Monday, August 4, 2014

Report: Rays to Get $25M Bump in TV Revenue

Haven't independently confirmed this, but WTVT's Chip Carter reports:
This blog has been citing for years the team's impending TV revenue windfall after the 2016 season, but apparently, the dollars could come even sooner.

In addition to exploding cable dollars, a new TV contract could also give the Rays the chance to sell all 162 games, rather than the current 154 they have on local television.

3 comments:

  1. The $25 mill. that Price could of got to stay? Or add the extra $10 mill. that will be saved from Price, add up 3-4 seasons, and use it as the 1/4 of the cost of the new ballpark in Channelside! lol

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  2. Assuming the $25 million bump is true, it makes the Rays even more easy to sell in the near term.

    With the David Price trade on 7/31/2014 the Tampa Bay Rays appear to have gone into Houston Astros mode, regarding payroll load. Unlike the Houston Astros, they still have most of the components to field a competitive team.

    So why did Stu Sternberg trade Price away for minimal talent? By lightening his payroll for this year and next year as well, quite likely, he makes the team more attractive to sell in the near term. He appears to be forsaking the prize at the end of the not that far way rainbow (new TV contact in 2017)

    Is Sternberg teeing theTB Rays up for sale? Considering that Sternberg lives in Rye, NY, he, just like the Glazers (owners of the Tampa Bay Bucs), has no strong ties to the Tampa Bay area. He is, first and foremost, an opportunistic business man. Sternberg paid $176 million for the Rays in 2004-2005. Forbes says they are now worth $485 million. I am sure that Stu has excellent peripheral vision and sees that the LA Clippers will likely sell for $2 Billion, and that the Buffalo Bills, who have not been to a post season game since 1999 (longest drought in the NFL) are on the block for $1 billion or more. If he puts the Rays up for sale in the near term, certainly one of the remaining 450 US billionaires that do not yet own a major league sports franchise will overpay, and even probably even more so, if the payroll is modest.

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  3. Replying to Scott's remarks, above.
    1. Sternberg's group did not pay $176 million for the team. That was the value of the team when he took over as principal. Much of that value was retained by original investors.
    2. A likely sale price of the Rays would be way beyond the fictitious $485 figure, but the biggest question Sternberg and his partners would have to answer is, where else can they make similar returns on their money? They would only be motivated to sell if they were confident of another investment vehicle that would provide equal/less risk, equal/more non financial benefits, and a HIGHER rate of return on their investment.

    If the Rays are increasing in value by $25 million or more each year, (and the new TV contracts could instantly add about $300-400 million in value), that is a very substantial return on the less than $100,000,000 they spent to acquire control of the team.

    Hard to get that rate of return elsewhere.

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