Much of the success the Seattle Mariners had last year was due to Robinson Cano. The former New York Yankee second baseman was signed by the Mariners after the 2013 campaign to a $240 million, 10-year deal.
Last season, Cano was an All-Star, hitting .314 with 14 home runs and 82 RBI. The Mariners were in playoff contention through the season, winning 87 games, the most since 2007. Attendance of 2,063,624 at SafeCo Field was the Mariners highest since 2010 and the team reported an $11.6 million profit to the Public Facilities District.
Cano and the teams improvement on the diamond had an impact outside of the ballpark, too. According to Nielsen, Seattle was one of 11 baseball markets where local cable broadcasts topped the rankings. Local Local television ratings were up about 20% for the Mariners in 2014 versus the previous season.
PEORIA, AZ MARCH 07: Robinson Cano #22 of the Seattle Mariners (Photo by Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images)
But not all of the dough that Cano helped the owners of the Mariners rake in is included in that $11.6 million profit.
As a result of a deal struck with DirecTV two years ago, the baseball team owns 71% of Root Sports Northwest, the regional sports network that televises Mariners games. While the rights fees paid by the RSN to the Mariners is included in the $11.6 million figure, the owners share of the RSNs profits are not (this is standard accounting used by all MLB teams under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement with the players union).
According to the footnotes (check out page 91) in DirecTVs 10-k for 2014, filed last month, Root Sports NW earned $8 million (for their 21% interest in the RSN) in 2014 for the satellite company and there are no indications of any dividend distributions in the report. That indicates Root Sports NW earned $20 million (representing their 71% interest in the RSN) for the Mariners.
Another way to look at it is that the profitability of the RSN almost paid for the first year of the Cano deal.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2015/03/12/robinson-cano-led-seattle-mariners-to-20-million-of-cable-tv-profits/
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