Forget about packing the ballpark. If you want to make serious money, look no further than your TV contract.

For the first 49 years of their history, the Texas Rangers and their predecessors in Washington, D.C., ranked among the worst franchises in all of sports. They went 35 years without sniffing the postseason. They won three division titles in four years in the '90s … and won exactly one playoff game.

Finally, after a half-century in the wilderness, the Rangers broke through in 2010, knocking off the two best teams in the American League and making their first World Series. Now the major league roster is loaded with young talent, there's plenty left on the farm, they're well stocked with bright coaches, scouts, and talent evaluators, and they have a shot to get back to the World Series again this year.

That's just the beginning. The Rangers are primed to become a baseball superpower. The biggest reason why has little to do with anything happening on the field.

From the start of baseball's existence, the way to make money owning a baseball team was to pack the ballpark. Still, for the first 100-plus years, the revenue streams derived from attendance, parking, and concessions were relatively modest.

That all started to change in 1992....