ESPN has released its fifth annual Ultimate Standings of MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL teams, and the Cardinals, while falling to their lowest rank in five years, remain in the top six of all major-league baseball teams. We thought we’d delve into the individual categories and see how things shook out for the hometown franchise.

BNG (Bang for the Buck)
Revenues directly from fans divided by wins in the past three years

This year, the Cardinals rank 18th among all MLB teams in BNG. It’s a disappointing but expected dropoff, given the new ballpark. No question, the ballclub is making lots of coin these days, but the survey’s methodology may be a bit flawed: The team’s low regular-season win total in 2006 (83) worsened its $/W rating. Had the survey included the World Champions’ 11 playoff wins, the team would’ve fared better here.

FRL (Fan Relations)
Ease of access to players, coaches & management

The Cardinals actually improved a place over last year and are now the #1 fan-friendliest team in baseball. We know, big surprise.

OWN (Ownership)
Honesty; loyalty to players and city

Read and blog what you will: The Cardinals’ ownership group is the best in baseball — for the fifth year in a row. How about returning some of the love, eh, St. Louis?

AFF (Affordability)
Price of tickets, parking and concessions

As the accompanying capsule on the web page explains, "The $4.49 average raise on tickets and price bumps to beer ($7.75), soda ($4.50) and hot dogs ($3.50) make it pricier to savor the sweet World Series win." In short, the team raised prices because it could — while it’s never any fun to pay more for something than you used to, St. Louisans clearly don’t mind paying for the privilege of the new ballpark experience.

STD (Stadium Experience)
Friendliness of environment; quality of game-day promotions

The new ballpark netted a four-place improvement this year, and the Cardinals are now fourth, behind two of the best new ballparks in the majors (PNC and Pac Bell, or whatever they’re calling it these days), and the quintessential friendly environment, Wrigley Field. Though we still say get rid of the cheerleaders and loud music.

PLA (Players)
Effort on the field; likability off it

We’re not sure that the Twins played harder — the Cardinals won the dadgum World Series, after all — so perhaps they were more personable outside the lines. That Joe Mauer may be a good-looking guy, but if Mark Mulder plays the entire 2006 season, the Cardinals take this category.

CCH (Coach/Manager)
Strong on-field leadership

Jim Leyland, Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa. The big three placed in that order. Sounds about right to us (though we personally cannot stand the whiny Cox).

TTR (Title Track)
Titles already won or expected — soon

The spoils of winning it all.

All in all, a pretty impressive accomplishment for the Cardinals. And it’s not like the team’s relatively poor showing in BNG and AFF mean that much when viewed in context: The Cardinals delivered a championship last year (and were certainly championship-caliber the previous two), and it’s hard to blame a business for raising prices to suit demand. Furthermore, it would appear that the survey’s methodology is biased against markets whose fans prize the ballpark experience highly (i.e., affordability is weighted as about 50% more important than stadium experience). To paraphrase the great Cosmo Kramer, we’re not gonna let that bring us down from this high. Color us proud of our team.

This entry was posted by Pip on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 1:34 am and is filed under analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.