever plummeting bank accounts are affecting the sports landscape, baseball is the best barometer. If, come July, there are only 10,000 fans at given game, we’ll know for sure that fans really are cutting back. We’ll find out for sure whether sports are “recession proof.”

-Juice