Mets, With Citibank Assist, Bests Yankees
January 30th, 2008 · by Bob Meyer · 2 CommentsJohan Santana, brought to you by Citibank…
You won’t see such an advertisement, but the Mets know that it’s true…because baseball’s top pitcher is likely to cost them $150 million or more over six years. A price the Mets can justify because they move into their new Citi Field next year (2009) and they begin collecting a record $20 million a year for the naming rights!
As of now the Yankees contend naming rights for the new Yankee Stadium are off the table. We’ll see. Baseball, as are all professional sports, is all about the money.
PS: The Mets went for “all cash” unlike what the New Jersey Nets did when they put together a cash blend deal…cash plus bartering with Continental Airlines (taking airline seats/tickets as partial payment for naming rights).
Would you like to learn more about little-known barter strategies and techniques? See: FastStart
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Professional Athletics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 31st, 2008 at 9:21 am
When one thinks of baseball as America’s past time–a national icon–purists are slow to accept change. Ball clubs have long learned the connection of $$$ to success and how one entity fuels the other: $$$ brings in players which garner success (wins) and wins bring in more $$$: fans in the park, TV revenue, merchandise sales.
The Yankees have traditionally been slow to accept change believing it’s better to appease the god of baseball rather than change that god. They were slow to sign African American players, they resist placing player’s names on jerseys. I was surprised to see them tap into the free agent market as they so revered their farm system- but didn’t Jim (Catfish) Hunter go to New York?
I like the New Jersey Net’s barter deal though. Airline tickets fluctuate; fuel/security/taxes. But they (the team, front office, families) fly free! To hell with the weak dollar; we fly free!
Persevere…………….. Gary
January 31st, 2008 at 10:10 am
In December 1974, the Yankees landed star right-hander Catfish Hunter, who had been made a free agent when Finley reneged on one of the provisions in his contract. (Finley had promised Catfish a paid-up insurance policy, then reneged when he learned that the policy would incure additional taxes.)
Hunter received a record five-year, three million dollar deal.
I was with the Kansas City Athletics when Catfish signed with the A’s in 1964. Finley had the 17-year old join us the last month of the season. He pitched a little batting practice, but was really there to get a feel for the surroundings.
The next year he went 10-10 as an 18-year old, on his way to a Hall-of-Fame career.