Phil Castellini surprised that Opening Day tickets still unsold

[Wonderful Monds]

Never understood people who allow someone else to effect their happiness. I will watch the Reds because I enjoy watching the Reds. I will go to games with my family because my girls want to go to the games. I will buy overpriced beer because I want to drink beer and watch a baseball game.

Owners are going to get their money whether or not I decide to go to a game.

I mean my thing is, I don’t enjoy watching the Reds when they suck anymore. They’ve sucked my whole life, I’ve had enough of that game. It gets even less fun when they trade off all the best players and replace them with scrubs and has beens.

Too much bad baseball for me.

[StRedlegs900]

Umm, not exactly.

The entire purpose of the billboard was to get other people to pay for advertising their podcast, by attaching it to a theme that most Reds fans feel strongly about.

And it worked. They even got to pocket a few hundred dollars on top of the fact.

I wish people would quit pushing the narrative that it was all about getting Bob to sell, when 80 percent of the billboard is advertising a podcast.

To review. They were disingenuous. They got away with it. Just like Castellini is disingenuous and gets away with it.

Anyone who says differently is selling something. Probably that stupid podcast I hope no one consumes, because people like that suck. The end.

Ok

[HammerTime]

Not sure why you guys are so bent out of shape about the billboard. Who cares, don't donate money if you don't want to support it or whatever podcast is assocated with it. I think it would be funny if it gets put up, obviously not gonna make him sell tho.

[Old school 1983]

Not sure why you guys are so bent out of shape about the billboard. Who cares, don't donate money if you don't want to support it or whatever podcast is assocated with it. I think it would be funny if it gets put up, obviously not gonna make him sell tho.

Pretty much. People can spend their money however they see fit. Doesn’t bother me one bit. It’s seems like a bad way to spend money to me. Like you said, it won’t convince Bob to sell. I mean if it gives people some sort of catharsis because the Reds got rid of some familiar faces and lowered the payroll a bit, more power to them.

[bucksfan2]

When a baseball owner says he "lost 40 million".. what he really means is that he made 40 million less than he hoped.
We had a post on this.
Some "insider" in 2020 claimed the club was losing money, stated stuff like the club has over 100 million in miscellaneous expenses, etc.
We did the math, using his numbers, and the conclusion was, at most, the club lost 10 million before factoring in the savings of no minor leagues.
The players ate the bulk of the losses, since they were paid prorated -- which is consistent with the owners saying that payroll is their largest expense.
So if you lose your largest expense, that really cushions the blow of not selling tickets.
I know you that you know all this stuff, I'm preaching to the choir, just wanted to say how outrageous that 40 million dollar "loss" claim is.
Articles like this don't talk about how the players not being paid for the missed games while the owners still got TV money (IIRC) for lost games.

I can only speak from my experience with the Reds. As the person who manages the Season Tickets, I don't know how much the Reds truly lost in 2020. But what I do know as an enticement to keep the revenue from the 2020 season tickets, they gave you a 10% credit if you rolled over your season tickets to 2021. I don't know what percentage of the Reds revenue is generated from Season Ticket sales, but I am sure it is a healthy portion. I also am not smart enough to know how they would have booked that loss. And I don't believe GABP opened up to capacity until after Memorial Day last year.

FWIW I do believe they lost money in 2020 and were probably able to book a bigger loss than what they actually lost. And I wouldn't be surprised if the revenue was muted in 2021. I don't know what happened with the TV contracts for 2020, but I would imagine there was some kind of pro-ration going on there as well as players salary.

I am in no way excusing Castellini for operating the way he did. I do think the current state of the club has to do with a few things. First off what happened in 2020, prior to March when the world shut down, the Reds spent pretty liberally in the FA market. I do think the loss scared him away from really opening up the pocketbooks for the foreseeable future, but an issue with a team like the Reds reared its head, if you spend FA dollars you can't miss. Moose, Shogo, and Suarez were all whiffs over the past two seasons. Had Moose and Suarez played to their contracts, the Reds may be sitting in a different position right now.

As a fan it sucks, but back to the current topic, it won't cause me to follow them any less or enjoy their games any less.

[LeatherPants]

I can only speak from my experience with the Reds. As the person who manages the Season Tickets, I don't know how much the Reds truly lost in 2020. But what I do know as an enticement to keep the revenue from the 2020 season tickets, they gave you a 10% credit if you rolled over your season tickets to 2021. I don't know what percentage of the Reds revenue is generated from Season Ticket sales, but I am sure it is a healthy portion. I also am not smart enough to know how they would have booked that loss. And I don't believe GABP opened up to capacity until after Memorial Day last year.

FWIW I do believe they lost money in 2020 and were probably able to book a bigger loss than what they actually lost. And I wouldn't be surprised if the revenue was muted in 2021. I don't know what happened with the TV contracts for 2020, but I would imagine there was some kind of pro-ration going on there as well as players salary.

I am in no way excusing Castellini for operating the way he did. I do think the current state of the club has to do with a few things. First off what happened in 2020, prior to March when the world shut down, the Reds spent pretty liberally in the FA market. I do think the loss scared him away from really opening up the pocketbooks for the foreseeable future, but an issue with a team like the Reds reared its head, if you spend FA dollars you can't miss. Moose, Shogo, and Suarez were all whiffs over the past two seasons. Had Moose and Suarez played to their contracts, the Reds may be sitting in a different position right now.

As a fan it sucks, but back to the current topic, it won't cause me to follow them any less or enjoy their games any less.

The payflex they "saved" during the teardown should have taken care of any losses from 2020 and 2021 as they didn't use it towards payroll.

[REDREAD]

The payflex they "saved" during the teardown should have taken care of any losses from 2020 and 2021 as they didn't use it towards payroll.

Exactly. Ownership did not utter a peep during those highly profitable tanking years. That more than made up for any supposed "loss" during 2020.

[Bob Sheed]

Just give it another week and 468% of the billboard will be advertising a podcast

"Water? You mean like from the toilet?!"

[bucksfan2]

The payflex they "saved" during the teardown should have taken care of any losses from 2020 and 2021 as they didn't use it towards payroll.

Yea, I would be surprised if many business operate this way.

I don't like what the Reds are doing, and I do think the reality of what has happened falls somewhere in the middle between what the Reds fans believe/want and what Castellini says.

If I were a business owner and lost my shirt over 2020 and 2021, I would be a little cautious going forward.

[LeatherPants]

Yea, I would be surprised if many business operate this way.

I don't like what the Reds are doing, and I do think the reality of what has happened falls somewhere in the middle between what the Reds fans believe/want and what Castellini says.

If I were a business owner and lost my shirt over 2020 and 2021, I would be a little cautious going forward.

Hey if they want to open their books to show they were in the red by $40 million, they are free to do so. Until they do, I call BS.


Once again, for those in the back, losing revenue doesn't mean you lost money, it just means you probably didn't make as much money as you were going to.

[Sea Ray]

Of course we want our team to spend more money but the real issue is how they're spending the money

Are guys like Moustakas, Pham, Solano and Minor really the best use of $36 million?

[Sea Ray]

Hey if they want to open their books to show they were in the red by $40 million, they are free to do so. Until they do, I call BS.


Once again, for those in the back, losing revenue doesn't mean you lost money, it just means you probably didn't make as much money as you were going to.

You know they're not going to open their books so where does this get you? Ownership isn't changing so let's rally to get guys in there that can judge talent better

[LeatherPants]

You know they're not going to open their books so where does this get you? Ownership isn't changing so let's rally to get guys in there that can judge talent better

Ownership isn't going to fire Krall because we talk about it on a message board, so where does that get you?

[Sea Ray]

Ownership isn't going to fire Krall because we talk about it on a message board, so where does that get you?

Krall will be fired before the Castellini family sells

I've seen pressure work to get Dick Wagner and Jim Bowden fired

[bucksfan2]

Hey if they want to open their books to show they were in the red by $40 million, they are free to do so. Until they do, I call BS.


Once again, for those in the back, losing revenue doesn't mean you lost money, it just means you probably didn't make as much money as you were going to.

Opening their books is a pipe dream. No company that isn't required by law to open their books voluntarily does so.