Pirates owners pocket revenue sharing.

[El Supremo]

This isn't the first time this has happened. The Royals owner did it for years. But what can be done about it?

Leaked financial documents show lowly Pirates made millions

Financial documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the Pittsburgh Pirates made nearly $29.4 million in 2007 and 2008, a number that likely won’t sit well with fans of a team that hasn’t seen the sunny side of .500 since the 1992 season.

The AP report also indicated that the Pirates received about $70 million from MLB sources, including revenue sharing, TV contracts, merchandise sales and MLB’s website.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Pirates, a limited partnership with a number of private investors, weren’t pleased with what they called “a leak’ of those documents at a Sunday meeting with four media groups. "It's not information that's appropriate to be shared for a private business, and it wasn't appropriate to be leaked," Pirates owner Bob Nutting was reported saying in the Post-Gazette.

At that meeting, the Post-Gazette reports that Nutting and team president Frank Coonelly opened their financial books to explain some of the numbers in the AP report, and they also revealed the team had a profit of $5.4 million in 2009.



Read more: http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2010-08-23/leaked-financial-documents-show-lowly-pittsburgh-pirates-made-millions#ixzz0xSlp58x5

Oh BTW, Pittsburgh clinched its 18th straight losing season on Friday.

[madinmaryland]

1. I've always said that for revenue sharing to work,. you must have both

minimum and maximum salary caps. Without any incentive either way, this type of stuff will continue to happen.

[TZ]

2. Disgusting.

Say what you want about my Nats, at least they've been trying to win and not just make a buck!