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The White Jays and Baseball Economics

From Mike Moffatt, About.com Guide   July 2, 2003

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Recently the Toronto Star ran the ill-advised, poorly reseached, and downright inflammatory story "White Jays - Economics blamed for lack of diversity". The article states that the Jays dumped many of their latin players and picked up white players for "economuc reasons" but this will hurt them because they'll draw less fans. I don't see how this argument makes sense: If fans come out to see players of their own ethnicity (and in all but the rarest cases, I don't think this is true), and more fans = more revenue shouldn't economics dictate that they have more ethnic players, not less? This of course assumes that the revenue you would generate by keeping those players would be higher than the cost. If they aren't, however, then the issue of less fans is irrelevant, if you assume the Jays are trying to maximize profit.

The front office personnel of the Blue Jays, particularly J.P. Riccardi and Keith Law, have done an excellent job in putting a winning team on the field at a minimal cost. Part of the reason why the Jays have had so much success is that they have a better understanding of financial and economic concepts such as opportunity cost. The article "Baseball Players and Opportunity Costs" looks at how opporunity cost can explain why the Jays made the moves they did in the off-season.

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