Going Over-Budget: Fair Warned is Fair Armed

[Ghosts]

it may be that we were the only ones who didn't give the issue of being over-budget enough thought last year.

or it may be -- and this is more likely true -- that our budget situation in 2007 was so intractable ($20m or so over) that there was no good solution but to play the season out and hope we went the distance.

but i can't stress to anyone out there who is considering going over-budget by much more than a few million dollars just how painful it is.

thankfully, by slashing over $20m from our payroll, spending only $2.5m of the $10m we were projected to be under budget this year, relying on CP point cash, trading away nearly every non-star (and a few close-to-stars) making more than league minimum, and trading for a bunch of young guys making league minimum...well, i think we should be back in the black next year.

but i cannot express how hard it has been to navigate those waters and, more importantly, how lame it is to spend an entire off-season without being able to sign those above-average free agents -- who were asking for $500k or $800k or even $1m a year -- to great deals. there were 3 or 4 who i would have killed to just have a few hundred grand to spend on.

or how lame it is that we've got 4 or 5 young guys who we aren't yet allowed to resign to cheap long-term deals. we'll get them under contract, but at the cost of an additional million or two each as they will be better at that point, i reckon.

or how nice it would have been to use CP points on expanding our stadium or giving a pitcher that extra 10 points in edurance instead of taking cold, hard cash.

---

so, consider this a (nother) word to the wise: getting out from under a debt situation is probably going to be a 2-3 year process -- at best, and if you're lucky -- and i suspect it will be even harder in the future. people seem to be MUCH less willing to trade for anyone making more than a few million, or to deal young prospects, than they were even a few months ago. it looks like the bears could have the soft landing -- and we've thought about how to engineer that every single day for months, no joke --- but it will also be with no small help from our huge fan base, high ticket prices, and big budget.

but should we be so lucky to be locked in a pennant race with aurora, one of us will have room to spend money and get better and one of us will pray to the jack cobb jersey that has become a shrine in our locker room.

and i shudder to think about a mid-market team, without all of these luxuries (except the jack cobb jersey...you all had your chance), having to do what we've had to. especially now that everyone has gotten stingier about budget issues.

in other words: if you aren't sure going more than a few million over- budget is going to put you over the top, i'd think long and hard.

[Maulers]

here, here on all of these points. I ran $22 million over budget last year, and all of the pain and associated suckage that the Bears describe I second with whole heart. On the other hand, it is a helluva lot of fun trying to re-build the franchise from whole cloth. Still, I would strongly second this warning.