Phil Castellini surprised that Opening Day tickets still unsold

[Bob Sheed]

As far as I'm concerned, he can Phil deez nuts...

[Sea Ray]

As a longtime Bengals fan I know the futility of calling for an owner to sell the team. It's not happenin' and there's nothing you can do. In the case of the Reds, many fans thought Lindner was a bad/cheap owner and wanted him to sell. Well he did. Look what we ended up with

[LeatherPants]

I just listened to the interview, and it's worse than it even looks in writing. Holy god, they are so bad at this.

[Wonderful Monds]

As a longtime Bengals fan I know the futility of calling for an owner to sell the team. It's not happenin' and there's nothing you can do. In the case of the Reds, many fans thought Lindner was a bad/cheap owner and wanted him to sell. Well he did. Look what we ended up with

Castellini is an upgrade on Linder all things considered. Doesn’t make either a great owner, just goes to show how low the bar is.


I know nothing we do is going to make them sell, but if Castellini and co are going to take a dump on Reds baseball like that, it at least feels good to publicly embarrass them to the point where they’re clearly very mad about it. Feels good man.

[LeatherPants]

Scott Sloan is an idiot. I feel bad for Mo Egger, who is a good dude.

[Sea Ray]

Castellini is an upgrade on Linder all things considered. Doesn’t make either a great owner, just goes to show how low the bar is.


I know nothing we do is going to make them sell, but if Castellini and co are going to take a dump on Reds baseball like that, it at least feels good to publicly embarrass them to the point where they’re clearly very mad about it. Feels good man.

I have no problem with publicly embarrassing them or putting pressure on them. They should feel the heat

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Scott Sloan is an idiot. I feel bad for Mo Egger, who is a good dude.

[JFLegal]

As a longtime Bengals fan I know the futility of calling for an owner to sell the team. It's not happenin' and there's nothing you can do. In the case of the Reds, many fans thought Lindner was a bad/cheap owner and wanted him to sell. Well he did. Look what we ended up with

part of the problem is a lot of cincinnati pro sports fans (casual fans) think the reds' ownership situation is the same as the bengals'. however, they are far from the same. castellini only owns 15% of the reds (which makes him the majority owner, but that's a pretty damn low percentage for a majority owner). mike brown owns 100% of the bengals. unless mark cuban comes in and buys out all of the shareholders of the reds, nothing is going to change. some other schlub would become "majority owner" and they would keep costs down so they could pocket money for them and rest of the 100 people in the ownership group.

[JFLegal]

I just listened to the interview, and it's worse than it even looks in writing. Holy god, they are so bad at this.

where did you find it?

[MoneyInTheBank]

Looking forward to Matthew McConaughey playing Phil Castellini in "How to Lose a Fan Base in 30 Days"

[Wonderful Monds]

part of the problem is a lot of cincinnati pro sports fans (casual fans) think the reds' ownership situation is the same as the bengals'. however, they are far from the same. castellini only owns 15% of the reds (which makes him the majority owner, but that's a pretty damn low percentage for a majority owner). mike brown owns 100% of the bengals. unless mark cuban comes in and buys out all of the shareholders of the reds, nothing is going to change. some other schlub would become "majority owner" and they would keep costs down so they could pocket money for them and rest of the 100 people in the ownership group.

The majority owner does set the direction though, even with that share. There’s a reason they did actually spend more at some point once Lindner sold them the team.


At the very least, if the majority owner is out there saying this kind of appalling BS, they’re definitely part of the problem.

[Old school 1983]

It's not just one season, dude.

They tanked before and then didn't spend the payflex money, as I've shown multiple times now.


Also, coming off a year where they were above .500 and with a new playoff structure, this is a horrible year to cut back. But you know all this.

The Reds made heavy investments in analytics, scouting, minor leagues and international players in the rebuild years. You’re not considering a chunk of the payflex could have gone there. In 2020, if my sources are accurate, the Reds went into the season with the largest payroll in team history.

It was the perfect time to do the rebuild. They barely went .500 with a near maxed payroll, FA that were never coming back, significant bloat on the roster, and guys that had career years, with one, Miley, who will likely never come close to that again. All of this while an extremely talented young core was emerging at in the minors and mlb. It was a perfect situation for a reset to younger, cheaper more athletic talent while opening up money on the books in the coming years to supplement that talent. The Reds were caught in a situation where they would have to near tap out their payroll year to year to finish near .500. I want better than that. For once I think the Reds said no mas, cut their usual sentimentality that makes their plans go haywire and cut the chord on some fan favorites in order to create a more sustainable winning product in the future.

[LeatherPants]

where did you find it?

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."

[LeatherPants]

The Reds made heavy investments in analytics, scouting, minor leagues and international players in the rebuild years. You’re not considering a chunk of the payflex could have gone there. In 2020, if my sources are accurate, the Reds went into the season with the largest payroll in team history.

.

Let's pretend that 2020 was a normal year, and not COVID related, and that they raised their 2019 revenue about 10%, which has been the norm during normal years. That would have given them $303 million in revenue for 2020. A $147 million payroll is 48%, which isn't even the highest it's been during the Castellini years (they've gone up to 50% a couple of times). So no, a $147 million payroll isn't the highest it's even been, based on revenue. It's roughly what they were spending back in 2015-2016. In other words, it's about what they should be doing. I'm not sure how much credit they should get for spending what they should be spending anyway.

[westofyou]

Scott Sloan is an idiot. I feel bad for Mo Egger, who is a good dude.

The WLW commercials for their daily shows are the pinnacle of bad radio

[JFLegal]

The WLW commercials for their daily shows are the pinnacle of bad radio

oh some of the hosts are brutal too. scott sloan. rocky boiman, several others.