DENVER — Remember the days when frustrated Rockies fans said the Monforts were cheap?
“And I always told you we’ve spent everything we have,’’ team owner Dick Monfort said.
It’s just now, there’s more revenue to spend. Look around the ballpark. There is a phenomenal new clubhouse, weight room, training room, coaches offices. The popular Rooftop was put in five years ago at a cost of $13 million.
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There is a new scoreboard, new LED lighting, new VIP restaurant and comfy seat section behind home plate.
The Rockies put $25 million into Coors Field last year, another $15 million this year, and $120 million since the park opened in 1995 – very little of that coming through the tight budget decade of the 2000s. And that doesn’t even include the ambitious neighborhood development going on outside Coors Field.
Oh yes, then there’s Nolan Arenado’s $260 million contract at $32.5 million per year. The Rockies entire payroll to start the 1993 season was $8.8 million. Charlie Blackmon got a $108 million extension last year. Two years ago, the Rockies made closer Wade Davis the highest-paid reliever in baseball history, with a $52 million deal over three years.
Young starting pitcher German Marquez just got a $43 million deal that soaked up his arbitration years. The Rockies now have a $140 million payroll.
It’d be nice if they could buy a better connection to the press box internet, but all in all, the Monforts -- Dick and Charlie but with Dick now holding the highest percentage of the team – are spending money like George Steinbrenner in the 1990s.
“We’ve always, at least for the last seven or eight years, spent about the same percentage of our revenue on payroll,’’ Dick Monfort said near the batting cage prior to the Rockies’ home opener Friday afternoon against their National League West-rival Los Angeles Dodgers. “There were probably a couple years where that wasn’t true. Last year we drew 3 million people for the first time since 2001.
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“We’re also getting – in the old days you would sell a $25 ticket for whatever row, whether it was Saturday or whether it was Tuesday. Now we flex those prices where we can get a little better yield and we can charge more for opening day than we do for Game 14 on April 28 or whatever.
“We’ve got a great fan base. We got a new TV deal three or four years ago that was a sizeable jump (from about $20 million a year to roughly $45 million a year). But I think we’ve been always in the 50 to 54, 55% range of our revenue on our payroll.’’
For the first time in the Rockies' 27-year history, they are beginning a season coming off back-to-back playoff appearances. Much as the Rockies have spent in the past two years on payroll, it’s about to expand as the likes of Trevor Story, Kyle Freeland and Jon Gray among others begin the expensive salary arbitration years in 2020.
“Next year I know we’re going to have a payroll that is really going to be taxing on us but I think we’ll figure a way around it,’’ Monfort said. “And then the next year it backs off a little bit. We want to have a good team and I’d rather have Trevor Story at shortstop than go out and get somebody on the free agent market.’’
As for this year’s team?
“I’m always pretty optimistic,’’ Monfort said. “I try not to put the kiss of death. I think we have, for the first time in a long time, our first ESPN Sunday Night Game (in early April). And I think there are two or three others scheduled during the year.
“So we’ve got a good team. And we’ve got really good young pitching. I think we’ve got a good combination of young guys and veterans. Our guys all seem to get along together. They’re all competitive as hell. I’m really optimistic.
“Yeah, you go through 45 innings or whatever, and we scored one run or something like that. That’s not much fun. But I’ve always thought that you have to graduate to win a championship. And you do that a layer at a time. Maybe – and this is the silver lining – maybe the fact that we have graduated that we can a game like we did Wednesday (1-0 in extra innings at Tampa). Maybe, we couldn’t have done that a year ago. I believe you have to learn how to win and I believe these guys are ready now.’’
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