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."   Further comments from Richard, 12/5/2022:   "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."   Edit with form to add a comment
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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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