Toronto Could See Sports Monopoly
In 1998, the question was posed, "Can whom ever owns the Skydome in Toronto Canada develop themselves into a monopoly"? This questine in 1998 can be asked today however with a little more knowledge. In 1998 the Skydome and those who owned it were losing money and bacame broke in a corporate sense. In the article they compare the Expos and the BlueJays. As one might know now, there is no longer a Montreal Expos baseball team, however there are still the lonesome BlueJays in the midst of a country with enough fans to possibly monopolize. My question is that, can the new owners of the Skydome pull off a giant monopoly of sports in Canada? Turner, the media company whom already owns the Atlanta Braves already has one synergy or owns a team plus the media coverage, may possibly interested in the purchase of the Skydome and BlueJays. With that in mind, Let's recap. If there were a synergy with Turner and the Toronto BlueJays, being the only team in Canada, just think of the profit which could be made. The article also posses the question, "what if one person obtained the Leafs, Raptors, and BlueJays along with the concerts and what not the Skydome and Air Canada Arena hold?" The article directly states, "The area around the stadium and the arena, would become one big sports and entertainment complex. The television network would have first crack at what amounts to nearly a game a day during the calendar year." Is there a possibility for a monopoly?
5 comments:
What creates a monopolist is opportunity. In this case, the demand for Canadian sports has fallen, i.e. Expos moving to Washington, D.C., and the owner of the Skydome is jumping at opportunity. He or she is not saying that teams have to play in the Skydome, just offering his or her stadium to the teams. It might be a better deal to have all teams play their games in one building. This would free up land that could be used for something that is high in demand in Canada. As for the monopoly, the owner is just trying to be profitable and be a good business man. If he succeeds it is not his fault. it is those who allowed it to happen: the fans.
There’s not going to be a success story for the lonesome Blue Jays. Major League Baseball is a North American sport. There is only one team outside the United States. Yes, there are players from different nationalities who play Major League Baseball, but they play on a team more often than not on a team in the United States. Canada is known for hockey and only hockey. There is a basketball team, but can you tell me the last time they made it to the playoffs? The lack of attendance and the success of the Montreal Expos was the reason the team changed names and moved. Now the Nationals, they have found a home in Washington, D.C. a huge market. The Nationals also had a better season than what you would assume the Expos would’ve had. Part of the reason that there is a lack of attendance at Blue Jays games is there are no real big popular players playing for them. Toronto is a fairly big city and you would expect that it would benefit the Blue Jays, but it hasn't. Normally the only people who attend a Blue Jays game are Canadians. There really is no high demand for an American to drive to Toronto to watch an average team play ball. I don’t think Ted Turner would be able to create a monopoly in the sports market by owning the Toronto Blue Jays because of the interest of the team. The higher the interest of the team, the more demand there is to watch the team and with an increase in demand you should see an increase in revenue. The Raptors and Blue Jays are just mediocre teams. No one is going to spend money to televise these teams until they win a championship.
Attempting to have a monopoly in Toronto would be a tall task. Just by taking over the skydome wont get the job done. I think it would not be a wise decision to attempt to move the other teams into the sky Dome. The sky dome is a large venue and would not serve well for hockey or basektball. It would probably cost more to have these teams play there then have them play in the air canada center. Tornoto will always be a one team town and that team will always be the maple leafs.
Personally, I think Turner would be fine purchasing the SkyDome, although there is a bit of a flaw in the monopoly idea. Baseball is such a niche market in Canada that for someone to control it's only team is not really monopolizing, in my opinion. Cleveland had a situation like this when the Gateway complex of Jacobs Field and Gund Arena opened in the mid-90's - originally, Gund had control of the whole shebang, owning the complex, although the Indians were owned by Jacobs. The arena hosted both the Cavs and the Lumberjacks hockey team, plus a large number of concerts and events. However, there was nowhere near a monopoly in that market, given the other venues for sports, and the market size. Toronto is not that big of a market to have a monopoly on sports be impactful, but, even if Turner owns both complexes, a monopoly on major Canadian sports is not in the cards.
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