Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 21, 1995 TAG: 9507210044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES C. BLACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Baseball has become nearly as much of a national pastime in Japan as it is in the United States. But what would happen if an American franchise moved to Japan or another country where "strikeout" and "home run" have become universal words?
This and other scenarios were discussed by Sandy Alderson, vice president and general manager for the Oakland Athletics, on the Washington and Lee campus Thursday morning.
"If we don't come to an agreement on the revenue sharing and salary cap, the league will either become smaller because teams won't be able to survive or they will move because they think they will be able to survive somewhere else," Alderson said at the Baseball and American Culture Conference. According to Alderson, with the popularity of baseball in Japan, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other countries, the major leagues could become intercontinental.
The Athletics have experienced many of the woes that owners have complained about the past few years.
At the All-Star break, the A's were in 11th place in American League attendance, seating nearly 7,000 fewer than the league average of 24,000 a game. Alderson said one reason attendance is down so dramatically as a whole (nearly 20 percent in the major leagues) is because teams lost their season-ticket sales period.
During November and December when season tickets are usually being sold for the next season, fans did not buy tickets last year because of the strike.
So with the drop in attendance, a high payroll that needs to be downsized, a weakening market and other effects of the strike, Alderson expects the A's to lose $50 million combined for the past two seasons. And that estimate doesn't include the impact the Raiders will make once football season begins.
"The interest [in the Raiders] has diverted a lot of interest from us during a critical time of the season," Alderson said in reference to baseball's pennant races.
While money has and always will be a big issue in business, Alderson said an opportunity to add revenue to the league a few years ago was blown.
With a ballpark already constructed in St. Petersburg, Fla., and a consortium there ready to purchase the San Francisco Giants, the sale was voted against by major-league owners and the Giants were subsequently bought and kept in the Bay Area by a group led by Peter A. Magowan. Instead of freeing one team from a struggling market, the owners opted to keep the Giants in the Bay Area, where San Francisco has fallen to 12th in league attendance.
Incidentally, Alderson said the only way some teams have been able to survive in a business where other teams are consistently plummeting is to build a new stadium that becomes an attraction unto itself. Baltimore, Texas and Cleveland, the last three American League teams with new ballparks, are in the top five in attendance. Toronto, which started the new stadium craze in 1989 with the Skydome, is second in attendance.
But despite all the problems he spoke of Thursday, Alderson said he doubts a strike will halt the 1995 season. However, if revenue sharing and salary cap issues aren't settled, fans might see a Puerto Rico-Japan World Series in the distant future.
by CNB