[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by Storm Cadet

Baseball franchises,as pointed out yesterday on ESPN,are a business. The Yankees are a corporation just like IBM.

Their player salary is say 200 million and they bring in over 600 million from fans, radio, TV contracts etc. Their salaries are LOWER than last season.

So they pay MLB a lousy 25 mil in luxury tax,

I wish GM, Ford and all the other lousy companies we taxpayers are bailing out would run their business the way the Yankees do. And do you think all those owners who are taking the Yankees luxury tax profits are spending it on their team or lining their own pockets like AIG, Citibank, GM, JP Morgan?

Would you rather (and I know most Yankee haters would say yes) the Yankees go back to their days of spending 100 million on bums, get less than 1 million fans, be a non factor like the early 70's and most of the 80's with crickets as fans in Yankee Stadium. The place was as deserted as Aqueduct Racetrack is now!

I am a fan and want to see stars play here, why do you think they pack the Stadium every game? All of NY is like that as are most big market teams. Stars drive attendance which drives the profit margin which is what companies are supposed to do. NOT winning a Championship for 8 years HAS NOT made Yankee tickets any less desirable. Just try getting a seat this year. Almost impossible already. Ever try getting a spring training ticket for the Yankees? Already almost sold out. Ever try getting a good seat on the road to watch the Yankees? Hah, the other greedy owners who take the Yankees luxury tax and put it right into their pockets, circle the dates the Yankees come to town, as they do for the Red Sox. Hotels and restaurants are booked months in advance for the dates the Yanks come to town. Ask the other owners if they want the Yankees to go back to 1970 status when they had the Horace Clark's of the world playing for them.

The thing is, the Yanks are looking for a bailout just like those other companies in the form of a $450 million taxpayer subsidy for the construction of the new stadium. Yet unlike those companies who are giving off the public image that they are cutting back the Yankees are thumbing their nose at the taxpayers bailing them out. The city shouldn't give them their money and dare them to leave town. They'll never in a million years do it. The only reason you subsidize a stadium is if you believe the team will leave if you don't. Or if you're Rudy Giuliani and the Yanks will hire all your friends to work for them if you subsidize it.