Larry Dolan Buys the Tribe 10 Years Ago Today
Yes, Larry. We're tired too.
Not that it will help ease the pain today when we look through the images of CC Sabathia and the Yankees celebrating yet another MLB championship, but exactly ten years ago today, Dick Jacobs sold the Cleveland Indians to Larry Dolan for a whopping $320 million.
A quick look back at the New York Times article that chronicled the purchase, there is one comment that sticks out the most.
”I don’t want one World Series for the Indians, I want a string of them. I want to reach the Holy Grail,” said Dolan.
Unfortunately, Dolan has attempted to reach said Grail without spending money and due to such and has only seen the Indians achieve the postseason twice – never once making it to the World Series.
Typically lost in this transaction is the fact that Dolan attempted to buy the Browns a year earlier, but was topped by Al Lerner. Not lost in the transaction is the fact that the $320 million price tag was the highest paid at the time, trumping Rupert Murdoch and the L.A. Dodgers.
Forbes’ most recent valuations of MLB baseball franchises listed the Indians 2009 value at $399 million. This number represents a four percent drop from 2008, and is one that is bound to drop another few percentage points when the 2010 numbers are recalculated considering that 40 percent of the team value is currently market-based. Dolan has already come out saying that the team lost $16 million last season. Ridding the expense column of the salaries of Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez will help ease the financial pain in 2010, but the attendance numbers will likely be way down due to the perceived rebuilding season.
Let’s Go Tribe summed up the Dolan years very well with just a few words.
There has been a grave miscalculation on the part of both Dolan and Shapiro as to just how small the margin of error is for a small market team in this era of baseball as opposed to any other and just how agile the organization must be in order to compete. The values that the Indians have adhered to since Dolan’s purchase and that were assumedly coming from the top, things like stability and loyalty to both players and coaches, are the values of an old guard, old money breed of baseball.
It is this “old money breed” that has given Indians fans years of misfortune while the glory days of the 1990s are becoming more and more of a speck in the rear view mirror.
Perhaps Dolan may have been better suited for the NFL, where there is a salary cap, sold out stadiums and absurd amounts of apparel sales. But since he whiffed at that opportunity, and just had to own a Clevleand franchise, we will continue to hope for all the right bounces, a bit of luck and some misfortune of the opposition.
Already claiming that there will be little money spend on free agency coupled with gaping holes among the roster shows that these “Dolan years” are going to likely get a lot worse before they get any better. Manny Acta sure has his work cut out for him.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
“we will continue to hope for all the right bounces, a bit of luck and some misfortune of the opposition”.
Really, seriously? Instead of “hoping”, how about ratcheting up your expectations and making it known?
November 5th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
maybe we should write a letter
November 5th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Or have the fans that aren’t showing up anyways wait until after the first pitch to sit down?
November 5th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Forbes’ most recent valuations of MLB baseball franchises listed the Indians 2009 value at $399.
So Dolan has lost around $319,999,601 out of his investment into the Tribe? I’d probably be a little stingy with payroll also.
/obviously sarcastic
November 5th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Ha – thanks Chris – will clarify.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
That “string of championships” line will dog Dolan until he antes up for players…but I don’t see how that will happen in the current market. Has there been a bigger gap between the haves and have-nots? I suppose it was really magnified this post-season for Tribe fans w/ Lee an CC facing each other Game 1 of the WS, but I really hate baseball right now. I just don’t see the Tribe having a shot at post-season glory when home-grown players will ultimately leave every few years for bigger markets. Short windows of competition (like the Rays have now) followed by rebuild after rebuild? How the hell does Dolan expect fans to get behind that? He’s running the team ass-backwards; “come and I will build it” instead of the other way around. Baseball needs changes and needs em now. That or the Tribe has to improve their drafting to even have a chance…the whole situation is damn depressing.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I’ve always said that it is just so “Cleveland” that the Indians (no salary cap) are owned by Dolan and not by willing spenders like the Browns and Cavs have (salary cap leagues).
November 5th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Baseball has a major problem. You cant blame the Yankees or Red Sox for taking advantage of it, any team that could, would. The issue is that if things stay status-quo in baseball it will eventually become a league of only major markets. Maybe a couple teams in each market that can support it. The Minnesota’s, Kansas City’s and Cleveland’s will no longer be able to afford to compete. Its close to that point now. For the major markets all they have to do is throw around money….for the rest it takes a careful, meticulous plan….and quite a bit of luck.
Maybe the Dolan’s got in over their head. But I give them credit for at least having a plan, unlike the Browns. As sad and angry as I am to see our stars get traded I understand the economics of it. Its what the smaller markets have to do because its what baseball dictates.
If there’s anything I can thank the Dolan’s for, its for keeping the Tribe in Cleveland. Sure, I miss the glory days of the 90’s, but I still have my home town team to root for. I want to win as bad as the next fan, and I can only hope that luck smiles down on the Tribe….soon
November 5th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I’m a lifelong Tribe fan who is nearing the end of my rope. I’ve sat through losing seasons where they lost 100 games and really didn’t mind cause I knew that the future would be bright. These last couple of seasons however seem different. This past season I just couldn’t bring myself to watch much. I don’t see the future being bright and I don’t see us getting any better any time soon. I certainly don’t consider myself a fair weather fan cause lets face it… we haven’t seen any fair weather in quite some time.
I honestly believe that if the Dolan’s don’t sell soon (the next 3 or 4 years) then baseball will cease to exist in Cleveland. I hope beyond hope that I’m wrong.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
You can blame the Yankees and RedSox because they are in opposition to revenue sharing and a salary cap.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
@ 5KMD – right on. As awful a mess as the Browns are in, I think I’d rather have Lerner owning the Indians. I’m fairly confident he’d pony up the necessary cash.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
@10 – you would be in opposition too if not having it allowed your team to compete for the championship year in and year out.
its not the teams, its baseball. Hell, I’d love for the Indians to be able to spend $200 million and buy a title.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
It’s a process.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Dolan putup $81mil payroll for the 2009 season. Shapiro is the one that did not spend that $$ wisely (especially bullpen and OF signings that have not paid off at all) and has not drafted wisely over the years.
He has been able to make-up for it with some of his trades over the years, but even those have not panned out as well the past couple of years (though way too early on the Lee and Victor trades to assess).
you want someone to blame for CC and Lee not being Indians…..blame Shapiro for signing Westbrook and Hafner….or the system for being setup that if a mid-market team makes those types of mistakes they crush their immediate future.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Yeah, how could Shapiro sign Westbrook and Hafner when he knew for a fact that they were both going to get seriously hurt? What a dope.
/sarcasm
Sorry, but that’s the worst kind of second-guessing.
November 5th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
“Unfortunately, Dolan has attempted to reach said Grail without spending money”
The Dolans are ripe for their share of criticism, but this statement isn’t fair at all. Early in their ownership, the highest payrolls in Indians history were paid out by the Dolans. And if I’m not mistaken, they’ve invested more in their minor league system than any other team over that time (though the numbers I recall reading were from probably two years ago, so that may have changed some, but still.)
Don’t get me wrong, I hate seeing our best players traded away as much as anybody–but there are other issues at work here besides the payroll trimming the last couple years. Blanket statements like that aren’t fair or objective–you can do better than that, Scott.