The Business of Baseball

[Shmee]

Discusses how the other 29 major league teams are, in many ways, subsidiaries of the New York Yankees.

Interesting that, for all that people hate the Yankees, it's doubtful that many of the other teams would be able to thrive like they do, or even exist, without the Yankees.

The Business of Baseball - espn.com

[Epiphanic]

A very interesting article indeed. I love watching the Yankees lose. But that's because they spends lots of money. If they spent like the Twins, A's, or Royals seeing them lose wouldn't be as much fun. I couldn't resist forwarding it to my Yankee-hater friends.

[LMU]

Just goes to show one thing... spend like the Yankees, and you too can attract tens of thousands of fair weather bandwagon fans.

I have no problem with the tried and true Yankee fans, but those who just attach themselves without knowing the first thing about the team get on my nerves.

[Mac the Knife]

The Pirates are valued at $250 million. Sheesh. Not bad for what amounts to a AA level club on the field...

[pcgd]

I'd say the Yankees HELP the bottom 5 teams. But they certainly aren't keeping teams like the Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Braves, Dodgers, etc. afloat. Those teams do fine on their own.

Give me a break. The Yankees aren't the reason the Cardinals Thrive.

[CS85]

This is just the new york medias way of reminding everybody of how awesome the yankees are.

This is history, the past, very old news. It's great that the Yankees started it off, but it's not like I should be shouting "THANK YOU YANKEES!" every time I watch a cubs game.

[Shmee]

I'd say the Yankees HELP the bottom 5 teams. But they certainly aren't keeping teams like the Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Braves, Dodgers, etc. afloat. Those teams do fine on their own.

Give me a break. The Yankees aren't the reason the Cardinals Thrive.

There are plenty of teams that do plenty well enough on their own. But if you look at teams like Florida, Pittsburgh, and Washington, you have to wonder how well they'd do without all the Yankee money that's in the system.

[CC97]

I'd say the Yankees HELP the bottom 5 teams.  But they certainly aren't keeping teams like the Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Braves, Dodgers, etc. afloat.  Those teams do fine on their own.

Give me a break.  The Yankees aren't the reason the Cardinals Thrive.

There are plenty of teams that do plenty well enough on their own. But if you look at teams like Florida, Pittsburgh, and Washington, you have to wonder how well they'd do without all the Yankee money that's in the system.

I am certain having the yanks in our division really helped the jays during the dark years of having an owner that didn't care about this team who was playing in a stadium we didn't own or get much revenue from (1995-2001/04)... now they we're back on our feet, looking at that chart shows you where we are now... thanks yankees! (or better yet, thanks mlb for forcing the yanks to share revenue )

chart

[logodawg]

I'd say the Yankees HELP the bottom 5 teams.  But they certainly aren't keeping teams like the Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Braves, Dodgers, etc. afloat.  Those teams do fine on their own.

Give me a break.  The Yankees aren't the reason the Cardinals Thrive.

There are plenty of teams that do plenty well enough on their own. But if you look at teams like Florida, Pittsburgh, and Washington, you have to wonder how well they'd do without all the Yankee money that's in the system.

Let's see $77 million divided by 30 teams equals roughly $2.5 million per team, which would be less than 2% of even the Devil Rays' revenue, the team with the lowest revenue, and who also MADE $20 million last year.

And of the three teams you mentioned, only Florida loss money, almost $12 million, where Pittsburgh and Washington both made $21 million.

So yeah, the Yankees are single-handedly keeping the league afloat

Maybe if George learned how to budget, player salaries wouldn't be so ridicous and he might make money and there would be no need for revenue sharing in the first place.