2021 Brewers Budget

[pacopete4]

Brewers axed their social media department today. Considering all the unique content they put together, this may be another indication that the Brewers will be running lean moving into next season.

[Jaylyn]

Brewers axed their social media department today. Considering all the unique content they put together, this may be another indication that the Brewers will be running lean moving into next season.

"Running Lean" is a nice way to put it!

[adambr2]

That seems like a really terrible place to try to save a buck. How much is the social media budget, a couple hundred thousand? Particularly in this day and age with a continuing failure to reach a younger generation of fans this does not seem like a move that is going to help that problem.

[torts]

Agreed. Social media was one of the areas i thought the brewers excelled at, given the market they're in

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'll second that. That team did a great job.

[Dean Machine]

Bummer for Cait. I have talked to her a few times at visiting ball parks briefly and she was super nice and she is very very good at what she does. Although as awesome as her videos were they never seemed to truly go viral. Shortly after her Sandlot video I listened to two different podcasts about that movie with "sports" people involved and the parody was not brought up.

 

I've often wondered if social media moves the needle at all. It keeps the people that are already engaged engaged but does it find new customers? Are there ever going to be customers again? The current Corona Virus sweeping Europe is different than the one here which they are hoping that the vaccine that is coming early next year is going to be 50 percent successful against so that vaccine will be even less successful as the virus mutates. If the agenda is going to be the virus is too dangerous to risk crowds sports may be done as we know them. If I owned a sports team I would be thinking about selling.

[MrTPlush]

I think this has more to do with them feeling the social media department brings little to no value versus a rapid panic to cut costs anywhere available.

[TigerUppercut]

Bummer for Cait. I have talked to her a few times at visiting ball parks briefly and she was super nice and she is very very good at what she does. Although as awesome as her videos were they never seemed to truly go viral. Shortly after her Sandlot video I listened to two different podcasts about that movie with "sports" people involved and the parody was not brought up.

 

I've often wondered if social media moves the needle at all. It keeps the people that are already engaged engaged but does it find new customers? Are there ever going to be customers again? The current Corona Virus sweeping Europe is different than the one here which they are hoping that the vaccine that is coming early next year is going to be 50 percent successful against so that vaccine will be even less successful as the virus mutates. If the agenda is going to be the virus is too dangerous to risk crowds sports may be done as we know them. If I owned a sports team I would be thinking about selling.

 

From the standpoint of someone that studied science and specifically biology/physiology, there are so many things that are wrong with this post I don't even know where to begin. This is how misinformation spreads.

[hawing]

I'm going to guess for now it's borne of MUST CUT ALL THE COSTS and not "who needs social media in the 2020s?" Either way, it's bad news.

 

Makes me wonder if the ticket rep staff will be next - perhaps not eliminated but maybe scaled way back.

[MrTPlush]

I'm going to guess for now it's borne of MUST CUT ALL THE COSTS and not "who needs social media in the 2020s?" Either way, it's bad news.

Makes me wonder if the ticket rep staff will be next - perhaps not eliminated but maybe scaled way back.

 

My SSH rep is pretty low on the totem pole, like the bottom, and they brought him back a month or so ago after being gone all season. I am guessing that is a sign they probably aren't going to dump too many (if any). They probably need the manpower with how next season is going to likely be. There will probably be fans and it will probably be one mess to deal with.

[Jopal78]

I'm sure there are independent firms that provide "social media services" and it's better for a team's bottom line to simply contract for these services than to have the expenses involved in producing the content, travel expenses, etc. plus the associated costs (healthcare, 401(k) etc.) for the workers on the payroll doing the social media posts.

[mtrebs]

Either way, it's bad news.

 

I have no idea how much the Brewers were spending on the social media team, but it has to be peanuts compared to an average MLB player's salary. This is not a good sign at all. Granted, every penny counts, but it takes A LOT of cuts like this to make up one Eric Sogard. I'm very nervous for what the 2021 team will be.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Either way, it's bad news.

 

I have no idea how much the Brewers were spending on the social media team, but it has to be peanuts compared to an average MLB player's salary. This is not a good sign at all. Granted, every penny counts, but it takes A LOT of cuts like this to make up one Eric Sogard. I'm very nervous for what the 2021 team will be.

 

How do we know for sure it was cost-related, though? Perhaps they just decided to go in a different direction?

[mtrebs]

Either way, it's bad news.

 

I have no idea how much the Brewers were spending on the social media team, but it has to be peanuts compared to an average MLB player's salary. This is not a good sign at all. Granted, every penny counts, but it takes A LOT of cuts like this to make up one Eric Sogard. I'm very nervous for what the 2021 team will be.

 

How do we know for sure it was cost-related, though? Perhaps they just decided to go in a different direction?

 

We don’t, but it would seem odd to do a 180 since their social media team was held in such high regards by many people.

[Jopal78]

Either way, it's bad news.

 

I have no idea how much the Brewers were spending on the social media team, but it has to be peanuts compared to an average MLB player's salary. This is not a good sign at all. Granted, every penny counts, but it takes A LOT of cuts like this to make up one Eric Sogard. I'm very nervous for what the 2021 team will be.

 

If you have been paying attention this has been the effect of the shortened season with no fans, teams have been shrinking their non-player personnel and costs. These type of contractions do not affect wins and losses on the field and are apparently much more palatable than dropping talent from the roster and going from a playoff contender to an also ran.

[monty57]

Either way, it's bad news.

 

I have no idea how much the Brewers were spending on the social media team, but it has to be peanuts compared to an average MLB player's salary. This is not a good sign at all. Granted, every penny counts, but it takes A LOT of cuts like this to make up one Eric Sogard. I'm very nervous for what the 2021 team will be.

 

If you have been paying attention this has been the effect of the shortened season with no fans, teams have been shrinking their non-player personnel and costs. These type of contractions do not affect wins and losses on the field and are apparently much more palatable than dropping talent from the roster and going from a playoff contender to an also ran.

 

Plus players signed a guaranteed contract prior to the season, so the team had to pay them even if they cut them. Other employees probably didn't have that guarantee. Like it or not, when a business has no revenues, employees are going to be let go. If baseball were to go with no fans again next season, you could see some teams filing for bankruptcy. As far as payroll, the teams have to gamble as to whether or not they're willing to bet on having fans in the stands next year. Teams willing to take the risk could get good deals on players next year, but if they're wrong they'll be stuck paying salaries with limited revenues.

[Jimbo]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Sophia get hired into the social media area, along with broadcasting duties?

[mtrebs]

Either way, it's bad news.

 

I have no idea how much the Brewers were spending on the social media team, but it has to be peanuts compared to an average MLB player's salary. This is not a good sign at all. Granted, every penny counts, but it takes A LOT of cuts like this to make up one Eric Sogard. I'm very nervous for what the 2021 team will be.

 

If you have been paying attention this has been the effect of the shortened season with no fans, teams have been shrinking their non-player personnel and costs. These type of contractions do not affect wins and losses on the field and are apparently much more palatable than dropping talent from the roster and going from a playoff contender to an also ran.

 

Sure, but the point is, if the team is cutting these types of personnel to minimize expenses, it likely doesn’t bode well for the player expenses as well.

[monty57]

Pfizer's vaccine news today sure helps. It would seem a lot more likely that we'll have full stadiums next year if there's a vaccine available.

[Brewers Numbers]

Brewers hired a new Director of Digital Marketing in March and it looks like the new marketing job posts fall under her. Seems like a change in direction from Brewers than a real cost cutting move.

[Brewers Numbers]

I took a snapshot of the front office directory from 9/15 and compared it to the latest posted on 11/10. During that time the Brewers went from 314 employees to 297 in the front office, which is a decrease of about 5%. One of those front office people is Quintin Berry who moved to the major league coaching staff. I have no idea if people left on their own accord or not. It is possible because some of the new hires had the same positions as the people who no longer there. There were also a number of promotions too.

 

Baseball Operations (41 to 37): 5 people no longer there, 1 new hire, 2 promotions including Doug Melvin from Senior Advisor to Special Assistant - President, Baseball Operations

Clubhouse Operations(8): No change

Medical Staff(16 to 17): 1 moved to Player Development, 1 moved from Player Development, 1 new hire

Player Development (10): 1 moved to Player Development, 1 moved from Player Development, 1 new hire, 1 promotion, and Quintin Berry moved to the major league coaching staff

Scouting (4 to 5): 1 new hire

Professional Scouts (2): No change

Amateur Scouts (26 to 24): 3 people no longer there, 1 new hire

International Scouts (18 to 17): 1 person no longer there

Partnership Sales & Development (12): 1 promotion

Community Relations (3 to 2): 1 person no longer there

Broadcasting (8): No change

Finance/Accounting (13): 1 promotion

Premium Sales & Special Events (3 to 6): This department was renamed from Special Events and the 3 people responsible for suite sales were moved here from Ticketing, 1 promotion

Human Resources/Office Management (7): No change

Information Technology (17 to 16): 1 person no longer there

Legal (2): No change

Marketing & Fan Experience (19 to 15): 4 people no longer there - 2 were the New Media department

Business Analytics (5 to 4): 1 person no longer there

Media Relations/Publications (3 to 3): 1 person no longer there, 1 new hire

Miller Park Operations (23 to 18): 5 people no longer there, 1 promotion

Retail (11 to 9): 2 people no longer there, 1 promotion

Ticket Sales (37 to 36): 3 people moved to Premium Sales & Special Events, 2 people no longer there, 4 new hires, 8 title changes

Spring Training (8): No change

Brewers Community Foundation, Inc. (3): No change

[Brewers Numbers]

Article about the Brewers dealing with the financial implications of CovidBall 2020 and the possible CovidBall 2021.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2020/11/13/brewers-selling-tickets-2021-hope-fans-allowed/6282583002/

[BrewersSuperCollector]

Article about the Brewers dealing with the financial implications of CovidBall 2020 and the possible CovidBall 2021.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2020/11/13/brewers-selling-tickets-2021-hope-fans-allowed/6282583002/

 

It's behind a paywall. Do you have a synopsis of the article?

[Brewers Numbers]

It's mostly about Schlesinger and what happened on the business side. He dodges any player payroll questions. They are trying to model different scenarios on how 2021 may play out and what that means financially. They did as much as they could do to cut expenses but they still had to let some people go. They rely on game revenue for 30-40% of their income so they did operate in the red (not in the article was the fact there was no revenue sharing this year either). Season tickets renewals are at about 90% for next year. In 2020 all fan engagement declined - viewership, social media, etc. All sports teams had engagement issues. He was disappointed they couldn't do the 50th anniversary celebration.