New Report Raises Questions About Pirates' Financials
A new report, posted over the weekend by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Mark Belko, revealed the Pittsburgh Pirates' financial statements from the past three seasons. The findings will certainly bother Pirates fans.
According to the Post-Gazette, the PIrates have made more money selling tickets and concessions at PNC Park than they've spent on their player payroll. Between the years 2022 and 2024, the Pirates made $215.6 million in net ticket and concession revenues. During those same seasons, player salaries totaled $214 million.
It comes as no surprise to Pirates fans that the team's payroll was among the lowest in Major League Baseball during this period - a trend that does not appear to be going away after another off-season of limited spending.
In the article, Pirates President Travis Williams defended the team's financial outlook, claiming that a ticket/concession revenue to player payroll ratio doesn't tell the whole story.
“We’re not taking any dollars out of it,” Williams said in an interview with the Post-Gazette. “We’re not paying [owner] Bob Nutting. We’re not making a distribution to the ownership group. All the proceeds that we generate are being reinvested back into the ballclub in some form or fashion.”
Williams also claimed that the Post-Gazette's analysis does not factor in all of the other expenses of running a team in MLB. In response to Belko's story, Williams pointed out the team has generated $2.3 billion in economic impact across the state and $1.7 billion in Pittsburgh between 2017 and 2023, minus the pandemic years.
Former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy, a critical player in building PNC Park, was more blunt in his assessment of the team.
"We built the best ballpark in America and they had the worst team in America the last 20 years. So it’s sort of evident they have not invested in the team even though we built a great baseball park for them,” Murphy told the Post-Gazette.
These words will likely resonate with fans more than Williams' defense of the franchise, considering the last winning season that fans saw was in 2018. The team has not won a playoff game since 2013 when they topped the Cincinnati Reds in a Wild Card matchup.
While financial statements for MLB clubs are not publicly available, several unbiased experts said that it was unusual for a team's payroll to track so closely to revenue from ticket and concession sales.
“If this is what they’re doing, I would say it’s quite rare,” said Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based Sportscorp Ltd., a sports industry consultant. “Most baseball teams take local broadcast revenue and their share of MLB distributions into account, as well.”
Rob Mains, a writer for Baseball Prospectus, pointed out that this essentially allows the Pirates to boost their bottom line — and profit more for ownership.
This theory is easily backed up by data. In its most recent Business of Baseball report, Forbes ranked the Pirates as the third most profitable team in Major League Baseball for 2023, posting a net operating income of $68 million. The publication estimated the team's total revenue at $309 million — over four times what they spent on player salaries that year.
Should the Pirates indeed be covering payroll primarily through ticket and concession income, Mr. Mains interprets that as a sign “they are not as aggressive in expanding payroll as other teams are who are able to preserve profitability.”
“They could increase payroll and still make money,” he stated. "“You have this young core. If you can build around that with some established veterans who aren’t going to break the bank, you can compete in one of the more winnable divisions in baseball and still make money."
This report comes at the most optimistic time of the year for baseball fans, as Opening Day approaches. But the Post-Gazette's analysis does not exactly provide a ton of hope for the current state of the franchise.
Ethan Merrill is from Grand Rapids, MI, and brings with him a diverse background of experiences. After graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in journalism, he worked with the Arizona Diamondbacks for three seasons before settling in the Pittsburgh area in 2020. With a passion for sports and a growing connection to his community, Ethan brings a fresh perspective to covering the Pittsburgh Pirates.