Friday, April 13, 2018

Blind Item #1 - Athlete Investor - Mr. Hedge

This athlete investor, about whom I've written previously - is off to a very rough start, early in his inaugural season. His team looks even worse on the field than most people expected, and that's really saying something.  Attendance has plummeted - cut in half, even when adjusted for changes made to how it gets publicly reported.  In fact, they have already set their stadium's "record" for the fewest number of fans buying tickets to a single game, on 3 separate occasions. 

As someone who saw the deal terms from the inside, the financial projections forecast both cost cutting AND a revenue increase in year 1.  The entire financial plan, which justified the massive price tag his investor group paid for the team - relied upon that trend to continue in future years. The way things are going, his investors will see most of their investment value evaporated - through taking on additional debt to fund operations, in about 3-4 years.



41 comments:

  1. "Only 7,003 people showed up to watch the Miami Marlins lose to the Mets, the lowest paid attendance in Marlins Park’s eight-year history. In six home contests against the Cubs, Red Sox and Mets — three teams that one would think would be good draws — Miami is averaging just 14,443 fans per game, down 29.1 percent from an already-low average in 2017, when the Marlins ranked 28th out of 30 MLB teams in attendance."

    Dang, even my Redlegs don't have it that bad.

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    1. Anonymous6:53 AM

      How dare you besmirch my team. Here’s your penance https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.nxRdT8oHDV-SpYSEBnGgNgHaFj%26pid%3D15.1&f=1

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    3. Hey I'm a Reds fan, too!

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  2. I lived there for years and caught a few games.... brutal losses lol... they sort just-suck.

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    1. Stadium is super nice though

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    2. Like our Padres! Be sd dutiful stadium with soso team. Always disappointed. @ Tricia13!

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    3. It’s a nice stadium though ,right? Haven’t been there since I was young:(

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  3. Yup, now Marlins are just a farm team for Yankees.

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  4. The White Sox had only 900 something fans show recently.

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  5. Yeah, it's pretty bad, more people showed up to watch the Jacksonville Jumbo.

    Marlins had fewer people in attendance than Double-A affiliate Wednesday

    http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/marlins-outdrawn-double-a-affiliate-attendance-numbers-article-1.3930613

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  6. Maybe fans aren't sure it's a local team.

    To avoid Miami courtroom, Marlins claim citizenship in the British Virgin Islands

    http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article208398234.html

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  7. Baseball is a dying sport.

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  8. It was always going to go
    To Derek Jeter's taco hole

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    Replies
    1. This might be my favorite comment EVER. I have a tendency to simply see Jeter and sing, "Derek Jeter's Taco Hole"

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    2. Anonymous10:42 AM

      You should see the Derek Jeter Herpes Tree

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  9. Bklyn Nets?
    Also: Mr. Hedge? (I am new here). Separate person or tea from a hedge funder?

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  10. @cc423 is spot on.

    Baseball is dying slow, painful death that is on it's last legs.

    Can't taint those holier than thou baseball records with aluminium bats, though.

    Such a stupid sport, too!

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  11. "Taco Hole" is the best thing I've read in years.

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    1. https://view.yahoo.com/show/saturday-night-live/clip/40031825/derek-jeter-s-taco-hole?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=mweb_share

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  12. SHHH @brayson87 I live in the city and the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are pretty big here. God I hate that name, no idea why they changed it from Suns. Anyway, Miami used to have a good team, well used to.. they had a good team in late 2002 through 2003 of course when they won the series, during that off-season the owner traded off all of their stars, they have not even been close since.
    Baseball is hard man, The Rays get so close as well, but just lack that ability to push, kinda like our Jaguars.
    I am a Yanks fan, I love Jeter, for what he did on the field and how he led his team off the field. But i did not think this Marlins thing was ever a good idea.
    To be fair to the Sox, they had under 1000 at a game, but man, it was freaking COLD there..

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  13. All professional sports are dying. People are no longer enamored of paying large amounts of money to watch other people play a game. This is a good thing.

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    1. Bread and circuses

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    2. @DDonna Tarttty

      I agree. Why watch people live their lives when I can live my own?

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  14. In baseball they just play so many damn games, and long games too. People were reading books in the stands before smartphones.

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  15. I still love minor league games; the names, mascots, relaxed hometown feel with announcers, the prices. Taco Hole would be a great name😂

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  16. People are finally starting to realize how lame professional sports are, and baseball is the worst. The athletes are dumb as rocks, the game is boring, and it costs a fortune to go to a game.

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  17. Pro sport in general has peaked, particularly pro football. I don't expect them to disappear, not at all, but they're going to be smaller, with lower salaries, and some franchises may die. That is actually a good thing for serious fans, because almost all North American pro sports suffer from too many teams too many games syndrome.

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  18. +1 CJ Future of college sports is going to look different too. Has to, from a financial perspective.

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  19. "Only 7,003 people showed up to watch the Miami Marlins lose to the Mets..." good grief, mid table 2nd division english football teams manage better attendances than that.

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  20. Just curious: Does anybody remember that never-printed but notorious Vanity Fair story from at least a decade ago, that got killed by Graydon Carter at the last moment? It was by a woman sports writer, it was about varying sports figures and the size of their apparatus. There was allegedly a section that claimed a lot of tension between Jeter and A-Rod because A-Rod earned his nickname, so to speak, compared to Jeter's tiny peter. Not sure if that was only gossip, now lost to time, or there was something to it. Ringing any bells for anyone?

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  21. Funny thing is that 'Taco Hole' was my stripping name

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  22. I agree Ursa, for millions of dollars there should be more danger on the field ;)

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  23. Jeter.
    Run with the Taco Hole brand.
    It may be your only chance!

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  24. @MRS,I tried answering before,no luck,but here goes.Mr. Hedge is a real Hedge fund manager,and he contributes business type blinds regularly. He is also the same person who backed the film An Open Secret,about Hollywood Pedos and their enablers. We all know his name,but don't know if it needs to be put out. Other regular contributors are Mr X(easy blinds) Himmmm, a group of four Hollywood insiders, who we may or may not know,but they have to an lots of hints.

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  25. @guesser. Awesome! Thanks!

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  26. @guesser Thx for explaining this for me, also! I never understood who “Mr. X” wrote about, etc

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  27. @DDonna- shame on you. I held you in such hi esteem... LMK if you find it, hah.

    Baseball is dying and as the baby boomers age out and die off, it will move into total collapse.

    I think the Euro flavors are the future- soccer, Formula One, whatever else may migrate over....

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  28. @Truthseeker -- Jax here too! Love going to Shrimp games. I love the name--minor league teams should have silly names. But I still sing the old Suns jingle, so there's that.

    All the comments about baseball dying make me so sad. I get the aspect of people being sick of overpaid athletes, but aside from that, I love baseball. I live, eat, sleep and breathe it during the season. I love the pace, the history, the stats and numbers, the personalities....I'm not really sure why. I've felt this way my whole life. My mom still talks about how I was obsessed as a kid and they never could figure out why since neither parent was a big fan. I guess I was just born with it.

    I know many people who feel like the majority here, but thankfully I am not totally left alone in my love for it. And despite that love...even I can admit what is happening in Miami is really sad. :(

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