Helping unowned teams in debt or with very little cash

Just an idea to help these teams, and make them more attractive to new owners in the future.

There will be a few teams with quite a bit of debt after this season (Dodgers, Pirates, Padres), and probably a few that have a little debt or close to zero cash. For the teams in this position that don't have an owner I was thinking we could do the following:

Auction off their first round draft pick in the upcoming draft. This would not just be an auction though... you'd be bidding on the right to trade these teams your first round pick in the 2011 draft. So for example let's say Pittsburgh is in debt and has no owner. Their 1st round pick in the 2010 draft is available and 5 teams bid for this pick, with the Mets being the high bidder with 5 million dollars. Pittsburgh gets 5 million dollars and the Mets 2011 1st round draft pick. The Mets receive the Pirates first round pick in the 2010 draft.

This does 2 things. One it helps the Pirates with their cash situation. Two it gives a future owner of the Pirates more say in their future players. If we are looking for an owner for the Pirates at the end of the 2010 season they're financial situation will be a little better plus they will have two 1st round picks to look forward too.

How ab out we let them keep the pick and just go in and eliminate the debt. Sure it is unrealistic, but so is them not actually having an owner for as long as they did? We could reset it to give the cash also, maybe 10 mil or something like that.

uscsteve wrote:

How ab out we let them keep the pick and just go in and eliminate the debt. Sure it is unrealistic, but so is them not actually having an owner for as long as they did? We could reset it to give the cash also, maybe 10 mil or something like that.

I disagree with this in principle, but only in principle. Erasing their
debt seems somewhat cheap and easy.

That said, if the objective is to get owners, then it's not entirely
unrealistic. I could see it as a last-resort sort of thing. If it happens
though, let's give the long-term GM's a slight reward. It can be
considerably lesser in value, but something that says "hey, you
did ok managing your team." It's only an idea. *shrug*

-Cinci'

I have two thoughts on eliminating all debt...

1st we have a few teams that have worked their teams out of quite a bit of debt.... Cincinnati and Milwaukee off the top of my head... to just erase the debt of Pittsburgh and San Diego seems to cheapen what they've done.

2nd if we had 28 teams and were trying to fill these last two that might make more sense. I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, but if nothing else it serves as a warning to other teams to be financially responsible.

I don't think this is that much of a primary issue at the moment... filling in other teams seems to be the best course for now...