Steve Cohen and The Need For Public Ownership

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After a failed physical, the Giants put their signing of Carlos Correa on hold. It was likely a minor issue — the Giants simply would’ve been looking to slightly lower the terms of their 13-year/$350 million mega-deal. This hold, however, allowed the Mets to swoop in and pick up Correa on a 12-year/$315 million deal (wrecking last week’s fantasy baseball radar in the process).

While this unexpected fallout should place most social media attention on the failings of Farhan Zaidi and the Giants front office, Mets owner Steve Cohen is the one dominating news waves instead.

Uncle Steve’s Spending Spree

Uncle Steve – as the Mets faithful know him – has spent a total of $800 million this free agency. The beneficiaries include: 2022 Cy Young winner Justin Verlander, NPB fire thrower Kodai Senga, Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo, and superstar shortstop Carlos Correa.

Their 2023 payroll will get close to half a billion dollars, with luxury tax payments alone being double the expenditures of teams like the Athletics and Orioles. With the frankly egregious amounts of money being burned in free agency, Steve Cohen has made one thing clear: the Mets are winning the 2023 World Series. And if they don’t? Well, Cohen will funnel even more money into this team until they return to the promised land. It’s what I like to call the Steinbrenner strategy: simply outspend all of your opponents by a large margin until they finally realize that they will accomplish nothing unless they don’t catch up to him. It’s a strategy that got Steinbrenner and his Yankees a bevy of World Series titles.

But isn’t that what Mets fans deserve? Isn’t that what all baseball fans deserve? A Miami Marlins fan shouldn’t have to keep waiting for their championship window to magically open, they deserve an owner who forces that window open. Right?

Sounds great at first, but there’s only so much talent to go around. With ownership groups in places like Cincinnati lacking the money to go toe-to-toe with a Steve Cohen or a George Steinbrenner, it effectively creates a league where only the 8-or-so teams with the most money will see success. So what’s the solution?

Public Ownership

Maybe the previous paragraph made it seem like I’m caping for billionaires here… I am not. I am the last person who would stoop to that level. The very existence of billionaire sports owners is entirely degradative to the spirit of the game. Community-based ownership of baseball teams, and all sports team for that matter, has become increasingly necessary.

I know this sounds like an extremely radical idea in a league that is as capitalist as it gets, but it’s not as radical as one would think. Obviously, a socialist-style ownership system doesn’t make much sense in this context, but the non-profit structure of the Green Bay Packers presents an exemplar — a less flawed approach to sports ownership.

A league-wide nonprofit structure would increase attendance and general community engagement. It would drive decision-making in a way where the team on the field is sensible, from a personnel perspective. This would – to a degree – ensure parity, as the league would no longer be driven by the strength-of-character (or lack thereof) of the billionaires that run it. By removing the profit incentive for ownership, teams like the Reds, Athletics, and Marlins will stop the perpetual losses in talent, increasing league-wide jersey sales and ticket spending in the process.

It would also force fans to – in a sense – put their money where their mouth is. You said it’s the fault of management that attendance is low. Well, guess what? Now you are management… and it’s time to put some butts in seats.