1872.18
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Boston Pro Club Faces Insolvency on Way to Becoming Longest-Lived
| Salience | Noteworthy |
|---|---|
| Tags | Business of BaseballBusiness of Baseball |
| Location | |
| City/State/Country: | Boston, MA, United States |
| Modern Address | |
| Game | Base BallBase Ball |
| Immediacy of Report | |
| Age of Players | AdultAdult |
| Holiday | |
| Notables | |
| Text |
[A] Boston Headline, 12/5/1872" "Crippled Financial Condition of the Boston Club Association ["a $4000 debt"] - A Meeting to Devise Measures -- Will the Champions be Sustained for Another Season?" [B] "We see here where management is essentially passing the hat among the fans. This will come together in a unique solution. The organization running the team is the Boston Base Ball Association. The fans will be the Boston Base Ball Club ("club" reflecting its social nature), which will take over the block of outstanding BBBA stock, paying for the privilege. This will carry the Bostons over until better times. This is why the now-Atlanta Braves are the oldest team in baseball." -- Richard Hershberger |
| Sources | [A] Boston Herald, December 5, 1872: [B] FB posting by Richard Hershberger, 12/5/2022 |
| Warning | |
| Comment | Richard Hershberger,"150 years ago in baseball: the financial condition of the Boston club," FB Posting, 12/5/2022;
"Last year they came in second, missing the pennant on a technicality. They won the pennant this year. They are the best team in baseball, and the best run organization. So their finances should be pretty good, right?
Not so much. The important thing to understand about the business of baseball in the 1870s is that they lacked a viable business model. They simply could not consistently bring in more revenue than they had expenses. This is why the churn rate of professional clubs was so high. They will only start to get an handle on this in the 1880s. Not coincidentally, the 1880 season will also see the first incarnation of the reserve clause. But that is in the future.
Boston has one advantage other clubs lack: the local popularity that comes with winning. We see here where management is essentially passing the hat among the fans. This will come together in a unique solution. The organization running the team is the Boston Base Ball Association. The fans will be the Boston Base Ball Club ("club" reflecting its social nature), which will take over the block of outstanding BBBA stock, paying for the privilege. This will carry the Bostons over until better times. This is why the now-Atlanta Braves are the oldest team in baseball."
"We think of top-level professional sports as being awash in cash. Whatever the truth of this might be today, it certainly was not true in the 19th century, or really into the era of large television rights contracts. This is not to let the owners off the hook. Many were terrible people. But this does not change the underlying reality that free market economics simply don't work for top-level professional athlete salaries."
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Submission Note | FB posting, 12/5/2022 |
| Has Supplemental Text |
1872.18 Boston Pro Club Faces Insolvency on Way to Becoming Longest-Lived"
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