Baseball's "Jesus" won’t take the mound until 7:05 tonight, but it’s already a merry Strasmas for the Washington Nationals organization.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes this morning that pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg’s debut this evening is already worth $1.56 million to the team -- and more than $170,000 to the D.C. government.
That’s just for one game -- a nice early return on Strasburg’s four-year, $15.1 million contract.
Let’s take a look at the numbers. Jim Lackritz of the college of business at San Diego State University, Strasburg’s alma mater, estimates 24,000 more fans than usual will turn out for tonight’s game. That brings in an additional $735,120. Suite seats and standing room only spots could tick that up to $780,000.
Lackritz says the team also cashed in on fans who bought seats early for other nights this week, making a bet that they would luck out and catch Strasburg’s debut. Lackritz puts the gain from these gamblers at $612,000.
Rovell writes that some fans also had to buy four-game ticket packages for the price of three, just to be sure they could get a seat. With a “two-ticket minimum and a low of $45 per seat, that’s $270. If 500 fans did that, that’s another $135,000.”
That adds up to $1,527,000. A lowball estimate of $7.50 spent on concessions by each of the 24,000 extra fans -- has anyone ever spent less than $7.50 in a night at a Major League ballpark? -- brings in $180,000 for the Nats, after proceeds are shared among all teams under MLB rules.
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And if just 2,000 of the 24,000 extra fans use Nationals-owned parking spaces, that’s another $30,000.
The total: $1,737,000. The District gets 10 percent of that in taxes, leaving the team with about $1.56 million.
Rovell writes that “if Strasburg is as good as advertised, the Nationals might be able to do more than $15 million in business on Strasburg alone by the end of next season.”
But no matter what happens down the road, in moneyball terms, tonight is already a perfect game for the Nationals.
