Yankees - Good for Baseball?

[SilentJames]

Hey, it's not like they've won championships while spending all this money and they're not a lock to win one now.

Had they been winning a title every year, that'd be a different story. But they're not.

Yeah, but one team going out and getting the top three free agents all at once and plunking down a monster amount of change for it. That is a problem.

[Mark Carver]

New Yankee Stadium... a cash cow with seats that were behind the dugout that were $150 in 2007, are now $850 A GAME, and you have to buy 4, minimum.

There is a guy I know who has tickets behind the Yankee dugout, has had them for awhile. Last season each seat cost $150 per game. This season, because it is the last season at the old Yankee Stadium, the cost went up to $250. Next season, if he wants to keep the same seats when everybody moves across 161st St. to the new Yankee Stadium, the cost will go to $850 per seat.

If he wants to keep his current seats, he has to sign a minimum four-year contract, and they want a third of the cost of the first year up front. If he goes for that deal, they say the most they can increase him over the term of the contract is 4% a year.

Yankee Stadium prices are insane!

The only way for the majority of teams in MLB to compete, is through home grown...

[MVP-Markakis]

Let the Yankees spend. Eventually when they go bankrupt. Which they will in these tough times. They won't be able to get the ludicriuos ticket prices that they will need. The fans can't afford it and the corporations won't either.

[rhall]

It's not so much that one team signed the 3 best players and spent half a billion dollars on contracts for them. It's more the fact that the team mentioned also paid something like $30 million in luxury tax from the year before, and also already had 2 of the highest paid players on they're roster. All on top of asking the City of New York for a $360 million bond for they're stadium. Seems to me if you have half a billion to spend on new players, you can flush up enough cash to not need tax payer help for your new stadium.

If this were a team like the Nats or O's it wouldn't be as bad. Both teams have owners with enough money to support a higher payroll and had payrolls well under $100 million for a while now. But seriously, this is like a 13 year old kid playing MLB the show on his PS3.

If MLB were smart they'd look at the top entertainment business in America. The NFL. You make a salary cap. Not only do you add some parity into MLB and allow perrinial bottom feeders like the Royals to have a chance to compete every year, but you make the business more about strategy then about who has the most money and who has the balls to spend it. You'd definitely see alot less $20 million contracts being thrown out there.

I think that this is one of the biggest outrages surrounding the Yankees, and the rest of baseball isn't innocent either. I do not like the fact that many stadiums are built with the help of tax payers' money. I was about to rant on this, but this isn't a politics forum.

Anyway, if they're going to allow the Yankees (or any team) to use tax payer money to build a stadium, maybe MLB should force them to stay under the luxury tax threshold. If you've got enough money to blow past the luxury tax threshold for player salaries, you should be able to fund your own stadium. Another way to work this would be to refuse tax assistance to any team who's gone over the luxury tax threshold in the last 2, 5, 10 years. That number would be heavily debated, I'm sure. Of course, if you went about it that way you would have to get the cooperation of each city/state, which would probably be impossible.

[Mark Carver]

Let the Yankees spend. Eventually when they go bankrupt. Which they will in these tough times. They won't be able to get the ludicriuos ticket prices that they will need. The fans can't afford it and the corporations won't either.

Bankrupt? With Yankees revenue of $327m (2007) and YES Network revenues of $350m (2007)... not hardly especially with their new cash cow, New Yankee Stadium.

[MVP-Markakis]

New Yankee Stadium... a cash cow with seats that were behind the dugout that were $150 in 2007, are now $850 A GAME, and you have to buy 4, minimum.

Yankee Stadium prices are insane!

The only way for the majority of teams in MLB to compete, is through home grown...

Thats what i've been saying in other posts. The Orioles fans cry wah wah we didn't sign Tex and the Yankees sign whoever they want. Look at the flip side. You can take your family to an Orioles game, enjoy it. Maybe even a few a year. Every time you take them to Yankees stadium you pissed away a vactation to Disney World for a week. So do you really want the 250 million payroll and never see a game live and spend 25 bucks a month to watch them on TV.

[rhall]

Bankrupt? With Yankees revenue of $327m (2007) and YES Network revenues of $350m (2007)... not hardly especially with their new cash cow, New Yankee Stadium.

I think he was referring to the fact that both Yankee Stadium and the YES network will not keep producing this much revenue if the economy doesn't pick back up.

When more and more people need to cut their expenses, what's the first thing to go? Expensive cable bills could be one, which would logically affect the profits of the YES network. The new Yankee Stadium is priced higher than I ever thought possible, and I struggle to see how they will continue to get those prices in a struggling economy. One of two things will have to happen for the stadium to stay full: their prices will have to come down or the corporations and citizens of New York will go bankrupt themselves.

I'd have to agree that the idea that the Yankees will go bankrupt is highly unlikely, but it will be interesting to see what happens to their revenue streams as the economy continues to fall.

[Mark Carver]

I think he was referring to the fact that both Yankee Stadium and the YES network will not keep producing this much revenue if the economy doesn't pick back up.

When more and more people need to cut their expenses, what's the first thing to go? Expensive cable bills could be one, which would logically affect the profits of the YES network. The new Yankee Stadium is priced higher than I ever thought possible, and I struggle to see how they will continue to get those prices in a struggling economy. One of two things will have to happen for the stadium to stay full: their prices will have to come down or the corporations and citizens of New York will go bankrupt themselves.

I'd have to agree that the idea that the Yankees will go bankrupt is highly unlikely, but it will be interesting to see what happens to their revenue streams as the economy continues to fall.

While I agree with alot in what you say, clearly they wanted to make a big splash in 2009, going into the new stadium and the Sr Steinbrenner not being of good health... sortta, 'Win one for the Gipper' mentality.

[ledzepp8]

Dude they made the playoffs like 11 times in a row until this past year. Once you are in the playoffs, the WS is a crapshoot. To say them not winning the WS means there is parity is just false.

Very well said, and just to add:

I did a quick search and found that the Yankees have on their roster eight guys that have made the All Star Game. Robinson Cano, AROD, Jeter, Damon, Matsui, Posada, Rivera, and Sabathia. 43 combined AS Appearances. That's just ridiculously unfair.

[Mad Mark]

A salary cap without significantly enhanced revenue sharing = more profit for the $teingrabber clan. No thank you.

[Delduck]

Wow talking about not getting it. The problem with the Yankees has nothing to do with WS rings. It has everything to do with a handful of teams having an unfair financial advantage over the rest of the league. You can argue the O's could have spent more to get Tex, but that does nothing to answer the true issue which is why does one team have the ability to hand out these massive contracts, while small market teams suffocate and have an opportunity to win every 10 years because they can not "hang" in an exorbitant free agent climate?

You are 100% correct, and much better said then I could have done.

[MVP-Markakis]

The Orioles are valued at 380+ and want fans to signed Tex for more then half of the worth of the team. Thats insane. He won't increase the value of the team that much. It's a bad business decision to do that.

[hatepaste]

My intention is for this thread to have nothing to do with Tex. I think it has more to do with the Yankees, and how money is spent. Also, it was brought up like half the board was lawyers, so their input would be good also.

So the Yanks have spend close to half a billion dollars in players so far this offseason. I am not going to argue whether this is bad for baseball as a whole (I think it is). I think everyone can at least agree that it isn't good. My question is, why hasn't anyone stepped in?

Baseball is given several "passes" by the federal government. It is basically allowed to operate as an ogliopoly/monopoly without any anti-trust lawsuits thrown at them. I am a fiscal conservative, and believe that free market should reign; the government that governs less, governs best . However, baseball isn't completely a free market in this setup, because not all teams can compete evenly.

However, the government clearly keeps tabs on baseball, as that was part of their argument for the whole steroid scandal. And the Yankees have made a lot of people look like idiots as we head into a recession, while they spend 500 million on players, along with the exorbitant prices of their new stadium. So why hasn't the government stepped in to level the playing field? Or is that only important when steroids are involved?

More importantly, why haven't the other owners stepped in. Can they really be happy with the way that things have transpired? There has to be at least 28 other teams that can not afford to operate this way. While the Yankees have not won a World Series in a decade, they still have had major playoff runs for the entire time (besides this past year). Does the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates not want to have the same type of success that the Pittsburgh Steelers have? What about the Tampa Bay Bucs and Rays (minus this year of course)? So why have all these owners sat idle? Are they just happy that they don't have to spend this type of money, but can sit back and relax while they realize the earnings potential that is Major League Baseball?

Why haven't the players spoke up? There are only 25 roster spots on the Yankees roster. That leaves a lot of players left on other rosters that simply can't compete. Or are they just happy with the residual salary increases from the Yankees' spending?

And the fans. How come there isn't a public outcry from the fans in all of the other cities? There is certainly a lot more fans from these cities combined than there are Yankee fans.

What about tax payers of New York? How is it the Yankees can continue to ask for more public funding (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g-a4lA4T9aUAbpfCA5zyuVDPoPuAD94UV8G80), but can continue to spend?

[Mad Mark]

No offense, but I think this goes without saying.

The Yankees now have the four richest contracts in the game.

They signed the three best free agents (two of whom make up the previous item).

Something needs to be done. This can't be good for baseball.

Actually, it goes unsaid a lot around here. Every time something like this happens, the clarion call goes out throughout the Hangout for a salary cap. No mention of revenue distribution, at all.

I strongly believe that balanced revenue distribution would negate the "need" for a salary cap. I also strongly believe that a cap without revamped revenue distribution would be a disaster for the sport, and a profit cow for the same few teams we all want reigned in.

You're right that it's not good for baseball. But the Yankee$ have the sport so bamboozled with their "mystique", and YESPNESN has the country swooning over the historic, significant Red $ox - Yankee$ rivalry. Nobody out there, except for the few thousand die hards on boards like this throughout the country, gives a damn. They all think that this is the natural order of things, and furthermore, that this is how things ought to be.

[BaltimoreTerp]

In no way is this signing, or the Yankees in general good for baseball.

- Moose's argument is completely wrong. Short-series situations are unpredictable, because of pitching matchups and batting slumps and one or two weird plays and so many other factors. Any team that makes the playoffs has a chance to win both an individual series and a series of series.

A team that can outspend every other team by that much can put themselves in a position to essentially guarantee a playoff berth (as much as possible in baseball), and that is not a good thing.

- If I'm New York, I'm cutting off all stadium funds immediately. There is no excuse for that city to be paying that team between the stadium income and the player spending.

- Major League Baseball has to take some kind of action soon.

I know it is said that baseball as a sport is getting it's highest attendance when the Yankees and Red Sox are fighting above everyone else, but all I see is a generation of bandwagon fans forming, and when those teams inevitably have a down period the fans will start to jump ship, and then who will be left to watch?