Boss puts money where his mouth is

[Toro]

As much as I don't like Steinbrenner, I've got to say, he puts winning ahead of money in his pocket. I read a report this morning that the Yankees luxury tax this year is $25 million dollars. Added to their bill for revenue sharing ($60 million) the Evil Empire will be writing a check to MLB for a cool $85 million dollars.

Add that amount to the $188 million dollar payroll, well you can do the math, and old George is willing to shell out whatever it takes when he could be reaping millions in additional pofits.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

I hate the [censored] Yankees, but he is the best owner in sports.

[ThaSaltCracka]

wow.

[daryn]

he ain't starving.

[TheJunkyardGod]

I was born and raised a Yankee fan.

And I remember in the 80's and early 90's when they were terrible going to the stadium with a packed house.

He doesnt need to spend as much money as he does. He's in the best market to build a great without buying all the best players.

Also, I see Omar Minaya starting to do the same thing across town.

[andyfox]

I read that the luxury tax is paid to the commissioner's office. I assume, then, that the commissioner distributes it to the teams. But I believe the team owners then can do whatever they want with it: spend it on players, or buy a yacht.

Anyone know if this is accurate or exactly how it does work?

The Yankees have often set the standard by making more, and spending more, than the other teams. They won the World Series in 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961 and 1962. They won the AL pennant in 1942, 1955, 1957, 1960, 1963 and 1964. They had smart managers and good players, but most importantly, they had money.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
I believe the team owners then can do whatever they want with it: spend it on players, or buy a yacht.

Anyone know if this is accurate or exactly how it does work?

[/ QUOTE ]
I too must admit to not knowing the exact details on this, but I'll put in my $0.02 anyway. The impression that I get is that, say, Owner A gets $10M, he "has to spend it on the product", but if their budget is, say, $25M, then he's spending $15M of his own and $10M of the league's money, as opposed to a straight $25M of his own. It's not necessarily true that he'll spend $35M instead of $25M - he'll most likely (over)pay his players $25M with $15M of his own and take the $10M (essentially a rebate) for his Cheez-It fund (that's how I'd spend it).

It works out the same in the end. I guess all it does is guarantee that he has to spend $10M on players (in this example). In my opinion, all this does is to inflate the salaries of the mediochre players and the checking accounts of the shitty (rich) mofo owners who don't give two shits about their team other than its bottom line.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Most people mistakenly believe that the Yankees money domination began with free agency. In fact, they used their financial power throughout the century by having the best scouts, best coaches and best minor league system.

I remember my father telling me that in the 30's, major league teams had a great deal of difficulty signing the best Pacific Coast League players. For one, the farthest west MLB went then was St. Louis, so many PCL guys had little desire to move so far away from home. Couple that with the fact that the PCL paid its stars better than they'd get initially in the Show, and it was tough. The Yankees were better able to use finacial power to get DiMaggio.

[Toro]

I'm about 90% sure they don't have to spend it on payroll, a real flaw in the system.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm about 90% sure they don't have to spend it on payroll, a real flaw in the system.

[/ QUOTE ] IIRC, doesn't every single team in MLB make money?

[Nick B.]

[ QUOTE ]
As much as I don't like Steinbrenner, I've got to say, he puts winning ahead of money in his pocket. I read a report this morning that the Yankees luxury tax this year is $25 million dollars. Added to their bill for revenue sharing ($60 million) the Evil Empire will be writing a check to MLB for a cool $85 million dollars.

Add that amount to the $188 million dollar payroll, well you can do the math, and old George is willing to shell out whatever it takes when he could be reaping millions in additional pofits.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea, the Red Sox don't spend anywhere near that much. They are the true underdogs.

[Toro]

I've got to similarly commend Red Sox ownership. Boston has the best fans in the country and would sell out Fenway Park regardless but the new owners, instead of coming in and looking just for the profits, were willing to spend, albeit not nearly as much as the Yankees, but obviously enough to finally win it all.

And it looks like, despite not re-signing Martinez, they are willing to spend even more for next year. But despite being a die-hard Red sox fan, I think the system sucks. For Baseball to be competitive, where every City's fans can legitimately hope to compete for a championship, they should have adopted a hard salary cap and floor.

A $60 million cap I think would have been reasonable. I know the players would have only accepted that after a long protracted lock out but the owners should have done it as the NHL owners are doing now.

[ThaSaltCracka]

LOL, Toro did you realize that NY has a payroll of 187.9 million, and the team with the lowest payroll was Tampa with 24.4 million, wtf, damn.

There were 6 teams with a payroll over 100 million last year, Philly was close though with 97.4 million. Of course 4 of those teams made the playoffs /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

what a ridiculous amount of money.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1953986

[Toro]

That's why baseball needs a hard cap. $60 million would be fair imo, giving the players an average salary of $2.4 million. Under my system, though, there would also be a floor, say, $50 million and revenue sharing as it now exists. If the Tampas couldn't afford that even with the revenue sharing, well, then sayonara.

Once in place, all teams would have a chance to compete and attendance league wide would increase.

[ThaSaltCracka]

I would like to see a system similar to whatever they have in the NBA.

edit: that article I linked listed the average salary and IIRC it was around 2.4. It actually dropped too.

[andyfox]

The Yankees also contribute a ton of money in revenue sharing. Here's an article from last year:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/yankees/2003-12-26-revenue-sharing_x.htm