No, it really isn’t.
The Pirates insisted that they would be competitve if they got a new venue. Well, they got it. STill waiting for that competitive team we were promised.
Some excerpts from a posting on sportscribe.net. I did not fact check the numbers, but found them believable. I think what this guy is writing reflects the feelings of a lot of the people in Pittsburgh
http://sportsscribes.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=280:do-the-pirates-still-belong-in-pittsburgh&catid=39:mlb-news&Itemid=101
While the Pirates may not annually generate the amount of revenue earned by teams such as Boston and New York, they also spend a far smaller percentage of their total revenue on payroll than most other teams.
In 2006, the Pirates ranked 28th in the league in the amount of total revenue spent on payroll at 43%. Comparably, the Yankees ranked third at 74% and the Red Sox were tied with Houston for eighth at 60%..Thanks in part to revenue sharing money received from teams like the Yankees and Red Sox; the Pirates were reportedly among the most successful teams in the league on the balance sheet with a profit of around $34 million during 2005-2006.
In 2001, the Pirates had a team payroll of $57 million. In 2008, the payroll was $48 million, after being just $38 million in 2005.Every time an All-Star caliber player like McLouth, Benson, Jason Kendall, Aramis Ramirez, Brian Giles, Xavier Nady and Jason Bay starts to show promise, the Pirates quickly trade the player for additional prospects.
The standard line is that they are building for the future, but the reality is that the player had become too expensive for the Pirates’ small salary budget.In 2009, the Pirates posted a winning record in April (11-10) for the first time since 2002 and hopes were high that this might be the season when they finally started playing for today, instead of tomorrow
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