Podcast: Rapid fire on 970 ESPN w/ Todd

Agreed that the numbers are probably skewed. Operating income doesn't include a lot of taxes and other expenditures. I don't think anyone has any clear cut idea how that money is divided in the central fund.

As I've repeated time and again, I'm not saying the numbers are wrong. I'm saying they're fiction. They're fabricated. The Pirates have had zero comment on Forbes numbers for as long as I can recall. I actually don't care in the slightest what they think about this. My point is solely about Forbes' process, not the results. If they reported that the Pirates were losing $40 million, I'd feel no differently. The process is garbage.

Why is this so hard for some to understand?

It's such a simple concept.

Also, I'd appreciate not having my professionalism being called into question. I'll debate sports with anyone. Not that. Especially not from anyone so fantastically ill-informed on this topic, as to not even reference when the books actually were busted open -- secretly and against teams' will -- and revealed none of this mythology you cite.

Forbes lists its guess at capital expenditures. It's right there in the report. Go look it up and see if it includes the $8 million.

Again, this is so, so easy to verify independently. Turn down your radio and do some research if it's this passionately important to you. Find out about Forbes' methodology, which involves ZERO contact or questioning of any individual teams or even the leagues. I'm not guessing at this. They've acknowledged it. They have a universal formula that they apply to all 30 teams that spits out a set of numbers, they slap a fancy label on it, and people everywhere fall for it. Look it up.

Or don't. I've got nothing new on this. I went like a rabid dog after this topic for five years, and I got my answers and published them. I've moved on.

I've read an awful lot on this point, and have studied finance and business. The suggestion that I haven't seems awfully thin-skinned and defensive. The notion that the numbers are completely made-up and have no basis at all in objective facts is just wrong. This is how business reporting is done, and the results are quite convincing. You extrapolate from industry norms and use a deep fact set to develop a model - the methodology is perfectly sound. As I said above, if you had bothered to read my comment before getting so upset, even if you're right about the $8M, which is not really $8M since they won't be spending it again for another decade at least (which was David's very correct point in your debate), there's still a whole lot left over. I haven't listened to talk radio in my life. My opinions are based on lots of reading and years of academic study in this area.

Thanks for the advice. I'll quit watching. You just saved me a great deal of time!