Results tagged “sportsbusiness”

Could the YES Network and the Yankees be up for sale? A report from Fortune Magazine quotes sources that say the YES Network is being shopped around - and that the Yankees could be up for sale in three or four years.

For a few million dollars, you could be the majority owner of the Yankees. And you wouldn't really have to deal with a pesky owner too much. Why? Because you would be the proud owner of the Staten Island Yankees in the New York-Penn League. Unlike the big club in The Bronx, you could actually say you were champions last year though. The team is reportedly on the market for $3-5 million for a the 51% share that Stanley and Josh Getzler own. The two bought their share for $500,000. The remaining 49% is owned by Hal Steinbrenner, The Boss' son.

Miracles can happen - at least for Mets fans with Cablevision. Cablevision and SportsNet New York announced yesterday that the fledgling sports network will be on Cablevision effective immediately on channel 62 (actually in time for yesterday's game). While terms of the agreement were not announced, it's great news for Cablevision's 3 million customers.

What the Yankees have, the Mets must also have. At least when it comes to television networks. Today, Sterling Entertainment, Time Warner, and Comcast launch SportsNet New York, a 24-hour regional sports network. The network will carry as many as 125 Mets games in its first season and will be the "official" TV home of the New York Jets. Of course, they won't be carrying any actual Jets games, but that's a minor detail. In addition to the Mets and Jets, the channel will carry basketball and football games from the Big East and Big Ten. That's great news for Gothamist as we can't get enough Big Ten action.

Major League Soccer and Red Bull announced today that the MetroStars were bought by Red Bull. Some reports put the purchase price at as much as $30 million. The team's official name is "Red Bull New York" and will be the New York Red Bulls on the pitch. It's the energy drink company's 2nd foray into soccer team ownership. Their other team, Red Bull Salzburg of the Austrian Bundesliga. In their announcement of the purchase, Red Bull said that their two teams will work closely together, and Alexi Lalas will remain as the GM of the team (see our interview with Lalas). The team's new stadium in Harrison, NJ will be "Red Bull Arena".

Over the past decade the NFL has benefited from peaceful labor relations to grow into the most popular sport in the U.S.. The players and owners have earned billions and billions of dollars and today they may throw it all away.

Nothing the Yankees do is without controversy. The proposed new stadium for the Bronx Bombers is coming under fire from some Bronx residents as the plan calls for the stadium to be built on two parks - the Macombs Dam Park and John Mullaly Park. The public hearing on the $800 million project had 85 speakers which the Daily News reports were chanting back and forth - "Build it now!" and "Not on the park!". The two parks, totaling 22 acres, is eventually to be replaced by 28 acres of new park.

We have a building boom in the tristate area. The Yankees and Mets have already announced their plans for new stadiums to be built for the 2009 season, the Nets are building an arena in Brooklyn, the Devils are moving to a new arena in Newark and even the Metrostars have gotten into the act.

If it's a player with an ounce of a talent that's having some issues of contract renewals with his ball club, then the Yankees must be invoked. The latest instance of "Scare the pants off the management by mentioning the Yanks" is with hirsute Red Sox player, Johnny Damon. Unhappy with the way his contract negotiations are going, Damon said that he'd be happy to entertain offers from the Yankees. Nice. It seems that once the Yankees are involved, a player's asking price can rise considerably. And when the Yankees are involved, the Red Sox tend to get entangled by default. The only other team that has been helpful in giving players salary leverage is the Mets, which is understandable - it's expensive to live in New York City! Anyway, about Damon coming to the Yankees, we think they need more pitching.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday night on their website that Cablevision received a $700 million offer from an investment group led by Russell D. Glass. While the offer did not include Madison Square Garden, the group was also open to working on a deal for the arena. Cablevision said they had no plans to sell the Knicks and Rangers, but did not say if the two parties were still in contact.

The marketing whizzes at Coors love you marathon runners, "After running 26.2 miles, marathoners deserve positive recognition and we look forward to toasting their remarkable achievement at the finish line." For your achievement, you can look forward to replenishing your fluids with a beer flavored water, Coors Light. It makes finishing all the more worth it, yeah?

Really though, are we missing anything? Time Warner is replacing MSG and FSNY with NBA TV and College Sports TV giving their customers $2 per month while the channels are off their network. While the Knicks have improved recently, Gothamist would gladly take $2 not to watch them play until the season moves closer to the Playoffs. And the Mets? Are we really missing all that much in Spring Training action? Nope.

Because of the partnership with Time Warner and Comcast, it is believed that the Mets network will be carried on basic cable. The only quesion is if it will be on Cablevision. The Mets have one year left on its Cablevision contract after paying $54 million for an early out. So will Cablevision want to pay their competitors for a team that spurned them? We'll see. Of course, if the Mets play like they have this year, will anyone want to pay to watch them?

Embattled Brooklyn apartment dwellers have taken their fight against the proposed site of the new arena for the "Brooklyn Nets" all the way to Athens. A group called Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn unveiled a banner on one of the endangered apartments which reads "Dr. Rogge and the International Olympic Committee, Please Don't Destroy Our Homes." If New York City is awarded the Olympic Games in 2012, the proposed basketball arena would be used to house the gymnastics competition. Local residents hope that by appealing to the International Olympic Committee, a new space for the arena can be found where the current populace won’t be forced to give up their apartments via eminent domain.

The article cites numerous occasions where the interaction between owner and GM are less than perfect. From the Boss summoning his GM down to Tampa in the off-season, to the Boss deriding Cashman for the play of the team, to Steinbrenner making moves without letting Cashman know. The question is whether or not his relationship with Steinbrenner is enough to drive Cashman away from the team with the biggest pockets in baseball.

WFAN was first to report the departure of Marv Albert, they also reported that as soon as the negotiations had started to breakdown with Marv and the Garden. Marv called the YES network to position himself for the Nets play-by-play broadcasting job. The position is currently held by Ian Eagle, who has been doing play by play for the Nets for the past 6 years.

Sure, Albert was biting the hand that fed him, but who is James Dolan kidding? Has he seen the Knicks of late? They deserve criticism. Leafing through the paper this morning, Gothamist was shocked, stunned, shaking our heads. But what do we know? All we know is that Knick broadcasts will not be the same.

All is well in the sports universe again (argue amongst yourself if they were ever well with the Yankees), for Cracker Jack has returned to Yankee Stadium. Cracker Jack was replaced for Crunch 'n Munch last month, but after fan complaints, the Yankees decided to change their mind. Yankees COO, Lonn Trost said, "The fans have spoken." Nice to see the fans still have a voice. Cracker Jack is sold in all Major League ballparks except two, the SkyDome and Olympic Stadium, both in Canada. It would have been a travesty if Yankee Stadium remained on that list.

A young Gothamist remembers watching Wolf every day on Channel 2, his funny highlights, his incessant laughing at times, and of course we remember the classic, "Let's go to the videotape!" We'll miss his use of cue cards and his prediction of scores and we'll miss those highlights of horseraces at Aqueduct. We'll miss everything about Warner Wolf. Sadly, an adult Gothamist didn't catch Warner Wolf as much as we would like, but anytime we heard his voice, we were immediately reminded of good times. Gothamist also remembers the first "departure" of Warner Wolf, when Bernie Smilovitz replaced him. Thankfully, Wolf returned to New York a few years later.

The debate over the West Side stadium plan for the Jets is ongoing. If it gets built, there will most likely be a corporate name slapped onto it. With so many companies calling the New York Region home, and what's sure to be a high-profile stadium, the naming rights for it could be quite costly. A March article from Bloomberg had fees in range of $7-10 million per year. Over 30 years, the naming fees could amount to $300 while the stadium itself would cost $800 million. The money obviously isn't upfront, but it would certainly help the bottom line of Jets owner Woody Johnson and provide a nice stream of revenue, assuming the sponsor doesn't go bankrupt.

Baseball purists are crying foul, but Yankees' chief operating officer Lonn Trost will hear nothing of it. "Cracker Jack is just a brand name," he said. "We're selling a caramel crunch that is the same thing as Cracker Jack. It's the same difference as Frigidaire versus refrigerator, or aspirin and Bayer, or Jell-O and gelatin." OK then…