Goldeyes ferocious on foreign fields, but financial flop without faithful fans

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This article was published 21/08/2020 (2206 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sam Katz is keeping one eye on the scoreboard, and another on the spreadsheet. The Winnipeg Goldeyes owner admits fielding a team this summer wasn’t exactly a shrewd move from a purely financial perspective, even if he’s not ready to take an error on the play.

“There’s no ifs, buts or maybes,” Katz said this week. “All that does is increase what our losses will be. But we’re playing, and that has a value.

“This wasn’t an astute business decision based on economics and revenue. It was done to keep the team playing. I think the team sitting and not playing would have been significantly worse.”

So far, the Fish have paid Katz back in a way, holding down top spot in the American Association despite having to play their entire 60-game season in the league’s other five active markets, which are all allowing spectators in limited numbers.

COVID-19 restrictions in Canada meant no fans would be allowed inside Shaw Park, so they took their show south of the border to Fargo.

“The idea of not playing just didn’t make sense, even though it came with a cost,” he said.

Katz won’t know the full extent of the damage until the season is over, but keeping upwards of 30 players, coaches and staff on the road for nearly three months, covering their salaries and meals and living out of hotels while busing from city to city isn’t cheap.

“I knew we were looking at significant losses. The only question was whether we were going to hit the seven-figure mark. But I thought about how important it was for the players, and Rick (team manager Forney) and our coaches and some of our staff to keep them playing,” said Katz.

The Goldeyes are the designated home team for 30 of their games, and entitled to ticket revenues that result. But Katz admitted the numbers have been extremely low, especially when teams such as Sioux Falls, St. Paul and Chicago have travelled to Fargo to play them. With no real attraction for locals, “crowds” have typically numbered in the dozens.

“There was the hope we’d be able to get X amount of revenue from certain ticket sales, but they haven’t been what anybody expected. We are getting some money, but we are literally losing money by being a permanent road team,” said Katz.

That’s why the Goldeyes recently agreed to move nine remaining “home” games to Milwaukee and St. Paul, knowing many more fans, possibly a few thousand, will come out to root, root root for the “visiting” team those nights.

“Anytime you go into business you have two goals: Minimize your losses, and maximize your profits. We were certainly looking to minimize our losses on the road,” said Katz. “Unlike other teams, we don’t have any corporate sponsorship or anything of that ilk, because that only happens when you’re playing at home. My partners in the league are aware of the fact that we’re losing money.”

The other five teams playing this summer are also taking financial hits, albeit on a smaller scale, and there is a form of “deficit sharing” that will help compensate the Goldeyes for their troubles. One example is Milwaukee and St. Paul covering Winnipeg’s hotel costs for moving those games to their markets.

It’s the least they could do, considering the Goldeyes could have sunk the entire league had they opted to sit out, as the American Association needed at least six teams to go forward. The other six franchises in Kansas City, Sioux City, Lincoln, Gary, Ind., and Cleburne and Grand Prairie, both in Texas, all declined to participate.

Katz said his team could boost its bottom line by getting to the championship final next month as one of the top two teams in the regular season. Another two or three “home” dates played entirely in their opponent’s ballpark would likely lead to brisk ticket sales.

Unfortunately, the end of this season won’t bring about an end of the worry. A second straight summer of silence at Shaw Park isn’t out of the question.

“Right now, I’m concerned where we end up this year, but I’m more concerned where we end up in 2021,” admitted Katz. “If we’re in a situation where there isn’t a vaccine out there and people don’t have peace of mind and feel safe, it’s an unknown scenario. But we’re doing everything we can to continue, to hang in, to fight the good fight.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg