Part 2: Ladies and Gentleman, Your 2025 Colorado Springs Isotopes! (Ownership, Team Leases, and MLB Mandates)
Why I Believe These Factors Will Lead to the Topes Leaving ABQ
I BEG YOU TO READ PART 1.
It’s about how UNM’s planned development makes the minor league Isotopes feel like a tenant and not a partner in ABQ. That being said, I fully support ABQ looking better on that shitty side of town (LINK).
As I mentioned in my last column, this is the 21st season, going into season 22 of the Isotopes. While it may still kind of fresh for old-heads who remember the Albuquerque Dukes, it has most certainly been a long time.
Weird example:
In 2003, Pubic hair was still in vogue, and now in 2023 going into 2024, I have purchased “intimate shaving products” for men at my local chain grocery store with coupons.
Thong underwear went from, “(Gasp), I can see her thong!” to mocking anyone with full-bottom underwear today.
It’s progress. We are evolving as a society. That being said pubes and thong shock seem like so long ago. I was 19 when the Topes came back, and now I am 40. I have classmates that have 27 year old kids. It WAS A LONG TIME AGO.
Ok, James? We get it. 2003 was a long time ago. Fuck… get to your point.
Fine.
What I am getting at is that the way cities and teams looked at stadium deals and partnerships was so much different back then. Most owners of minor league teams were the old guy in town who had a shit ton of money and didn’t know what to do with it.
Now it’s companies.
Ken Young was the owner of the Albuquerque Isotopes and the Norfolk Tides, another minor league team back east, until the other day. He sold the two teams for an “undisclosed price”, which best guesses are can be from $20MM-$50MM by what I hear, although some minor league team valuations have gone up to $100MM. It’s not a cheap novelty thing. It is very much a big business being acquired.
What struck me was who the new owner of the two teams were.
Diamond Baseball Holdings, LLC
That name sounds so cold, that those intimate hairs are starting to grow back instantly. (this is not a theme)
Who the holy hell is Diamond Baseball Holdings, LLC? Well, they are a holding company which was founded a couple of years ago by Endeavor, which is headed by Ari Emanuel, who was portrayed as Ari Gold in the HBO show, “Entourage.”
But what he is in real life? Well… he was a super agent that merged his agency with William Morris, another talent agency and basically controlled Hollywood as a result. In the last several years, they have acquired things that you may know about a little. How about the UFC, WWE, PBR, along with representing the NFL and NHL. They have their toes in everything.
2 years ago, they formed DBH and is now a subsidiary of a Private Equity firm called Silver Lake, which is a $100 Billion + firm. They have more money than God hitting the Powerball and suing the convenience store he bought it from because of a slip-and-fall.
Dude, this was created using AI.
OMG it is so goddamn scary what it can do.
Anyway, they have so much money that what they started doing is buying teams in the minor leagues. The crazier thing? MLB got rid of 40 minor league teams, going from 160 to 120 right around the time DBH was created.
These are the first teams DBH bought in 2021.
This is now their full roster:
It soon expanded to nearly 2 dozen teams with the acquisition of ABQ and Norfolk this week. They own 20% of the market in MiLB. Insanity. While I am not going to fault them for wanting to make more money, you got to think of it this way. This is NOT Philanthropy.
You don’t have $100,000,000,000.00 plus in the bank by being nice and overpaying for crappy little minor league teams everywhere and letting kids in for .01 with purchase of an adult ticket.
Those were pubic hair times, my friends.
Today, minor league teams and private equity firms that own them are pondering, “If we have a lobster mac-n-cheese option at the concession stand, is $14 a good price point, and will the demographic of young kids aged 9-15 even purchase it?”
This AI Shit is so scary…
It’s no longer “WE HAVE JUMPING BALLOONS FOR THE KIDS! COME ON DOWN TO THE BALLPARK!!!” anymore. It’s a place to separate you from the money. It’s a strip club with pine tar. It’s Vegas but with sunflower seeds.
These teams are going to be run efficiently and costs will be cut where they can be by DBH while maximizing profits and limiting future expenses. Some will say the reason WWE was acquired by DBHs parent was they knew they could run it well, and pare costs by eliminating staff on WWEs side, filling it with people on their side and make them work 2x as hard for the same price. I’m talking accountants and such…
DBH has no allegiance to Albuquerque, just like it has no allegiance to Norfolk as well. That’s fine. IT’S JUST BUSINESS right? They’d play in a sewer if it made them revenue.
But revenue isn’t just asses every 18 inches as pro wrestling announcer Jim Ross says about attendance at events, although asses are much bigger in 2023 America says this 40” waist guy.
Revenue comes from parking. It comes from developing land around the stadium that you own, and you likely lease for $1 a year or something cheap, or are just fucking given by the city you are in, because of the notion that your development will bring jobs to build it and maintain it, and generate sales tax revenue. That’s what it is all about.
Stadiums used to be at the edge of town, much like ABQ has, and you would drive 20-30 minutes from your home to go there. Now these days, big time sports build stadiums in the heart of downtown, create entertainment districts around it, put hotels there, maybe a small parking garage where you charge $20 a day (I was in El Paso for the UTEP football game, and we paid $15) and you make these people even more money.
Again, I am fine with that, and I love downtown Phoenix, the Vegas Strip, and I saw Arlington where the Cowboys played this July, and it made sense to me too. I bet the Walmart by the Cowboys Stadium is one of the higher-revenue Walmarts in the country!
Make that money, because if you don’t someone else will!
Which is why I am writing this.
Part 1 talked about the Lobo Development Company who plans on renovating the area surrounding South UNM Campus in ABQ.
I think it looks amazing, personally, and it might make that area of town livable for a lot of people. UNM is the owner of a lot of the land and the city is planning on building infrastructure to support it.
There’s going to be a big entertainment district in Albuquerque where UNM will sell their land to developers to make money, and likely share in some of the revenue in the area as well.
For DBH, the big-time company who owns the baseball team now. This will not be good news. They already have to pay a big-time lease (more on that in a bit), and then they share in almost no parking revenue that I can see, and then if they did want to throw money into the team in a stadium they don’t own, and again, pay a lot of money in rent, why would they spend even more money renting or buying land in that area to develop stuff?
Why not go somewhere where a city will give you that land for a low price, build you a stadium, give you a low rent payment, ask for no percentage of the revenue of things you sell inside, like Albuquerque is doing to the Isotopes, and maybe, just maybe, you have to give the city the parking revenue or something minor.
When there is no expense for a stadium, in rent or building, and they give you land for nothing so you can spend money building a Holiday Inn Express nearby that will print you money on gamedays, because people want to place to crash after going bar-hopping all night afterwards, why would you not take it?
That is not happening in Albuquerque, because DBH would have to actually be paying out the nose to UNM for anything surrounding them in a stadium that DBH doesn’t own, the city does, which is more in bed with UNM than Albuquerque Isotopes. Topes are being ‘cucked.
I think the funniest thing about this thought I had was that the local paper in Albuquerque, The Journal, which in the last year has turned into something that no longer represents the state as a whole, has not only celebrated the partnership the city has with the Albuquerque Isotopes, but has called for continued business with the team in a recent editorial.
Link to it: Pay $1 for 24 hour access so they don’t get mad at me.
Here it is anyway :)
It made me laugh. These unnamed editorials are funny, because they always have the shittiest takes with no basis in business or no thought to the consumer whatsoever.
I am positive it was Grandpa Rick Wright who had a hand in that editorial, because it is such a pollyanna-ish notion that makes the Topes-ABQ partnership so small town-like and warm and fuzzy. Still upset that he basically had Lobo fans up in my DMs for a week with his rebuke of me.
Whoever wrote that isn’t thinking about the minor league business landscape as a whole…
Lucas Peerman and Geoff Grammer, two of the main sports guys at the paper were originally in the newspaper business here in Las Cruces. I like their writing and I follow their social media regularly.
Both came to the ABQ Journal from the Las Cruces Sun-News, which like the ABQ Isotopes was bought by Private Equity (Gannett) who gutted newsrooms, took away resources, furloughed people, and their Christmas party meal consisted of handi-snacks cheese and crackers, but budget cuts only allowed them to have one stick to spread the cheese amongst all the staff.
(I kid, but I wouldn’t put it past Gannett)
I think these men are really bright, and you DAMN well better believe I support their career thriving in Albuquerque even though I don’t like the paper they work for. I support people. That being said, I cannot believe they don’t see this writing on the wall. When new ownerships comes to the forefront, they don’t keep things the same. Why would you?
Man, come on.
A couple of years ago, Isotopes Park was renamed after a bank in the area. As part of the revenue sharing agreement with the city, Albuquerque got 12.5% of that. In the same KOAT article I read, City Spokesmen (KOAT doesn’t know how to spell” Johnny Chandler said, every penny they get from the Isotopes goes into a fund that is used to maintain the field.
In a weird way, that sounds like a dig, but remember.. IT IS NOT THE ISOTOPES STADIUM, IT IS THE CITY’S… meaning what? They are the landlord and they are taking care of the property for the tenants.
Doesn’t that sound like a landlord sounds like he is doing you a fucking favor for taking care of something he should want to because it is his property and HAVE TO because there are rules in the contract that state as such?
One thing that came up in another article was that NM United, the pro soccer team, who recently got a stadium deal at Balloon Fiesta Park (another city-owned property) was costing the city $1 million a year to convert the baseball stadium to soccer every time they had a home game, which means flattening and covering the mound, spraying some green shit on the dirt to make it look like grass, paint lines, etc.
That’s not the Isotopes fault. That is the city! Plus…The massive amount of money the Topes are paying to the city is helping subsidize another pro team experience? Nah, why would Endeavor/DBH want that? They are being screwed.
John Traub, the Isotopes General Manager said that the Isotopes have paid the city $30 million in 20 years from the lease agreement and ticket/concession sales, although some of that is from NM United when they sub-lease the field. But what Traub said was damning.
“Very little of that $30 million is a result of the soccer team..(They have) only been playing in the building for a few years.”
Yet everyone in ABQ that I still talk to goes to NM United games. Why would the Isotopes not feel hurt by that? It’s literally your landlord telling you that he wants his little cousin to stay in your apartment he’s renting to you, pays less in rent, and gets a lot of the accolades, while Isotopes are making all the fucking money and paying a lot more of it.
How do you not see they are going to move, everyone?
The ABQ Isotopes baseball crew were responsible for “soccer-fying” the stadium as well, and the Topes had to bill the city for it. Why even bother with that. Just move somewhere where you don’t have to share.
So, $30 million over 20 years is $1.5 million a year, friends. Yes, I barely passed math.
Now, let me put into perspective what the Iowa Cubs pay in rent.
The Iowa Cubs which are also owned by DBH and play in Des Moines, Iowa.
As of their new lease agreement: $16,000 a year… or 1% of what ABQ is going to pay on average next year.
I probably made a little more than that on my social media content last year, and I busted my ass doing it, but $16,000 a year is lunch for Ari Emanuel.
Of course, they are going to pay, and of course they are going to stay in Iowa and own “The Cubs,” even though they aren’t the real ones. I went to an I-Cubs game a few years back, and you would have sworn the fans thought that Sosa, Grace, Dawson, and “Let’s Play Two” Ernie Banks were coming to El Paso. Cubs fans traveled to see the minor league team play. They have a lot of equity.
But there is one big thing I haven’t mentioned yet. There’s talk of a $60 million “Cubbie Village” in Iowa that is going to be… you guessed it! An entertainment district in Des Moines developed by… DIAMOND BASEBALL HOLDINGS because they only have to pay the cost of 1000 beers at a baseball game for the lease for a whole year!
They will create the bars, nightlife, hotel, and other things, get a sweet deal from the city and state as well, and make even more money while paying nothing to have to team housed there. Plus it’s close enough to Chicago so where travel isn’t horrible. Make sense yet?
How can ABQ Isotopes compete when they are charged 100x a rent, and if they DID want to develop, they would have to buy land at cost from UNM?
They are moving. I promise.
It may take years, according to the Axios article, but even 5 years of planning is $80,000 in rent, or the equivalent of one month’s rent amortized in Albuquerque. By then the Isotopes will be long gone.
Buying the team is akin to holding the cities and states across the country hostage for land and development rights around these stadiums and these teams while paying very little out of pocket, shouldering the burden on the local governments.
You can’t do that in ABQ, because there’s no way it can where they were at unless they asked for a new stadium, and they couldn’t even spend $40 million for a soccer stadium.
The Norfolk Tides, who were also purchased this week along with the Isotopes by DBH from Ken Young also had a weird short term lease with the city of Norfolk going on. They are only paying $50,000 a year, but there was talk that a casino was going to be built within or around the Tides “Harbor Park”. They were orginally paying $1 million a year, but that changed recently, likely because they are ready to bail.
The Native Americans in that area had a $500 million agreement with the city to build a big-ass casino next to the baseball park in Harbor Park, VA. Renderings look crazy.
HUGE casino, little baseball stadium. DBH makes no money from the casino. Casino might have concerts, gambling, probably hookers roaming the casino floor, 3 starbucks, a buffet, and a TopGolf, because why the fuck not?
Do you think DBH believes it can compete for revenue with that by just playing baseball and 7000 people buying a dog and a beer? No way. They want to be building that building, putting in tenants that make them money, and the baseball game is just part of the experience.
They would be neutered if the casino was being built there, because like Albuquerque and UNM, someone else is making money and not them.
There was already articles talking about when Norfolk Tides will leave that park with the casino development discussed as a “Reason.”
That ad with the ear grosses me out.
They have a short-term lease with the park, even though the news reports state that the team isn’t going anywhere. Well, if that is the case, why is it a two year lease, and not a 25 like the Albuquerque Isotopes did in the early 2000s?
Because there are whispers of the Hampton Roads area, where Norfolk is near, building a new stadium and entertainment district to keep the Tides in the area. I am sure DBH would have a say in building it and developing it to make money.
Believe me yet?
Ironically enough, there’s a lot of people who believe DBH is doing the bidding of MLB, and strong-arming these smaller towns into building state-of-the-art facilities for these teams just like they did in the 90s and 2000s in MLB. DBH is a proxy for MLB “extorting” stadiums and revenue from these places are what some are saying.
The removal of 40 teams in 2020 during COVID scared people, there were AAA teams that disappeared that you thought were stable franchises. You have new AAA teams come in that were based closer to the MLB teams they represent.
Houston/Sugar Land
Texas (Arlington)/Round Rock
Miami/Jacksonville
Atlanta/Gwinnett
There could be one key reason for this, although some of these affiliations happened before 2021. What is happening now that’s important? The first Minor League Baseball CBA which basically states that MLB has to provide housing for minor leaguers, since they were and in some way still ARE paying shit wages to minor leaguers for what they make off of them.
So you can say any new stadium/mixed use development will have player housing in mind, so say for instance in Albuquerque, the “new housing” that the UNM development wants to have will likely be really expensive.
So let’s say the Colorado Rockies in Denver get some land in between Denver and Colorado Springs to build an apartment complex, or hell, they just buy an older one, why wouldn’t you want the Topes close to the parent club then?
Colorado Springs already added a USL (same league as NM United) stadium in their downtown. What if they can lure baseball as well with another city owned park but with low rent and/or the possibility to develop land? Who knows? I just picked Colorado Springs for this exercise because of the proximity to Denver, but why not Boulder? Why not Littleton? Broomfield?
Who knows. Point being, if the affiliate agreement that every AAA team had to sign in 2020 lasts until 2030 with the Rockies, and likely longer, why not be closer to the parent and plant roots in communities that will make sense and make money for the owners of the Isotopes, DBH?
Final point: One of the sticking points for minor league teams as well is the fact that Major League Baseball is MANDATING upgrades to facilities to meet standards that they set pretty high. The uniqueness of baseball stadiums is certainly present and observant to the average fan, but the guts of the facilities need to be improved across the board, or you may run the risk of getting your team moved, contracted, or taken from you.
This article from a baseball blog states that the State of Maryland allocated $200,000,000 to their minor league teams to help fund needed upgrades to keep their teams.
The Durham Bulls, made famous by the movie, “Bull Durham” have to come up with $10 million for improvements to stay in Durham. The article states “it’s not an idle threat that they can leave”
Springfield Cardinals (Owned by DBH) had an article written by a Gannett writer (Wow, I can smell the Private Equity a mile away) talking about Hammons Field in Springfield needs to be fixed or their team will fly away. This is an article I expect to see in the Albuquerque Journal soon!
Here are the facility upgrades DEMANDED by Major League Baseball in order for your city to keep your team in the stadium they are in.
They are not unreasonable, and frankly, it’s surprising a lot of that stuff wasn’t already in the books to get fixed.
But look at it this way (This is why this is in bold)
The Albuquerque Isotopes, who are now owned by DBH, are in a stadium run by the city of Albuquerque. Have they remodeled and renovated Isotopes Park to meet MiLB and MLB guidelines by the drop dead date of 2025 to get these fixed?
DBH will say, “The city needs to fix these things!”
Albuquerque would say, “Hey, you are all billionaires and own 20 teams, how about you pitch in?”
DBH: “We paid you $30 million, the cost of the stadium over 20 years, you are our landlord, we pay rent. Landlords fix things that need fixing. Do it.”
Albuquerque: “We have to put it to a vote. Sorry. Rules.”
DBH: “Fine, then.”
Next day -
DBH: “Diamond Baseball Holdings regretfully announces that the Albuquerque Isotopes will be relocating as of the 2025 season. Renovations were needed to (bank name) Field at Isotopes Park, and we could not reach an agreement with the city of Albuquerque, and have offered to buy out our lease.
DBH is also proud to announce an agreement with the city of Colorado Springs for a new stadium to be built in Downtown. This will also coincide with a mixed-use development of restaurants, hotels, and entertainment that will be built by DBH and its affiliates. The City-Owned Stadium will be available to us for a $1 a year lease, and a half-cent tax on lodging will fund the stadium and infrastructure around it. COLORADO SPRINGS LIVE! District is Tentatively Set for an April 2026 opening!”
Sounds almost real right? Believe me. It will be real. Maybe not Colorado Springs, but I promise it is happening. Bold letter time.
THEY WILL USE THE MLB RENOVATION GUIDELINES AS A MEANS OF WEASELING OUT OF THE LEASE AND LEAVE ALBUQUERQUE BECAUSE OF LACK OF REVENUE OPTIONS TO EARN MONEY IN THE DUKE CITY. MARK IT DOWN.
The city couldn’t get a NM United Stadium passed recently, and they are going to do this????? Optics will show the Isotopes look like greedy pigs, when they in reality paid in rent what the whole stadium cost to build. They are forever a tenant and not a “landlord” in a district that UNM owns and will emphasize moreso going forward.
So, I say within a year, Albuquerque Isotopes will announce they are relocating, mainly because of the reasons I laid out.
Who will play in that stadium in ABQ?
I think the NM United/Balloon Fiesta Park deal will fall through, and they will remain in Isotopes Park with renovations to make it more soccer-friendly.
I gave you all 8,000 words and 4 hours of my time over two parts mapping it out. I don’t give a shit about the Topes or ABQ or UNM for that matter, but I am happy to see Albuquerque want to evolve, UNM to make some money other than charging band members admission to the game, and for the Topes? I am interested to see how they handle leaving because in reality, 2003-era stadium deal was awesome. 2023, it’s not that good, especially with more money than God selling food out of a food truck in a busy nightclub district of a major city at 2am.
Damn this AI is so good.
In Baltimore, the parent city of the Norfolk Tides, they ran a story about the sale to DBH as well, with the emphasis that the team isn’t moving in the main headline…just like Albuquerque.
Isn’t that weird that it went to that as the main point? Why mention it at all if it hadn’t crossed your mind right?
It’s like your spouse planning a solo vacation and mentioning to you, “Don’t worry, it’s not like I am going to fall in love, sleep with someone else, and leave you while I’m over there?”
You’re like “Why the fuck did your mind go there?” Ha.
If there wasn’t a scintilla of thought about it, it never would come up, much less in the banner headline.
Anyway, in closing. I hope the best for everyone in Albuquerque, and I don’t want you to be hurt by this. It is business, and the Duke City will thrive in other ways. Maybe you will get another team in the next 10-15 years. Who knows? But I believe what I will believe here. The ISOTOPES are moving and Homer Simpson is not here to help save you.
Go ‘Topes!
- James