Addressing the Yankees' Unfair Advantage: Which is more likely?

[Lucky Jim]

Many of these low budget teams would be willing to take a chance if given the opportunity to move to the NY area. It'd be a pretty good gamble long term given their current conditions. But a team like the A's, struggling for local support, would almost instantly be in a better situation that offers way more revenue because of how well they've been run. I'd like to think that any of the low budget teams have the opportunity to move wherever they wanted, that's only fair, but they can't. Some of them would most likely be better than the Mets at least.

I'm not sure #3 would be as difficult as you're thinking. Hey maybe New Yorkers just need a third choice? I'm thinking many New Yorkers would love having an additional team that could potentially lower the costs of the tickets.

I'm not saying it's impossible - at all. Just unlikely. And difficult. And with some risks unmentioned by supporters.

Any system that transfers a well-run organization like Oakland to NYC (where it becomes a cheap fallback) in order to bolster poorly run organizations like Baltimore has a few flaws though, I think.

[Mad Mark]

Salary cap is far more likely than the other two options.

However, a salary cap would make the Yankees far more dominant than they currently are. The only thing that would truly level the playing field would be either revenue sharing or a cap on total expenditures. If the Yankees can't spend more than $150M on their 25-man roster, they'll just spend the extra $100M on the draft and international FA signings, basically buying the entire market.

And that's how they bought their first 20 or so "Worlds Championships" during the time of the reserve clause. When ML player costs go down, they shift the $ into other areas to keep the machine greased.

[Jagwar]

This is kinda old but a good read. Some of the comments was interesting as well.

Thanks for posting. Very interesting article. It captures a few key points about moving a team to NY:

1. At least one owner recognized that the market can support another team, and stated it publicly. It would be interesting if a few more ever got on board.

2. Building a stadium might not be that difficult, especially if the team is in Northern NJ

3. There are plenty of revenue dollars available. The MSG Network has plenty of funds to throw into the revenue pot.

4. The Yankees, Mets, and even the Phillies, all have strong incentives to block the move of any franchise to Northern NJ

Moving a third team to NY would be a worst case scenario for the Yankees, which is exactly why I wish it would happen.

[Lucky Jim]

Thanks for posting. Very interesting article. It captures a few key points about moving a team to NY:

1. At least one owner recognized that the market can support another team, and stated it publicly. It would be interesting if a few more ever got on board.

2. Building a stadium might not be that difficult, especially if the team is in Northern NJ

3. There are plenty of revenue dollars available. The MSG Network has plenty of funds to throw into the revenue pot.

4. The Yankees, Mets, and even the Phillies, all have strong incentives to block the move of any franchise to Northern NJ

Moving a third team to NY would be a worst case scenario for the Yankees, which is exactly why I wish it would happen.

I'd like to see the numbers behind this. Just because they had it for the Yankees before YES doesn't mean they have it now for some runt-y start-up. Or that those funds haven't gone elsewhere.

Further, that article is from 2007 - I don't see any way that New Jersey is all that interested in investing in the team now, after two years of economic decline. Further, without any historic ties to New York, those teams won't draw from NYC at all (see: The Nets), so the demographic will be all NJ and Pa.

[geschinger]

I'd like to see the numbers behind this. Just because they had it for the Yankees before YES doesn't mean they have it now for some runt-y start-up. Or that those funds haven't gone elsewhere.

Further, that article is from 2007 - I don't see any way that New Jersey is all that interested in investing in the team now, after two years of economic decline. Further, without any historic ties to New York, those teams won't draw from NYC at all (see: The Nets), so the demographic will be all NJ and Pa.

It would take a decent size initial investment but the payoff would be huge to start a network. With forced carriage rules they could pull in at least a $1 or so per month per sat/cable subscriber in the tri-state area. That alone would put a 3rd NY team among the higher revenue clubs before they sold their first ticket.

[Jagwar]

Here is an article on CNN-SI from yesterday.

Scroll down to the section titled "The Rich Get Richer", where Marchman talks about the population per team ratio in the New York market.

The better solution would be to place a third team in New York. That would bring the town's population:team ratio down to the level of Los Angeles or Philadelphia, and with the same number of people and dollars chasing more baseball, would quite likely bring Yankee spending down a hair without doing anything punitive or unfair. The main holdup is baseball's archaic territorial rights system, which has also trapped the A's in Oakland when they should really be in San Jose. Anyone who cried foul last week on hearing that the Yankees had snared yet another great player would be far better served writing a letter to the commissioner about how stupid that rights system is than they would be to grouse about it over a beer.

[mweb]

I would vote for increasing revenue sharing over the options in the poll.

[mweb]

As I've said many times, I don't think putting another team in NYC will do much good for reasons already stated. I also don't see a demand for such a team, so good luck making it happen.

[geschinger]

As I've said many times, I don't think putting another team in NYC will do much good for reasons already stated. I also don't see a demand for such a team, so good luck making it happen.

Demand is not the issue, antiquated territorial rules are. If those went away tomorrow I think you'd see several teams interested in becoming the 3rd NY team.

[mweb]

Demand is not the issue, antiquated territorial rules are. If those went away tomorrow I think you'd see several teams interested in becoming the 3rd NY team.

I'm talking about demand from NYC for another team, and the willingness to build a stadium for this team.

[DrungoHazewood]

Demand is not the issue, antiquated territorial rules are. If those went away tomorrow I think you'd see several teams interested in becoming the 3rd NY team.

It's a near certainty that without territorial restrictions and government backing of MLB NYC would have many major league and high minor league teams.

As I'm often pointed out there are not such restrictions nor government subsidies for English soccer teams, so London has a dozen or more professional teams. Including 5-6 at the highest level. The legions of Chelsea and Arsenal fans don't keep Fulham or West Ham from drawing lots of support.

Yes, in the beginning it would be difficult converting Yanks and Mets fans, but there are, what, 12M people in NYC? You wouldn't have to convert any of the die hard fans to be wildly successful.

[RShack]

I'm talking about demand from NYC for another team, and the willingness to build a stadium for this team.

Demand from a place is not a required precursor to supplying something successfully.

Lots of successful things are made available without prefab demand.

You can provide something people will adopt without them realizing it in advance. Happens all the time...

[mweb]

Demand from a place is not a required precursor to supplying something successfully.

Lots of successful things are made available without prefab demand.

You can provide something people will adopt without them realizing it in advance. Happens all the time...

A stadium has to be built, there needs to be some type of demand for that to happen.

[geschinger]

A stadium has to be built, there needs to be some type of demand for that to happen.

There was plenty of interest in building a stadium to try and get a team 4-5 years ago which would have been at the Meadowlands. I don't think MLB was willing to pick a fight with the Yankees who voiced their disapproval of such an option.

[Lucky Jim]

Maybe when another baseball league is in existence, this will be the case. I've expressed why I don't think that the dilution of the NYC market is a feasible option, though I recognize that NNJ might be an interesting concept.

The problem with that is that you won't draw from a huge portion of the NYC metro area: not from NYC, not from Connecticut. Pennsylvania and NJ will be the only options. It's not a glamorous market, it's not a market w/o an option.

The loyalty to the Yanks and Mets is deep. On top of that entrenchment - and everyone here is really overlooking this - is the fact that getting your fill of baseball isn't defined by the local anymore. Baseball fans in NY who are not Yanks/Mets fans can watch the teams they brought with them. There's simply no need to switch over to a local team to get your fill of baseball.