Everyone seems to have advice for the new Reds' ownership. And if there's one thing we pride ourselves on here at Red Hot Mama, it's following along with the crowd, so I guess it's about time I threw my $0.02 in as well. Everyone's got a potential trade, a managerial candidate, a new statistical philosophy that's sure to make the Reds win. I need one, too.

And winning is what's important, right? After all, a baseball team is a business. Because of Major League Baseball's exemption from monopoly laws, each team might not be the kind of streamlined business machine that is forged in the inferno of free enterprise, but inefficient as it may be, a baseball team's goal is to make money. It makes money by:

• Ticket sales and revenues associated with game attendance (concessions, souvenirs, etc.)
• Merchandise sales
• Endorsements, naming rights, and other advertisements

As you would expect for an entertainment-oriented business, a baseball team needs fans in order to satisfy its goal of making money. Without fans, no tickets are sold. Without fans, no one wears team ballcaps. Without fans, endorsements are irrelevant. And fielding a winning team is a sure-fire way to get fans.

We can demonstrate the truth of this statement in several different ways. Certainly we can look at a few of them now.