LA Angels Wednesday News Crash: Pitchers And Catchers Report 2026

I DO actually know, via several people who work in sports marketing, it really does matter if:

FanForLife’s thing happens and subscriptions (if a team has them) fall off either month to month or year to year.

And it really matter if season ticket holders don’t re-up and they give negative feedback. That feedback goes into the data and gets discussed in meetings.

Also, and this is one many may not realize, but concessions, parking and MLB merch matter because they are partners. Aramark gets pissed when the numbers drop. So does the rest of the MLB when a teams contribution to the over all jersey/hat sales suck ass.

THIS is actually one of the reasons I pick on the Angels and their sad ass red on red on red NASCAR hats. The rest of the MLB wants teams to refresh or add additional merch looks regularly to boost over all sales. Unless you are the Yankees/Doyers teams are expected to do new variants, etc fairly often to make money for the borg. The Angels do this less than even legacy teams like the Red Sox.

So the “spend nothing” plan does indeed work, especially in these areas. One way a guy I know put it is that paying an MLB team and the cost of a stadium is VERY HIGH and when you start to see revenue drop actual year over year profits dive really quickly. The year in year out value of owning a team goes away fast cause, remember, the billions the team is worth or just theoretical bucks till you sell.