Ideas to afford Prince Fielder

[jeffy]

The problem is what you are really asking is how they can afford Prince plus have the rest of the roster be similar to what they currently have. IOW, how can the Brewers afford a higher payroll.

 

Any team can "afford" Prince, even if it took 25,000,000 per year to sign him, the rest of the roster could be as low as about $10,000,000 by having 24 players at league minimum. So, since any team can afford a payroll of more than $35,000,000, any team can afford Prince. In the Brewers case, they are currently on the hook for $63 million next year and $48 million the following year and then less than $37 million in subsequent years. 37 + 20 for Prince would still leave at least 30 million to fill out the roster.

 

They could, perhaps, sign Prince for for something like $10, 20, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30...that's $180 million for 7 years. This would just mean that in, for example, 2015 they'd have Prince, Braun, Weeks, Yo and the other 21 players would need to average maybe about $1.5 million each. If they were to find a way to add $10 million per year in revenue, it would just raise that average for the remaining roster in 2015 to $2 million, you still end up with the question of "would that $180 million (or whatever it would end up being) be better spent elsewhere?" (the correct answer being "yes" http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif)

 

You are looking for some new source of revenue, that for some reason could only go to Prince Fielder. I don't think they are , for example, going to find a local billionaire who loves Prince so much so that, if the team signs him, he will agree take over sponsorship of the AirTran Landing zone (renaming it Prince's Patio) for $10 million per year above whatever they currently get, for the next 7-8 years.

[TheCrew07]

I think you're ignoring your own premise Ajay, not to mention the answers that people have given you. In the first post you talked about trying to turn the Brewers into an iconic franchise, like the Packers are in the NFL. Milwaukee doesn't have the tradition or history to be that kind of franchise in MLB, we would a need decades long record of success to even think about getting into that conversation, and honestly I don't think the Brewers will ever be in in that conversation, the Brewers were not an original franchise, not like the Packers.

 

The team has done a tremendous job tapping into additional revenue streams since Mark A took over, the payroll is already far beyond what most of us hoped it would someday be. Do you want to sign Fielder in addition to keeping everyone else currently on the roster? If so, there isn't a revenue stream out there to support his 20 million per season, including raising ticket prices. The simple truth is that if you want to sign Fielder so he retires a Brewer then other players will have to go to make room for him.

 

You can suggest marketing and additional revenue streams, but how far is that really going to get you? How much more can the Milwaukee area give?

 

If you want to have the same resources as the NYY then there's really only one solution. Once the stadium is paid for then the Miller Park tax stays in place as permenant revenue for the team, which is never going to happen.

[craigharmann]

So I really want to hear your ideas . . . .

 

Suppose the Brewers management hired you as a consultant and told you that they wanted to make signing Prince Fielder a priority and that your only job was to find a way to make it happen. What would you suggest?

 

Let's see what people come up with.

Jerry Garcia donating food for a bake sale and brat fry.

[rickh150]

I like Bill Hall Star's idea the best. That might work, but then forget about signing Marcum and Greinke. What I'd rather do after 2011, as of right now:

 

1. Offer Prince (only)20 million for next year, and trade Hart (we have some upcoming OF, even Gamel) and/or Wolf. Don't pick up Yuni's opton of 6 million Get a better and cheaper SS from the trade(s)..This would keep next year affordable. Overall, a 20, 30(ML record), (player option years here after)20, 20, 20, 20, (20-mutual option)....... salary stucture might get it done....50 over 2? 75 over 3? 150 over 7 years? Perhaps we could defer some of this money like Braun's contract.

2. Sign Greinke long-term, backloading the contract.

3. Trade Marcum.... I know, I know, he is our best pitcher. Yet, how long can he keep this great pitching up not being a hard thrower. Trade him at his highest value for a younger AAA type pitcher and/or positon player/reliever.

 

Overall, I don't want to get to ahead of myself......... 2011 is pretty fun. Let's fully enjoy it.

[Yaz]

Ok everyone,

 

Get ready to sell your first-borns! Prince has got to stay in Milwaukee. Sigh, losing him will be a big hurt.

 

But the whole silver-lining in this if he is lost will be the glaring light shining on overpaid athletes. And at a time when the US economy is in the toilet. The insanity started back in the late 80's with the jump to $3 million per year contracts. (wow that's still a lot of money) The increase in player pay has EXPONENTIALLY outstripped the wages of the rest of us. This goes for all professional sports.

 

(Prince please be reasonable and stay)

[tyguy20204]

We could defer his salary and pay him $1 million a year for the next 300 years (of course we'd be paying his estate at a certain point...). And who knows, by that time, the economy might have already collapsed, devaluing the currency and thus allowing the Brewers to really make out on things.

[Fear The Chorizo]

add $1.00 to the price of all beer in the ballpark, and give Prince the extra buck for each beer sold - fans would be able to deal with the "Give your best Brewer a tip" promotion.

[monty57]

The increase in player pay has EXPONENTIALLY outstripped the wages of the rest of us. This goes for all professional sports.

 

Right, and our current payroll is around $86MM. Given an historically normal (for "the rest of us") inflation of 3%, the Brewers payroll would be (in millions):

 

2012 $88.58

2013 $91.24

2014 $93.97

2015 $96.79

2016 $99.70

2017 $102.69

2018 $105.77

 

As you mentioned, baseball payrolls generally rise at a faster rate than this, but this could be a good point of reference for discussions. Please, I'm not trying to turn this into a discussion of current economic times, just putting basic numbers out there.

[NievesNoNO]

Sell a Triple cheeseburger and call it the Prince Burger and take a % of the profits. Same thing for beer and soda. Get an over-sized collectors plastic cup(larger than any size they have now) with a crown snap on top. Sell T-shirts "I helped sign Prince" and have all the profit go towards signing Prince. Not sure what would happen if they did all this and didn't sign Prince. Text, "sign Prince" to donate a 1$. Post it on the big screen during Prince at bats.

 

I'm only half serious. I think some could generate some extra revenue but I'm not sure if fans would find it a little insulting.

[RockCoCougars]

I think it would take some very creative backloading as in paying him several years after his career ends. I'm not sure that Prince would be amenable to getting paid like 20 years out, but he might be- based on how his dad squandered his millions.

[Funketown]

Bake sale. Sell magic brownies to Scott Boras. Six years, $3MM. Done deal.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I'm willing to donate a kidney after today...who's in?!?!?

[dlk9s]

Hire Danny Ocean.

[logan82]

Bake sale. Sell magic brownies to Scott Boras. Six years, $3MM. Done deal.

I don't think a bake sale would work. Fielder would eat all the cookies.

[Funketown]

Bake sale. Sell magic brownies to Scott Boras. Six years, $3MM. Done deal.

I don't think a bake sale would work. Fielder would eat all the cookies.

Well, with Prince in $35MM debt to the club for the cookies, he may feel the most fiscally prudent move is to sign with the club at a discounted rate.

[liveforoctober]

What are the rules with outside donations? If some guy decided to give the Brewers $3 million dollars to boost their payroll... are there rules against it?

[young guns]

The MLB realignment thing goes into effect this offseason and the DH is eliminated. Thus eliminating quite a bit of the competition, driving down Prince's price.

[RightFieldCoder]

Which is why the DH will never be eliminated. It would cost agents and players too much money.

[monty57]

What are the rules with outside donations? If some guy decided to give the Brewers $3 million dollars to boost their payroll... are there rules against it?

Not certain, but I would think that if someone wanted to give Mark A a bunch of money, the MLB wouldn't care, as long as it didn't involve transfer of ownership. It wouldn't be a donation, as the Brewers aren't a 501©3, so there may be some gift taxes to work around, as the federal government would want their 55%. The Brewers could sell the guy a permanent front row seat or an ad somewhere... the $3MM would be taxable revenue, but that would be offset if it's used to pay Prince. In other words, if some fan wanted to give the Brewers a bunch of money for no personal gain other than seeing his team win, the Brewers / MLB would find some way to make it happen.

 

[BADGERJOBOB]

I guess I am one of the very very few but you do what you can to sign a hitter like Prince if you have any faith in the Brewer's minor league system and the players we just drafted. We need replacements for Greinke, Marcum and Wolf in 2013. I think Gallardo can take a step up. I think one of the two college pitchers we drafted in the first round will be a solid impact pitcher in 2013. I think you need one more pitcher from your minors to take that one big step and then you try to sign one solid pitcher to fill in the starting rotation. I would save money by moving Hart and filling his spot with Gamel and signing a defensive shortstop that doesn't require a lot of money. If we lose Prince, the Brewer offense will take a huge step back and push us back towards .500 baseball.

[Raw Biz]

I guess I am one of the very very few but you do what you can to sign a hitter like Prince if you have any faith in the Brewer's minor league system and the players we just drafted. We need replacements for Greinke, Marcum and Wolf in 2013.

What if we just resigned Greinke and/or Marcum and found a replacement for Prince? I think that would be a little easier to do and probably better.

If we lose Prince, the Brewer offense will take a huge step back and push us back towards .500 baseball.

Well we were a .500 team with Prince but without Greinke and Marcum. We were a playoff team with two stud pitches in Sheets and Sabathia. I really believe pitching should be the focus for now, as the Giants showed us last year. It's easier to replace a first-baseman like Prince than it is to replace top-of-the-line pitchers.

[liveforoctober]

Here is my "Save Prince Fielder!!" campaign idea. I spent well over 15 minutes thinking about and researching this idea... so you all need to at least take the time to read it and make a comment (good or bad) to make me feel better about myself http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

Culvers (while expanding out of) is a Wisconsin restaurant chain. I propose that we write up a proposal to Craig Culver, a UW-Oshkosh alumni (and I hope Brewer fan), asking him to create two new menu items. One being the "Brewer burger"... and one being some kind of healthy equivalent for those who want to support but don't want to overly clog their hearts. Make these two items available in all 119 Wisconsin locations ... and sell them with a portion of the price being donated directly to a fund which will be given to the Brewers at the end of the season to make Culvers a major sponsor of Brewer's baseball. The reason for the fund, obviously, would be to enhance any kind of offer we can to Prince. Hopefully the "love" that is shown in our state's interest and support of Prince will make him punch Scott Boras in the face and give us a little discount to stay in our state.

 

For a rough (see: awful) estimation at what could be raised... (I'm making these numbers up) if the burger(s) sold for say $3.50 .. and we could get $.75 per sandwich donated to the fund.. let's estimate 100 sandwiches per day, that is $75 per day for each store. Multiply that by the 119 Culvers Wisconsin restaurants, and we get $8,925 a day raised by Culvers. If we could kick off this promotion on July 1st ... between then and December 1st is approx. 150 days (winter meetings slated for the first week of December)... that is ~$1.34 million that the fans and Culvers could collectively give as a "thank you" to Prince.

 

Obviously I have no idea if that 100 sandwich idea is a high or low estimate... many people surely won't want to deviate from their standard Culver's sandwiches (which are good to begin with). I'd assume those numbers could go way up with a little help from the Brewers and Culvers marketing teams. With that said, Culver's would benefit exponentially from this idea .. as patronage to their stores would skyrocket. (my current visitation to the local Culvers, which is 3 minutes from my house... is probably twice/year. If this happened.. it would be twice/week) ... plus they would get a lot of 2012 advertising for becoming a new sponsor for the Brewers. The Brewers obviously benefit in the addition of a very healthy sponsor purchase for the 2012 season, and we fans benefit because we get to have a little say in helping keep Mr Fielder around.

 

I think if Prince is on the fence even a little bit .. the gesture by Culvers/the state and the effort that would be put forth would be a giant marble on the scale of the good side. This is a win/win/win for the 3 player's involved (Brewers/Culvers/fans) ... even if the end result is Prince leaving anyway.

 

Let me hear it.

[GB12]

In a contract of $140+ million, $1.34 million is really nothing. That's less than 1% of the contract. If the Brewers were willing to spend $139 million, they better be willing to spend a million more.

[liveforoctober]

In a contract of $140+ million, $1.34 million is really nothing. That's less than 1% of the contract. If the Brewers were willing to spend $139 million, they better be willing to spend a million more.

Of course... but the whole thought process here is that Prince has his mind set in one of two ways ... the first being "I'm out of here after this year. There is too much money I would be leaving on the table if I stayed." ... if that is how he is thinking, this process has no effect. The other option is that he is on the fence "I love it here. My friends are here. We are good... but there is a lot of money out there for me." ... If he is at all on the fence and needs a little persuasion one way or the other ... I think a million dollar "gift" from the people of Wisconsin is a gesture that could make him give serious consideration to giving in to the "discount" idea to playing out his career here. Of course he knows that Brewer fans support him ... but something tangible like this would be powerful IMO.

[bucksman4]

There's a 0% chance he will be with Milwaukee next season. Theres talk because of his age he could be the highest paid player on the market.

 

In my opinion it will be a bidding war between the Nationals, Angels, Cubs, and Orioles.

 

Washington has proven to already be susceptible to Agent Boras' demands (see Jayson Werth) and are not afraid to spend big bucks so right now they are my favorite to land him.

 

Anyone but the Cubs...