800 million for the Padres? Team values are hard to believe. It hasn't even been 10 years since Arte Moreno paid 180 million for the Angels.

How much does the City of San Diego get for their investment in the team?

The numbers being thrown out for the sales of teams now adays makes you wonder if there really a recession in this country. Then you check your checking account and you realize its more like a depression.

Also, I would think the Houston Astros would be a better comparison for the Padres. The Astros were sold for north of $600 million, and San Diego is a better market than that.

The Astros were sold for north of $600 million, and San Diego is a better market than that.

How so? Houston is the 4th largest media market in the country and the corporate headquarters for a crapload of companies. San Diego is a nicer place to live, I'll grant you that.

If the Padres sell for 800 million dollars I'd have to think that the Ricketts got the deal of the century with their purchase of the Cubs.

These prices are rapidly destroying my fantasies of striking it rich and buying a major league team.

San Diego is the 8th largest city in the U.S., is a major port of trade, but this list has Houston 10th, and San Diego 28th. But the Padres already signed a TV contracts that will pay them a lot of money, plus there's this infomational video that explains the virtues of the city much better than I can.

These prices are rapidly destroying my fantasies of striking it rich and buying a major league team.

Your dream of seeing Soriano traded, however, remains possible!

The numbers being thrown out for the sales of teams now adays makes you wonder if there really a recession in this country. Then you check your checking account and you realize its more like a depression.

Is it affecting most people? It sucks for the 10% (probably higher) unemployed, and those that got foreclosed on (which I think is also like 10% of all homeowners). But that leaves a large part of the population that isn't really affected. Or am I wrong? Have I become part of the 1% without even realizing it? Corporations are people my friend!

I don't know, my wife and I were talking and we concluded we really haven't been all that affected from the recession aside from the fact that we were able to get our house fairly cheap. We're both lucky to have steady jobs though.

My fiance finally ended her streak of being jobless for over a year. Between my two jobs and her one, we finally can get ahead. The past year has been hard.

Is it affecting most people? It sucks for the 10% (probably higher) unemployed, and those that got foreclosed on (which I think is also like 10% of all homeowners). But that leaves a large part of the population that isn't really affected. Or am I wrong?

Plenty of people, maybe most, are doing fine, but there are a lot of folks working part-time or below their qualifications because of the current economy. Many who have left the workforce did so under duress, too. Yesterday's headline was that the average American family has lost 40% of its net worth, mostly to the decline in home values.

EDIT: All owners of MLB teams are doing very well - even those that insist one team has all the money.

Even if you have a job, I would imagine most people find it much harder to find a new job. That would tend to have an effect on salaries.

I've done fine but as has been mentioned there haven't been new jobs opening up and when they do a ton of over qualified applications come flooding in. I was promised an Assistant Director job this winter and was told we simply had to go through the process of posting the job. Well, after posting the job they got 80 applications from all across the country from applicants that on paper looked great. 4 years earlier when the job was last vacant they got 3 applications. I ended up losing the job to one of the applicants and have been stuck in the same position and same pay now for awhile. Meanwhile corporate was aggressive with their financial forecasts and those weren't met so nationwide and locally we are experiencing huge cutbacks and layoffs. So there is always the threat of getting laid off at some point.

Yes, and I don't mean to minimize what people are going through, just that there isn't the same kind of mass hardship like in the Great Depression or the oil-shortages and stagflation of the 70s.