Deadspin released copies of financial reports for the 2007 and 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, as well as a couple of other teams.
From the article:
If there is a thread running through all of these financial statements, it is the incredible ability of baseball teams — whether they're winners or losers, big market or small, "rich" or "poor" — to make their owners a fat pile of money.
Along with the Rays, they published financial statements from the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Florida Marlins, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the Seattle Mariners (in a separate article).
The Biz of Baseball has begun some analysis of the leaked documents and DRaysBay has a closer look at the Rays' specific reports, saying they prove the team is not viable long-term, unless changes are made:
If these numbers are in fact correct, it appears the Rays can only make a profit if they keep their major-league payroll under $45-50M and/or make the playoffs. That's not a very stable long-term financial plan for a franchise, which in my mind puts further fuel on fire for the Rays to get a new stadium.
Which leads us to wonder if these documents were 'leaked' for this specific reason...
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