Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Business of Baseball: World Series Shares DOWN from '06.

World Series share money declines

By Associated Press - Monday, November 26, 2007

NEW YORK - A full World Series share was worth $308,236 for the Boston Red Sox [team stats], down from the record $362,173 set by the St. Louis Cardinals last year.

Boston’s split of the postseason players’ pool was $18.89 million, down from the $20.02 million the Cardinals shared when they won the title. The Red Sox voted 47 full shares, 14 partial shares and 11 cash awards.

NL champion Colorado, swept by the Red Sox, voted 44 full shares of $233,505, five partial shares and 45 cash awards. Mandy Coolbaugh, the widow of Rockies minor league coach Mike Coolbaugh, was voted a full share. Mike Coolbaugh was killed when struck by a foul ball during a game in July.

Last year, a full share on the Detroit Tigers was worth $291,668 after they lost to the Cardinals in the Series.

World Series ticket prices were basically unchanged this year, and revenue was down because of the success of the Red Sox — Fenway Park [map] has the smallest capacity among major league ballparks.

The players’ pool dropped to $52.46 million from a record $55.60 million. The pool includes 60 percent of ticket money from the first four games of the World Series, the first four games of each league championship series and the first three contests of each division series.

Full shares for the league championship series losers came to $139,460 for the Arizona Diamondbacks and $107,45 - 8 for the Cleveland Indians.

Among first-round losers, full shares were worth $31,594 for the Los Angeles Angels, $28,058 for the Philadelphia Phillies, $26,304 for the New York Yankees and $24,508 for the Chicago Cubs. For second-place teams that didn’t make the playoffs, full shares were worth $11,404 for Milwaukee, $10,611 for Detroit, $9,411 for the New York Mets and $9,112 for Seattle.

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