Playoffs and Profit

I know I'm a bit late, but this past Wednesday was a rather dramatic finish to the Major League Baseball's regular season. on the day, the Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox both lost their last games, finally giving up their wild card leads and destroying their hopes of competing in the playoffs. If you remember, Mr Silton mentioned that a team maximizes profit by just barely missing the playoffs, due to the increased amount of tickets sold towards the end of the season, as well as avoiding having to pay players extra for playing more games. So really, I'm not sure how the management of those two teams feel about the loss. Did they want their teams to succeed, or is it really only about the money? Any conspiracy theorists wish to speculate?

And anyways, the Giants last season, despite winning their last game and therefore going to the playoffs, probably profited more by winning than if they had missed the playoffs. Due to their sudden popularity (as a result of their champion status), the Giants sold out every single home game this season, which likely generated more than enough profit to cover the paychecks of the players during the playoffs. So I'm not sure if the World Series Winner is an exception to the missing-the-playoffs-maximizes-profit rule, but i think that the teams (or rather, their management) should aim to make it to the playoffs instead of just barely missing them.