Thursday, November 6, 2014

"A Yankees source told me they could break even financially with a $500 million payroll expenditure..."

Posted by el duque at 3:32 PM

Kiley McDaniel of FanGraphs tells how the Yankees snatched Yangervis Solarte, why money is piss, why the sparrow is immortal, and Scranton is always full of fogies. 

3 comments:

Local Bargain Jerk said...

What's interesting about the $500MM paytroll figure is that it implies the Yankees' annual operating profit is approximately $291MM. (I.e., if $500MM is break even, and their current payroll is $209MM, then they clear $291MM.)

According to Forbes' annual list, the Yankees baseball club is worth $2.5B (which seems WAY short given that the Clippers sold for $2B). If we accept $2.5B, however, that would also imply that the Steinbrothers are earning a return of 11.6% on their investment.

Using some advanced financial calculations conveniently written on the back of my gas bill envelope, I'm noting that if the the Hankster and the Hal-ster had sold the Yankees the day after their father passed and invested the money in an S&P 500 index fund, they'd be in MUCH better shape today financially.

It turns out that the S&P index cratered right around the time the Boss went off to that big skybox. On that day, the S&P index was around 1,022 and, as of today, it's 2,031. If the Steinspawn had sold the Yanks in July, 2010, and put the money in an S&P index fund, they'd have just under $5B in assets today. If they've consistently been earning a return of 11.6% on that same asset (and investing those earnings in the same S&P fund), then they have accumulated a total of $1.8B in profits. The Steintrust has accumulated $4.3B in assets since 2010.

I'm no doubt leaving out a ton of other income sources, but everything else held constant, this means that the Steinspawn would have an EXTRA $640MM in their bank account today if they had sold the Yanks in July 2010. In other words, the Steinbrothers have paid $640MM over the past 4 years for the privilege of owning the Yanks.

Is getting your picture taken wearing the red boots worth it, Hal?

November 7, 2014 at 10:01 AM
el duque said...

Local,

That's a fascinating analysis, which leads us back to the fact that Hal is a super rich heir with a giant toy called the New York Yankees. If you have a toy, you want to play with it. Thus, no matter how Cashman's contract reads, Hal will always meddle. I think that's why Cashman will stay forever; he's willing to put up with the owner's whims - and some old-school baseball executives would not.

November 7, 2014 at 12:27 PM
Local Bargain Jerk said...

El Duque.

Exactly.

I first started looking at the Yanks this way around the time of the original MSG television deal in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

If you recall, MSG Network paid $500MM dollars (or thereabouts) for the rights to broadcast Yankee games for 10 years. It affected fans like you and me because we could no longer watch games for free on WPIX in NY.

I'm glossing over a few things, but shortly after executing the deal, the Dolan's of MSG realized that the entire Yankees team had been previously been valued at $350MM. They approached George and offered to buy him out instead.

George obviously declined, but at the time my thinking was that the satisfaction George's ego got for being owner of the Yankees was worth foregoing a $150MM premium.

Obviously, I was clueless and George was much more shrewd than I'd given him credit for. He realized that $350 and $550MM were both significantly flawed valuations and this realization put everything on a brand new trajectory that culminated in the formation of YES, et al.

November 7, 2014 at 2:34 PM

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