At first glance it's obvious the Master PlanTM got straight to the point. Not a lot of details about how to manage these things were really in the document. Nonetheless, after 5 seasons of playing under the Master PlanTM we can begin to examine how the organization has done in this area.Finances
Don't screw this up! Don't overspend. Make money. Increase the budget. No bad contracts!
Overall, the organization probably gets graded around a B- on how it has handled finances over the first 5 seasons. Truth be told, the grade might have been higher had it not been for the last season or 2. More on that in a second. But first, the positives. The club has made money. The club's budget has continued to grow as the organization took advantage of an extreme fan interest to keep ticket prices on the higher side and allow the organization to make money and grow it's overall budget. The franchise started with a $100 million which it has managed to increase to $120 million over the span of those 5 seasons. The organization has manipulated ticket prices to take advantage of season ticket buyers as well as pivotal matchups that would maximize fans and increase revenue. The organization has also managed to keep a steady amount of cash on hand to cover any overspending the franchise has incurred, which has been minimal to this point. Moving forward, it'll be interesting to see what the organization can do to overcome a declining fan interest and still increase the team's budget. Heading into 2045, the organization appears to be holding steady at a $120 million budget.
What brings the grade down some has been some poor contracts the club has taken on and will likely still have heading into the next few seasons. Early on, in fact on expansion draft night, the organization went well beyond it's budget and drafted guys that put the club in the hole early on. But the front office did a solid job of getting out from under those with a flurry of trades and the ship was righted. But over the last couple of seasons, the club has taken a step back and brought in some risky contracts. Blinded by the thought the team was ready to be competitive, the front office brought in some higher priced talent with long-term contracts (potentially). The organization now has 5 players signed to contracts that could tie up well over 60% of the team's cap space over the next 2 more seasons. Some contracts run as long as the next 4 years. If this is the case, based on the age of some of these players, the front office really tied its hands on having a lot of flexibility to improve the roster until 2047. That could be a long time to ride the status quo when the franchise is hoping to reach .500 very soon.
So back to the Master PlanTM. When you examine how the team has done within the Master Plan'sTM abbreviated scheme of things, the front office has done well. The team isn't leaking money. The club isn't in debt. They have room to keep the young players that are coming up and approaching arbitration soon. The budget has gone up and the club is making money. Fan interest, though declining, is still solid enough to put butts in the seats.
What could be a problem in the next phase for the franchise is the role those bad contracts play. If the team starts to win with these guys then perhaps the course gets corrected and things are good. If some options get declined and flexibility occurs then perhaps the overall grade goes up in the next month. But not sticking with the original goal of the Master PlanTM could set the franchise back a little in terms of finances. But again, for the first 5 seasons the club is doing ok in terms of finances.
At least Portland isn't Wichita or Des Moines in this area.
