Why the Rangers Suck, and...

...why I still hate Tom Hicks. Two things:
One. Just incase you wondered how my declaration about the Rangers "Catastrophic Moment" panned out. Up to that point they were 39-37, that’s a .513 winning percentage. Not too bad. Since? A record of 19-29; a .396 percentage. Not good. Punctuated with a 1-12 road trip. Altogether now...done, done, done.

Two. I saw this on Bob Sturm’s very sportsy blog earlier this week. A guy whose had past articles published about Hicks and the Ranger’s financial situation sent this little nugget:

Just ran some numbers and the profit the rangers are making this year is going to be huge.

1) $46 million for local and national media rights.
2) 2.5 million fans at $17 avg ticket = $42.5 million
3) 120 luxury suites that go between $100,000 and $175,000. Let's use $120,000 as a low avg. That equals $14.4 million.
4) About 8,000 cars a game at $8 a car (again, on the low side) for 82 home games = $5.2 million

So, we add those up and we come in at $108.1 million before any of the many other revenues are added in: Ameriquest naming rights, signage, sponsorships, concessions (this is very big with $5 beers), MLB marketing ( video games, licensed gear, etc.), and The Washington Nationals money. I figure that the revenues coming in this year will run between $120 to $140 million. And again, these are on the conservative side.

Ok. Excellent. The Ranger’s payroll for the 2005 is around $55 million (that includes 10 for A-Rod). That’s 39% of the conservative $140 million estimate of total revenue. Dan McGraw continues:

Teams have usually come in with player costs at about 60-70% of revenues, and still make money. You can look at the salary cap levels of the NFL and NHL, and the percentages the teams in those leagues HAVE to pay and profit highly. It looks like the Rangers are coming in at about 40% or less. We all know there are lots of other costs besides players’ salaries, but there is no way they are going to be anywhere close to the players’ salaries. That is always more than the rest (front office, advertising, scouts, minor league salaries, insurance, etc.) added up.

Tom freaking Hicks. If he ever says one more thing about making money... Grrrrr. Sign some pitching, already!!!