Our special report yesterday on the Pirates' finances is at 80,084 page views and counting, per Google Analytics, marking the most-read baseball piece in our site's history. And this in addition to sparking discussion and debate far and wide on social media, old-school media and, from what I heard, face to face, too.
I'm grateful to everyone who read it. I'll start there.
I'm grateful, yet again, to those who worked with me behind the scenes on this months-long investigation. I only wish I could share their names to give the fullest credit.
And I'm grateful, too, for the immense feedback, principally from our readers right here, the ones who've built this business up to the point that the once-proud Post-Gazette, in a column about this report yesterday, referred to us as 'Dejan Kovacevic's site' rather than our collective brand name of 11 years now. Like I'd just opened a lemonade stand or something. I can't be sure if it was the author or an editor who chose that phrase, but either way, know this: DK Pittsburgh Sports' readership now dwarfs their own because of our excellent overall operation and staff, all of which gets disrespected with a juvenile remark like that.
Hey, look, I included the link to that column up there, too.
But I digress.
Lots and lots of residue from the report, I felt, was worth a revisiting of some subjects, a further explainer of others. So I'm offering a few bonus bullets this morning:
• The most common venting that was done was aimed at Bob Nutting's own wealth and status, specifically as related to how the Pirates -- and all big-league sports franchises -- continue to gain in value and, as a result, he's not exactly experiencing a hardship through the team having a modest loss in 2024.
Well, yeah. That's obvious.
Just as it's obvious, I'd hope, that our investigation had zip to do with anything about Nutting as an individual. It was about the Pirates' operating revenues, operating expenses and, of course, ultimately, operating income. And that's because, for years, there'd been countless accusations of ownership profiteering rather than putting money into player payroll. That was the relevance and, thus, that was our focus.
• The most common curious question that'd come also was specific to Nutting: If he's losing money, then why doesn't he sell?
Which ... is hard to even wrap my head around. There's no logical link to the two concepts. But I've got three responses, anyway:
1. The losses, as reported, aren't significant. That was in the report. And it's absolutely not significant enough to warrant something as seismic as a sale.
2. Repeating from above, the way Nutting makes money isn't through the team's operational finances. No salary. No dividends. That also was in the report. So from his own personal perspective, nothing changes when the team loses a couple million. He'll still collect a billion and a half -- or more, if anyone noticed the NBA's Boston franchise selling for $6.1 billion just yesterday -- in due time.
3. When such sales are consummated, invariably, any debt's covered in the purchase price.
Also and relevant: He likes it. Nutting likes owning the team. He likes the day-to-day vibe. He's around almost all the time. He's smiling almost every time I see him. And, within that, he also really likes the idea of passing it along someday to his next of kin.
He gets that he's not exactly loved around here, but he also sees the prudent manner in which he runs the team, rightly or wrongly, as the most responsible way to preserve baseball in Pittsburgh for the long haul. I hear that one all the time.
• The most common complaints about our data -- and this really threw me -- were all related to the Pirates' $177 million in expenses beyond player payroll.
I'm going to guess that has plenty to do with lazy, uninformed content on this subject that focuses entirely on player payroll, and there's a ton of it. It's also the most common sentiment I'll see, hear and read.
You know the kind, the Facebook special: 'THE PIRATES CAN COVER THEIR ENTIRE PAYROLL WITH JUST TICKETS AND POPCORN! SO WHERE'S THE REST GOING?'
From which, I'll assume, it doesn't cross anyone's mind that running a big-league team is enormously expensive. From the execs, to the administration, to the business/sales staff, to the hundreds involved in gameday operations, to security people, to the field manager/coaches, to the catering of clubhouses at home and on the road, to charter flights (the Pirates fly on United-serviced Boeing 737 jets that run $15,000 an hour), to 4-star or 5-star hotels at every stay, to the maintenance of stadiums and other facilities from PNC Park to Florida to the Dominican Republic, to the employment of all personnel at all levels of the five-layer minor-league system, to an additional $10 million in hotel/meal upgrades for those players mandated as of 2022, to the cost of housing/feeding/transporting everyone through spring training, to scouts now located all over the globe and all their travel, to an unprecedented pack of analytics people brought in by Ben Cherington at six-figure salaries, to ... man, my fingers are tired of typing.
And the funny thing is, I didn't even get to one of the biggest of these costs.
This might surprise football fans, who know that the Steelers have to set aside around $10 million of salary cap space each summer to pay their draft picks, but in baseball, that's categorized outside player cost. It's lumped in with all this instead. Between the MLB Draft and the international free agents -- anyone outside the U.S., Canada or Puerto Rico -- that figure was at $26.5 million in 2024. That's in here.
It's a readily available number, and it's one that's similar across all 30 teams, including the Braves, whose financial totals are publicly available each year.
For 2024 in Atlanta ...
Operating expenses: $504 million 40-man player costs: $276 million Non-player costs: $228 million
The latter's a little more than $50 million higher than the Pirates' number.
This one's easy.
• I'll be a guest on the national 'Foul Territory' show live this morning at 11:13 a.m., invited to talk about all this. Todd Frazier and Erik Kratz, both former Pirates, are part of it. I'll embed the video here once it's done.
• Otherwise, I'll be trying to take today down before embarking for a six-day trip to Florida, where I'll cover two Penguins games, the Pirates' Grapefruit League finale and, at the end, their 144th season opener next Thursday in Miami.
All part of the process here at Dejan Kovacevic's site.
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THE ASYLUM
Dejan Kovacevic
8:47 am - 03.21.2025North ShoreDK: Reaction to the reaction
Our special report yesterday on the Pirates' finances is at 80,084 page views and counting, per Google Analytics, marking the most-read baseball piece in our site's history. And this in addition to sparking discussion and debate far and wide on social media, old-school media and, from what I heard, face to face, too.
I'm grateful to everyone who read it. I'll start there.
I'm grateful, yet again, to those who worked with me behind the scenes on this months-long investigation. I only wish I could share their names to give the fullest credit.
And I'm grateful, too, for the immense feedback, principally from our readers right here, the ones who've built this business up to the point that the once-proud Post-Gazette, in a column about this report yesterday, referred to us as 'Dejan Kovacevic's site' rather than our collective brand name of 11 years now. Like I'd just opened a lemonade stand or something. I can't be sure if it was the author or an editor who chose that phrase, but either way, know this: DK Pittsburgh Sports' readership now dwarfs their own because of our excellent overall operation and staff, all of which gets disrespected with a juvenile remark like that.
Hey, look, I included the link to that column up there, too.
But I digress.
Lots and lots of residue from the report, I felt, was worth a revisiting of some subjects, a further explainer of others. So I'm offering a few bonus bullets this morning:
• The most common venting that was done was aimed at Bob Nutting's own wealth and status, specifically as related to how the Pirates -- and all big-league sports franchises -- continue to gain in value and, as a result, he's not exactly experiencing a hardship through the team having a modest loss in 2024.
Well, yeah. That's obvious.
Just as it's obvious, I'd hope, that our investigation had zip to do with anything about Nutting as an individual. It was about the Pirates' operating revenues, operating expenses and, of course, ultimately, operating income. And that's because, for years, there'd been countless accusations of ownership profiteering rather than putting money into player payroll. That was the relevance and, thus, that was our focus.
• The most common curious question that'd come also was specific to Nutting: If he's losing money, then why doesn't he sell?
Which ... is hard to even wrap my head around. There's no logical link to the two concepts. But I've got three responses, anyway:
1. The losses, as reported, aren't significant. That was in the report. And it's absolutely not significant enough to warrant something as seismic as a sale.
2. Repeating from above, the way Nutting makes money isn't through the team's operational finances. No salary. No dividends. That also was in the report. So from his own personal perspective, nothing changes when the team loses a couple million. He'll still collect a billion and a half -- or more, if anyone noticed the NBA's Boston franchise selling for $6.1 billion just yesterday -- in due time.
3. When such sales are consummated, invariably, any debt's covered in the purchase price.
Also and relevant: He likes it. Nutting likes owning the team. He likes the day-to-day vibe. He's around almost all the time. He's smiling almost every time I see him. And, within that, he also really likes the idea of passing it along someday to his next of kin.
He gets that he's not exactly loved around here, but he also sees the prudent manner in which he runs the team, rightly or wrongly, as the most responsible way to preserve baseball in Pittsburgh for the long haul. I hear that one all the time.
• The most common complaints about our data -- and this really threw me -- were all related to the Pirates' $177 million in expenses beyond player payroll.
I'm going to guess that has plenty to do with lazy, uninformed content on this subject that focuses entirely on player payroll, and there's a ton of it. It's also the most common sentiment I'll see, hear and read.
You know the kind, the Facebook special: 'THE PIRATES CAN COVER THEIR ENTIRE PAYROLL WITH JUST TICKETS AND POPCORN! SO WHERE'S THE REST GOING?'
From which, I'll assume, it doesn't cross anyone's mind that running a big-league team is enormously expensive. From the execs, to the administration, to the business/sales staff, to the hundreds involved in gameday operations, to security people, to the field manager/coaches, to the catering of clubhouses at home and on the road, to charter flights (the Pirates fly on United-serviced Boeing 737 jets that run $15,000 an hour), to 4-star or 5-star hotels at every stay, to the maintenance of stadiums and other facilities from PNC Park to Florida to the Dominican Republic, to the employment of all personnel at all levels of the five-layer minor-league system, to an additional $10 million in hotel/meal upgrades for those players mandated as of 2022, to the cost of housing/feeding/transporting everyone through spring training, to scouts now located all over the globe and all their travel, to an unprecedented pack of analytics people brought in by Ben Cherington at six-figure salaries, to ... man, my fingers are tired of typing.
And the funny thing is, I didn't even get to one of the biggest of these costs.
This might surprise football fans, who know that the Steelers have to set aside around $10 million of salary cap space each summer to pay their draft picks, but in baseball, that's categorized outside player cost. It's lumped in with all this instead. Between the MLB Draft and the international free agents -- anyone outside the U.S., Canada or Puerto Rico -- that figure was at $26.5 million in 2024. That's in here.
It's a readily available number, and it's one that's similar across all 30 teams, including the Braves, whose financial totals are publicly available each year.
For 2024 in Atlanta ...
Operating expenses: $504 million
40-man player costs: $276 million
Non-player costs: $228 million
The latter's a little more than $50 million higher than the Pirates' number.
This one's easy.
• I'll be a guest on the national 'Foul Territory' show live this morning at 11:13 a.m., invited to talk about all this. Todd Frazier and Erik Kratz, both former Pirates, are part of it. I'll embed the video here once it's done.
• Otherwise, I'll be trying to take today down before embarking for a six-day trip to Florida, where I'll cover two Penguins games, the Pirates' Grapefruit League finale and, at the end, their 144th season opener next Thursday in Miami.
All part of the process here at Dejan Kovacevic's site.
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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