Phil Castellini surprised that Opening Day tickets still unsold

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Originally Posted by Wonderful Monds

It’s not just that though. Not limited to just the Reds, tanking and doing these lengthy teardown “rebuilds” across MLB are teams being cheap and doing so for economic reasons even more so than they’re doing it for competitive ones.

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I’d have to be a complete dolt to think the FO isn’t making money off of operating the team. It’s a business. I expect that. The records aren’t public, so anything they say to me is noise. I think they spend more than enough to create a winner in this division so long as the money is spent competently. I also think there are baseball reasons for the rebuild too. Both can be true at once. Making money and baseball reasons.

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Originally Posted by NebraskaRed

Why are they so bad at messaging?

I'm sure there are worse things he could have said on Opening Day, like admitting to murder, but this is maybe Top 5 worst things to say today.

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Captains of industry aren’t used to being scrutinized the way an Eugenio Suarez or a Sean Doolittle are. Somebody earlier mentioned exceptionalism and an adversarial attitude. When challenged, they tend to get salty, rather than listening and learning. Phil did say he “wanted to be able to go out in public.” So how else does the message get through? Fans only have blunt instruments for their message. Not much nuance available. What if the third base fans chanted “Sell the” and the first base fans chanted “team Bob”? Or maybe “show us” and “your books.” I’d settle for “win the” and “pennant.”

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Originally Posted by NachoMan

Here is the interview: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/eddie...podcast_widget

To be fair Mo Egger does basically ask your point 1 exactly at 6:18 of the interview. Phil then blames the fans for not buying enough season tickets.

10:12 they ask about fans losing faith, Phil responds by saying fans have no choice, "Well where you gonna go?" "What would you do to this team to make it more competitive? It would be to pick it up and move it somewhere else. Be careful what you ask for."

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I just came across a tweet with this quote and I almost thought it was fake. Unreal.

Cincinnati Reds baseball: "Almost spending enough to compete as long as we aren't as stupid as we normally are"

Now that's a tag line.

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Originally Posted by Wayne Krivsky

As someone who has primarily defended the Castellini's during their tenure, even when they have made it really tough to do so Phil made a massive mistake today and they need their PR team to get on that ASAP. To say "where you gonna go?" and talk about relocation is about as stupid of a comment that one could make, and a direct slap in the face to fans. Phil probably needs to stay behind the scenes for a while after that interview.

As someone who thought the billboard idea was initially stupid, Phil's comments today make me want to donate.

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Yup, I officially admit I was wrong about questioning the billboard. I still think it was a way for that podcast to use other people’s money to advertise their podcast, but it worked for sure. The Castellini’s are clearly fuming.

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Originally Posted by Old school 1983

If the Reds moved you’d cry yourself to sleep over it. We all would.

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As a person that has never lived in the Cincinnati area I wouldn’t care at all. In fact, I would prefer if they were out of Charlotte, NC. Would give me more excuses to visit.

If I had the Reds’ ear, I would tell them that nobody cares about your lack of resources. It may be a logical excuse for the team’s limited success, but nobody is interested. Fans don’t root for your financial statements, they just want a quality team.

The Reds’ messaging should focus more on their plan, their timetable, their reasoning.

They should say, look, we went into free agency and it gave us a decent team. But we want more. If we continue to build a young core, we think we eventually will have a top notch team. We have tried it various ways and are convinced that this is going to bring us the best result.

That should be the message.

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Originally Posted by RedTeamGo!

As a person that has never lived in the Cincinnati area I wouldn’t care at all. In fact, I would prefer if they were out of Charlotte, NC. Would give me more excuses to visit.

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Wouldn’t bother me either. Never lived within 2 hours of Cinci and plan to be moving further south in the coming months. Love the Reds, don’t really care what city they play in

Nothing gives you hope for the young season like your COO saying "if you want to look at what would you do with this team to have it be more profitable, make more money, compete more in the current economic system that this game exists, it would be to pick it up and move it somewhere else. Be careful what you ask for"

What an absolute scumbag. I am absolutely blown away. Eat the rich.

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Originally Posted by NachoMan

That Phil C. WLW interview was something else. In a nutshell:

1) Fans shouldn't complain about the Reds sucking because "where else you gonna go?"

2) Fans should beware of hurting the Castellini's feelings too much because of veiled threats to move the team

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If a tree falls in the woods and no one cares... He hasn't had a single year where we got out of the first round of the playoffs.

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Originally Posted by Old school 1983

Well duh lack of evidence isn’t evidence of absence. But it’s pretty common knowledge you don’t receive money for a capital gain until the gain is realized via a sale of the asset. The only way to get dollars out of it is either to operate it to a profit or borrow against its value. Sure, he doesn’t know if they’ve borrowed. That was the point. Unless we have access to their actual books, complaining about them being able to spend more is nonsense. We know what they spend a year on payroll. We know that’s enough to compete and win the division. Spend the money competently and quit whining about things we have no real details of. If they were spending like 50-70 million a year. I’d be going nuts with you. That’s really not enough unless you hit on damn near every decision. They’re 120-150 most years. That should get you there in the Nl Central if you spend wisely

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Fair enough.

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I am a huge Reds fan and i use to be right there defending them. There is no since has said in five different ways he could careless what we think. Think about the madness of you defending a team who hasn't won a playoff series in 25 years with such furor thinking you are the only one in the right. Regardless what you say they are a **** organization and they have been for a long time now. There is no debating that

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Originally Posted by Rowsdower

Wouldn’t bother me either. Never lived within 2 hours of Cinci and plan to be moving further south in the coming months. Love the Reds, don’t really care what city they play in

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There are tons of terrible billionaires down south, let one of them buy it and move the team to NC. Charlotte or Raleigh. Maybe they will actually spend enough on the team and those cities and the surrounding areas are wayyyyyyyyyy nicer than the Cinci area.

https://twitter.com/markvslaughter/s...WR5ymt823HD_BA



Phil just double downed.

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Originally Posted by LeatherPants

https://twitter.com/markvslaughter/s...WR5ymt823HD_BA



Phil just double downed.

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Good lord. I'd say someone from the organization needs to keep him off the air but the nutters are running the asylum.

Also glossed over in that interview is Castellini saying the plan for now on is to “stick to developing our own guys” or ruling out on spending on free agents ever again. Which was already clear to everyone I think, except old school.


There was something also ominous sounding about even that as he said something like developing our own guys, and keeping them around “for as long as their affordable.” Count me out of that too. If they’re gonna do some incompetent version of the """"Rays model"""" and trade guys like Greene or India or whoever as soon as they hit arbitration or shortly after, I’m not interested in that either lol

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Originally Posted by LeatherPants

https://twitter.com/markvslaughter/s...WR5ymt823HD_BA



Phil just double downed.

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Lol at Soho asking him about the comments that made fans mad and Phil replying with "You'll have to be more specific."

It's difficult to imagine worse messaging for fans.

Truly, a man who has had everything given to him in life will never understand what it means to be a fan. While, I think his point about us not understanding what it means to be an owner has merit, that point will not encourage fans to spend more money. He made it very clear that profitablity is the goal. If that's the case, he just hurt himself in that department as well

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Originally Posted by LeatherPants

https://twitter.com/markvslaughter/s...WR5ymt823HD_BA



Phil just double downed.

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Oh my god. This guy has to be either drunk, on cocaine, or both. What in the world is going on??

He is fuming at the fan reaction. Who goes on TV and radio on opening day and threatens the fanbase and talks down to them like this?

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Originally Posted by LeatherPants

https://twitter.com/markvslaughter/s...WR5ymt823HD_BA



Phil just double downed.

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Holy **** lol!!!! What are they doing?????

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Originally Posted by wolfboy

Good lord. I'd say someone from the organization needs to keep him off the air but the nutters are running the asylum.

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Whoever the COO is needs to shut this guy up!

I don't think I've ever seen anything like this on an "opening day" anywhere.

In the off-season, Phil supports the Devils. Gotta support the team:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4FnTW8O4UtI/maxresdefault.jpg

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Originally Posted by LeatherPants

https://twitter.com/markvslaughter/s...WR5ymt823HD_BA



Phil just double downed.

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https://c.tenor.com/uWC8vbKBT5UAAAAC/clown-mask.gif

Just imagine the amount of damage control they'll have to do through Sheldon and the Cincy Enquirer the next few days.

https://c.tenor.com/cDgJ2GTXN30AAAAM/sideshow-bob.gif

Folks……….we’re gonna need a bigger billboard………

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Originally Posted by LeatherPants

Just imagine the amount of damage control they'll have to do through Sheldon and the Cincy Enquirer the next few days.

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They already used that up this past week.

I feel like we are about 2 follow up questions away from "if you don't like how we run things, have YOUR dad buy YOU an MLB team"

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Originally Posted by HammerTime

They already used that up this past week.

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They'll try though, that's Sheldon's job, and the the Enquirer wants access, so they'll bend over.

Did he just tell us to "settle down" on live television?

I sure love my Detroit Tigers, beating Boston 3-0 right now!

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Originally Posted by Mitri

Did he just tell us to "settle down" on live television?

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Only way it could’ve been funnier is if they had him mic’d up on the Jumbotron



….which, I’m just assuming they didn’t lol, so who knows

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Originally Posted by Mitri

Did he just tell us to "settle down" on live television?

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This is legitimately insane. Dude looks like used car salesman from the Bronx named Tony Dollars.

This is like something out of a bit from prime Simpsons

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Originally Posted by Bourgeois Zee

Yeah, you are.

Castellini today said, basically, like it or lump it. I'll keep as much of the money you give me as I want. If you don't like it, tough. I'll move the team if enough of you think that way.

That's both out of touch and incompetent.

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You may very well be right but we're stuck with them. They're not going anywhere

This is one of the worst non-criminal PR days a team has ever done to themselves. It's amazing.

And it's all self inflicted, which is the amazing thing.

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Originally Posted by Sea Ray

You may very well be right but we're stuck with them. They're not going anywhere

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Screw that. I was planning on taking my family to a weekend series this year. Just told my wife we aren't going. Going to start looking at other drivable MLB cities. Might hit up Boston.

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Originally Posted by Tom Servo

I sure love my Detroit Tigers, beating Boston 3-0 right now!

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I wish I could find another team, the Reds are just too imprinted in my psyche. Dating back to my youth watching games with my grandpa, I can't turn to another team. But with the path baseball has chosen to go, I just don't care at this point if I watch another inning of MLB baseball. I hate it for guys that I've always cheered for (Votto, Castillo, and a few other MLBers) Teams with the smart franchises will continue to exceed their expectations, teams with huge money will continue to be relevant, and teams like the Reds will continue to be what they've been most of the last 30 years... Dumpster Fires.

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Originally Posted by LeatherPants

https://twitter.com/markvslaughter/s...WR5ymt823HD_BA



Phil just double downed.

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"...you can hate on us all you want. We're not going anywhere."

He's right. Take that to heart. He doesn't care if you hate him. He's not selling.

Maybe we can agree that ownership has done a bad job running this show since 2006. Let's accept that and move on

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Originally Posted by RedTeamGo!

Screw that. I was planning on taking my family to a weekend series this year. Just told my wife we aren't going. Going to start looking at other drivable MLB cities. Might hit up Boston.

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I don't blame you a bit. I had that attitude towards Mike Brown too