Bad news for Pirates’ fans: Even billionaire Mark Cuban, a lifelong fan of the Bucs, is no longer interested in buying the franchise — says baseball is dying … blames Pirates’ fans
Mark Cuban and wife Tiffany
Photo courtesy of Business Insider
… blames Pirates’ fans, but not the major reason
“I get 10 emails a month asking me [about buying the Pirates]. My answer is always the same. ‘If I offered you a job that required you to stand in downtown Pittsburgh and have every Pirates fan in the world scream at you for 10 hours a day, and it paid at least $25 million a year, would you take that job?’ That’s why the Pirates won’t be sold.
Mark Cuban in interview with Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Pirates fans are in a world of hurt. Their team is mired in last place in the National League Central, and it may be there for decades unless changes are made. They know exactly what has to be done, and it has nothing to do with the manager or GM or players: Fire the owner.
And they have always had a Plan B.
His name is Mark Cuban who as a native Pittsburgh in suburban Mount Lebanon started his business career as a paper-boy when he was a youngster.
Cuban is worth between $3 and $4 billion dollars right now, and his life-time dream was always to own the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team that he rooted for as a young paper-boy. He expressed an interest in the 21st Century when he inquired about buying them in 2005 — but was rejected.
And, because he has deep pockets, and a love for the team, and a track record of turning a perennial professional loser into a winner, Pirates’ fans have been salivating with the dream that one day Cuban would replace the miserly and clueless Robert Nutting as owner.
Fans are constantly emailing Cuban, as he writes in the quote at the top. His answer now is no, but that is not primarily because of the fans. It is much more complicated than that.
So, that dream of Cuban being the savior for Pirates’ fans has ended. In an email interview with the Post-Gazette early last week, he said he no longer harbors that dream.
Life changes, and he said that baseball — and Pirates fans — have, too.
Look what he did with the Mavericks
In the year 2000, Cuban learned that the majority owner of one of the most woeful franchises in the National Basketball Association, who was a billionaire but was clueless about basketball, wanted to sell his share of the Dallas Mavericks. His name was H. Ross Perot, and most people knew him as the independent candidate for president in 1992 who was a smooth talker but clueless politician.
Cuban bought the franchise, paid some big bucks for players, and suddenly, made the team a contender. In just six years, they reached the NBA championship. Just five years later, they won it all. He had transformed a laughingstock into a winner.
And he was not a long-distance owner. He is in the front rows at the games, jumping up and down in glee or to criticize officials.
In short, the Pirates fans desire an owner with that kind of passion — and deep pockets — who is willing to spend money to make the team a winner.
Cuban rips current management
In 2005, Cuban went back to his roots and asked if he could buy the Pirates. He was rejected by Robert Nutting, and the rest is history.
In his email interview with the Post-Gazette in late July, he said that while the Pirates are worth some money today, the team is unwilling to do what it has to in order to win a championship.
I think where they go wrong — and this is Mark the lifelong Buccos fan speaking — is that they always appear to put profits over winning. They don’t take a risk that could have negative financial consequences. I don’t know how much cash they have taken out of the business over the past 15 years or so, but they are allowed to take a flyer with it every now and then.
Jason Mackey, “Mark Cuban doesn’t want to buy the Pirates.
Here’s why,” July 30, 2018
In essence, what he is saying is that all that Nutting cares about is making some money. And, with the MLB revenue-sharing plan that essentially amounts to corporate welfare for the small-market teams, he will continue to do so without spending much money to make it a winner.
And according to the Post-Gazette article, the Bucs are worth some big bucks right now primarily because of a beautiful stadium and enough fans willing to pay to fill it and make it the 27th worst team in terms of attendance [averaging fewer than 20,000 fans per game],
The Pirates are currently valued at $1.275 billion, which ranks 20th in Major League Baseball, according to Forbes. In 2018, the most recent set of numbers available, they produced $254 million in revenue (25th), while their operating income was at $39 million, which ranks 12th in baseball.
Jason Mackey, “Mark Cuban doesn’t want to buy the Pirates.
Here’s why,” July 30, 2018
Cuban has a number of reasons for losing interest in MLB. The major one is that baseball is no longer the “national pastime,” though he did not use those words. He did not have to,
Second, baseball is in a heap of hurt. It’s not just that attendance is falling, but rather they seem to fight any new idea that does not have a clock assigned to it. It’s a shame. Maybe gambling will bring in new fans. But right now, young kids are not interested in baseball unless their parents force them in that direction.
Jason Mackey, “Mark Cuban doesn’t want to buy the Pirates.
Here’s why,” July 30, 2018
Soccer has even eclipsed baseball in the eyes of parents, though certainly not in number of fans.
What Cuban is saying is that there has been a cultural shift. Baseball used to be the one sport that every young boy played when he is seven or eight-years-old.
No longer. Kids just think that it is boring.
In reality, MLB still averages more fans per game than either the NBA or NHL. According to numbers of fans per game, MLB had more than 28,000 fans per game in 2018, Major League Soccer had 21,873, while the NBA had 17,830 and NHL 17,446.
Comparing the NFL and MLB numbers is useless since baseball has 162 games while football has just 16. But, since the 1970s, professional and college football’s popularity has eclipsed baseball and all other sports.
So, Cuban knows what he is saying based on four consecutive seasons of dropping attendance.
Number 1 reason: Cuban married when he was 44
When asked the primary reason that he was no longer interested in the Bucs, the answer had nothing to do with finance. It was personal.
Cuban married his wife, Tiffany Stewart, in 2002 when he was 44-years-old. He is now 60, but he has three children, the youngest of whom is about 9.
He told the PG,
First is my kids are too much fun. I inquired when I was still single.
Jason Mackey, “Mark Cuban doesn’t want to buy the Pirates.
Here’s why,” July 30, 2018
In short, he is now a family man. When he married Tiffany, she was not a youngster. She was a 32-year-old successful advertising executive, according to a profile in Business Insider. They dated for five years, but had many issues in their early years.
One was his love of the computer, according to Business Insider,
The couple also suffered from "scheduling problems," according to The New York Times, owing to the billionaire's penchant for dividing his day into "blocks of seconds" and staying up on his computer late into the night. At the time, Tiffany said, "I always know I'm not going to be No. 1. He can't turn it off. He just can't."
Aine Cain, “A look inside the marriage of billionaire investor
Mark Cuban and his wife Tiffany …” Jan. 6, 2018
Now, however, the couple and their three kids live in a huge mansion in suburban Dallas where they promise to not spoil their kids.
Good luck with that.
Conclusion
The Pirates have major problems that cannot be solved without a change in management. However, fans who are desperate with the last-place in the division and horrible game management and clueless trades and willingness to trade away young players whom they have developed no longer have a Plan B in Mark Cuban.
And that is unfortunate.
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