Ammunition for us Yankee fans

by jpoppejr on Nov 11, 2009 11:39 PM EST

I posted this back in December 2008, but thought it appropriate to repost as ammunition for us Yankee fans. Sports ownership is not a charity. It is a business like any other and the Yankees make sound business decisions. Period! Now, go get #28!

So everyone is screaming about the Yankees' spending ways. So I decided to take a look at how they rank against other clubs using the following methodology:

2008 Payroll divided by 2008 attendance divided by Cost of Living Index and the Yankees rank 22 at $22.70 per attendee. Here are the numbers. Am I wrong with this analysis?

Payroll Rank	Team	Attend. MM	Payroll MM	Payroll / Attend	Cost of Living Index	Payroll / Attend / COLI	COLI Rank
8	Detroit	3.2	$138.7	$43.30	98.6	$43.92	1
16	Chicago Sox	2.5	$121.2	$48.44	110.8	$43.72	2
14	Atlanta	2.5	$102.4	$40.44	96.5	$41.91	3
20	Seattle	2.3	$118.0	$50.65	121.5	$41.69	4
23	Cincinnati	2.1	$74.3	$36.08	90.8	$39.74	5
29	Kansas City	1.6	$58.2	$36.89	96.1	$38.39	6
25	Texas	1.9	$68.2	$35.07	91.9	$38.16	7
22	Cleveland	2.2	$79.0	$36.40	99.3	$36.65	8
12	Houston	2.8	$88.9	$32.00	90.9	$35.20	9
7	Chicago Cubs	3.3	$118.6	$35.94	110.8	$32.43	10
10	Boston	3.0	$133.4	$43.78	135.4	$32.33	11
4	St. Louis	3.4	$100.6	$29.33	91.8	$31.95	12
28	Pittsburgh	1.6	$49.4	$30.68	98.9	$31.02	13
24	Baltimore	2.0	$67.2	$34.46	118.6	$29.05	14
9	Milwaukee	3.1	$81.0	$26.40	100.3	$26.32	15
15	Arizona	2.5	$66.2	$26.38	101.0	$26.12	16
13	Colorado	2.7	$68.7	$25.91	103.8	$24.96	17
6	LA Angels	3.3	$119.2	$35.73	145.4	$24.57	18
26	Tampa Bay	1.8	$43.8	$24.61	100.5	$24.48	19
21	Minnesota	2.3	$62.2	$27.01	110.6	$24.42	20
5	Philadelphia	3.4	$98.3	$28.71	124.1	$23.14	21
1	NY Yankees	4.3	$209.1	$48.64	214.3	$22.70	22
3	LA Dodgers	3.7	$118.5	$31.77	145.4	$21.85	23
18	Toronto	2.4	$98.6	$41.10	188.8	$21.77	24
17	San Diego	2.4	$73.7	$30.35	140.3	$21.63	25
27	Oakland	1.7	$48.0	$28.80	147.6	$19.52	26
19	Washington	2.3	$55.0	$23.69	137.2	$17.26	27
2	NY Mets	4.0	$138.3	$34.21	214.3	$15.97	28
11	San Francisco	2.9	$76.9	$26.85	169.5	$15.84	29
30	Florida	1.3	$21.8	$16.36	115.4	$14.17	30

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Comments

What is the point of this?

I don’t understand.

Strikeouts are boring- Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic.

by CasanovaWong on Nov 12, 2009 12:34 AM EST reply actions

The point

The point is that if an owner believes they will draw more fans with a quality team then payroll is relative to the area the team resides. The Yankees spend less per person watching the game than 21 other teams.

by jpoppejr on Nov 12, 2009 7:24 AM EST reply actions

That’s because the New York metropolitan area’s population, the nation’s largest, is 18.8m. Yankee Stadium is also relatively easy access for these people. Not a strong argument with those stats.

by Scooby Snacks on Nov 12, 2009 9:37 AM EST up reply actions

did you do this

or is it from somewhere else? if you got it from an outside source, it needs to be linked.

by Travis G on Nov 12, 2009 4:16 PM EST reply actions

Interesting but

I don’t think cost of living doesn’t impact the the Yankees decision to pay Arod, Jeter, etc. north of $20M. After $5M or so, I don’t think players are concerned with how much a loaf of bread costs for them to be attracted to a NY team. Thanks though.

I like the one I saw earlier comparing payroll to teams earnigs. It’s on PSA somewhere…

by coops2001 on Nov 13, 2009 1:29 PM EST reply actions

Travis G

Compiled myself. Coops2001, this has nothing to do with players it has everything to do with relative payroll decisions that baseball owners may consider.

by jpoppejr on Nov 15, 2009 10:19 PM EST reply actions