Mariners owner John Stanton talks future of ROOT Sports, winning more than 54% of games

SEATTLE — Seattle Mariners owner John Stanton said the franchise has improved its roster in 2024, and the ongoing discussions and investment in the future of ROOT Sports have not altered spending on the payroll.

The discussion was the first on the topic since the Mariners announced late last year that they were buying the last stake in ROOT Sports, previously owned by Warner Brothers Discovery. It came at a time when the Mariners were trading away high-salaried players and led to speculation that the two items were connected. Comcast also put ROOT Sports on a higher-priced tier, leading to viewers cutting the cord and depressing broadcast numbers.

But Stanton, in an interview Tuesday in the Mariners office, disputed the idea that it was interconnected.

“The Comcast situation was that we went through negotiation or renewal negotiation. At the end of the day they made a decision to take some of their customers off of the ROOT broadcast,” Stanton said. “We didn't know the effect of that until December. So, it really didn't have a direct effect on the change of the payroll.”

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Stanton acknowledged that subscriber numbers are way down from a decade ago, citing 3.3 million in 2014 to just 1.2 million today.

But he said that did not impact a decision to increase payroll by $5 million over a year ago.

When asked if the franchise would offer ROOT Sports direct to consumers, he said “We got direct to consumer on FUBO,” adding “We'd like to do more. We're restricted by the agreements that we inherited from ROOT that it had with Comcast and other companies that limit the number of alternatives that we can have. But our number one priority, Chris, our number one priority is for his many fans to be able to watch Mariner programming.”

Stanton went on to say there is no a la carte option to offer the channel directly to fans for, say $19.99 or $24.99 a month.

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“We're restricted under our agreements with Comcast or ROOT is restricted under its agreements with Comcast, that affects the Mariners from doing more,” Stanton said. “We hope to do more, we're going to continue to work on that.”

He also said that such a service would actually “be a new revenue source for us, and it would increase our total resources we have available.”

As far as the team itself, Stanton expressed optimism.

“I'm incredibly excited about the team that we've got. I think that the opportunity that we've got to see Mitch Haniger back in the right field to see (Jorge) Polanco, who's really hit well against the Mariners. I'm excited to see him hit as well in T-Mobile Park as a Mariner as he did as a Twin,” Stanton said.

“We start with what I think is the best pitching rotation in all of baseball we've added to the bullpen, we're excited to see what we can do,” Stanton continued.

When asked about the comment from General Manager Jerry Dipoto last year that teams need to win 54% of the time to always wind up in the postseason, Stanton countered, “I think that this team is good enough to make the playoffs.”

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“In fact,” Stanton continued, “I think we're good enough to win the AL West. And that's our goal coming into the season, and I expect to do that. The whole 54% thing I think went into the face of a whole bunch of fans, including Jerry, who were unhappy about not making the playoffs at the end of the season. I don't think that this is about those kinds of numbers or quotes that come out of a press conference. It's about having a great team playing on the field.”