Curran and his Patriots Place logic is BS. No, Patriots Place didn't come cheap. But it is generating its own revenue. That revenue will be unaffected by a lockout or anything that happens to football. In fact, since they don't have to close the theater and some of the stores 10-12 days out of the year for games, it might increase their revenues since they probably have overages incomes on rents (in other words, if a tenant does over a certain amount of revenue each year, the Krafts get a percentage of that revenue) with is common with most retail leases in shopping plazas.
The fact of the matter is based on Miguel's numbers, the Pats are committed to $63.3 million in real dollars. According to USA Today, the least amount in payroll over the last five years the Pats committed to salaries has been $94.4 million (Jonathan Kraft has said that USA Today's numbers are too low of an estimates). That means the Pats would have to spend $31 million to match their lowest payroll since 2004. They would have to spend about $54 million to match their highest payroll.
Also, as pointed out, even in a lockout, the Patriots will receive all of their TV revenue in a lockout (although the league will have to credit the networks, ESPN, and DirecTV free games in the future).
Patriot Place is something like 80% full. So how much of the New England Patriots revenue is going to pay the mortgage for Patriots Place each year? At most $1-2 million (and that is probably a way, way overestimate). So the Krafts are going to cut their payroll for players $20-30 million because he is concerned that he is going to have to shell out $1-2 million in 2011 on mortgage? Doesn't make sense. If a lockout last more than a year, Kraft has far more concerns than how to pay his mortgage on Patriots Place.
Beside, I wouldn't be surprised if Kraft has insurance on a work stoppage in the NFL. Players take out insurance for if they get injured, I would assume owners do the same for a number of reasons.
Seriously, Tom Curran is showing why he is a sports writer with the Patriot Place argument. It doesn't make sense. Ordway and DeOssie (both actual business owners) on The Big Show has already blown the Patriots Place argument out of the water. I am surprised Curran is still running with it.