[quote name='n8rockerasu']Yup, because at the end of the day, people can hate the Yankees all they want. But several of these small market teams are just happy to have a Major League club and put a few butts in the seats. Anyone who thinks they're actually trying to win is naive. If it was just impossible for the Pirates to win, we wouldn't see teams like the Rays or the Reds (or even the Cardinals to an extent) putting together good seasons. For that matter, why do the Cubs keep spending and continue to suck? Money =/= Championship. Of course I'll recognize that there is a lack of balance across the league. But the "little guy" isn't always as innocent as people think they are. It's just easier to blame the Yankees. But the coin most definitely has two sides.[/QUOTE]
There are too many teams like the Marlins who pocket 75+ million dollars a year from MLB in revenue sharing, luxury tax, national TV contracts, merchandising, etc, and don't spend a dime on their team.
Think about it for a second. The Florida Marlins don't need to sell a single ticket, a single beer, hot dog, or receive a dime from local TV and radio deals, and they make a huge profit. They receive more money from MLB than their entire operation costs! Year after year, the Marlins are the #1 most profitable team in baseball.
And most of the owners of these small market teams are much wealthier than Steinbrenner. They don't care to open their pockets to make their teams successful like he did, but they'll be happy to take his money and add it to their own bottom line. Pohlad was one of the 100 wealthiest Americans when he died, and the Twins are a very, very well run organization, but they don't spend the money to maintain that level of success between rebuilding cycles.