Winning is costly for Rays

You can field a lousy team in pro sports and still make money, sometimes even more than with a great team.
We've always known that. Anyone in Tampa Bay knows the Book of football jersey
Culverhouse.
Back to losing, and that brings us to the Rays, who've been anything but. They're battling the Yankees for the best record in baseball.
Gosh, if Stuart Sternberg's team wins the World Series, it could go bust-o.
Documents purported to be Rays' financial figures leaked by a sports website tell us the Rays' 2008 American League pennant winners earned the franchise a $4 million profit - $7.1 million less in profit than the 2007 Rays, who had the worst record in Major League Baseball.
It is fascinating stuff.
Four other baseball teams had financial figures leaked, including the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, or the "mighty Pittsburgh Pirates" if you look at their spread sheets.
The Pirates, who have 18 straight losing seasons, an American pro sports record, who have thousands of empty seats just like the Rays, made nearly $30 million across 2007 and 2008, thanks to revenue sharing and baseball's smallest payroll.
In that context, the Rays deserve some credit. They could have gone the Pay Less baseball route and been pulling Pirates money in 2008, or last season, or even this season. Shows the fix winning will get you in.
I don't see why a sports owner doesn't have the right to a profit so long as he upholds the unwritten social contract with the community that demands that they try to put a winner on the field. The Rays have done that.
Yes, this money stuff doesn't seem like it has anything to do with the Rays, who are flying high.
Only the club is planning to cut payroll after this season, and didn't do much at the trade Pittsburgh Steelers jersey
deadline, and already has done everything but wave goodbye to Carl Crawford, only the greatest player to this point in team history, who was in left field Monday night in Anaheim, where he might just be an Angel next season. And there's a small matter of a new Rays ballpark ?
It is fascinating stuff.
Look, Sternberg and his workers have worked wonders.
And some of this financial leakage backs up some of what the Rays are saying.
The Rays apparently do have to spend more on marketing than some teams whose data was leaked, like the Angels. You think Village People concerts grow on trees?
And the 2008 data might underscore the notion that the Rays, successful or no, could lose bread.
You can be successful at bargain rates. The Padres are looking to pull away in the NL West. And the Rays are nose to nose with Yankees Inc.
But this money stuff, this profit talk, can't sit well with fans who will be asked to build a new stadium (as Pirates fans did), who sense that, win or lose, these next few months might be the end of this particular Rays team as they know it. How do they block out the money thing? They only know Carl Crawford will be leaving.
Small-market ball is a balancing act. You're about to see how much of Minnesota Vikings jersey
one.
It still beats lousy products turning big profits.
No wonder they're called the Pirates.
Photo: Stuart Sternberg. Rays owner facing difficult financial choices. Rays owner facing difficult financial choices.