Everyone is talking about big market teams as the only potential suitors for ARod.  Only the Cubs, Dodgers, Angels, etc.

I am thinking the complete opposite way.  Each year, the Pirates pocket $20 million or more in revenue sharing funds.  Revenue sharing is based on local revenue, and a team like Pittsburgh may not be able to increase its local revenue that significantly in the next say five years.  Specifically, Pittsburgh isn't going to draw much more than they have with a new stadium, and are not going to significantly expand local TV and radio contracts.  (Admittedly, I haven't studied this like Forbes Magazine, but it is not an outrageous assumption.  In 2001, according to Forbes, the Pirates local media income was $3.86 per capita, within shouting distance of the average of $4.35.  It's not like there is a big untapped market in Pittsburgh.)   So there may be a reasonable expectation that the local revenues may not go up too much, and that the revenue sharing will stay the same or increase over the next few years.

Now, one of the problems with revenue sharing is that teams like the Pirates, Royals, Brewers and Devil Rays put the money into their pockets (all of these teams are annually among the "most profitable", whatever that means).  So what if the Pirates sign ARod for 8 years/$228 million?  $28.5 million a year is their revenue sharing plus a replacement level player.  

There are a number of things that work with something like this: