Baseball Diamond - October 2025
The Toronto Blue Jays just clinched the 2025 American League East Title, so it’s a good time for a bit of baseball analogy.
Bear with me on this one. Let’s say, Anglo American is the owner of the De Beers baseball team, but they also hold many other more profitable franchises that are winning pennants. De Beers has been their worst performing franchise over the last several years. Anglo American are billionaire owners and can afford to unload the losing team … cheap.
Botswana is stepping up to the plate and will likely acquire a majority stake in the De Beers franchise. Botswana is not looking for an instant home run, rather they will bring in a new roster and try to revitalize the team.
Chaim Evan-Zohar is a colour commentator, who provides expert inside statistics and analysis. He endorses Botswana’s move to acquire the team and recommends a few strategies that may help make the transition easier. One of his suggestions is to “Drop the dead weight.” He says that Botswana must avoid holding onto the loss-making players from Canada. He believes they diminish the chances of Botswana turning the De Beers franchise around. The Canadians are over-rated players with long-term expensive contracts.
Other analysts say that the Canadian players contracts include clauses that curtail their performance. When a coach sends a batter to the plate, that player must be game ready and not encumbered with any debilitating physical or mental challenges. The Canadian team players are too costly for the team; their contracts are in danger of being terminated.
Botswana will immediately be in contract negotiations with most other team players. However, over the years, the players or sightholders have formed a union. The union’s power lies in the close ties the players have with the fans. These players no longer feel completely tied to team de Beers and are exercising their bargaining rights. They will reject any contract that is not economically sustainable. Team De Beers is aware that the players attract the fans, and they can no longer negotiate as if these players belonged to a farm team.
As new team owners, Botswana must produce a viable and saleable product and keep ticket prices high without scaring away the fans. Owning a team is a complicated matter especially if you also own the stadium in which the game is played. Team Botswana needs to manage the politics, profits and losses of Botswana Stadium as well as making sure the team wins and becomes profitable.
The intricacies of taking over a first-class major league team are daunting but doable. Rebuilding a winning team has been done before and can be done again. It takes a new and fresh vision that will attract and build upon an existent loyal fan base. Most of all, it takes a strong belief in the future of the game.
