Steinbrenner’s group only got the franchise after another bidder got cold feet.
On January 3rd, 1973, a 12-member group headed by George Steinbrenner purchased the New York Yankees for $10 million ($73 million in today’s dollars) from William Paley and the Columbia Broadcasting System. That sale probably the prevented possibility of the Meadowlands sports complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey from hosting Yankees’ home starting in 1976. Steinbrenner’s group sort of beat out an offer from Farleigh S. Dickinson, Jr. Steinbrenner put up just $168,000 (about $1.2 million today).
Steinbrenner was going to be a managing general partner of the franchise. “I won’t be active in the day-to-day operations of the club at all,” Steinbrenner had said. “I can’t spread myself so thin. I’ve got enough headaches with my shipping company.”
On November 2nd, 1964, Paley and the Columbia Broadcasting System purchased 80 percent of the franchise from Dan Topping and Del Webb for $11.2 million (around $117 million in today’s money) — which in those days was a huge money deal. But a little more than eight years later, CBS got out of the baseball business and sold the team to a group led by Steinbrenner.
CBS claimed to be losing millions of dollars running the Yankees. CBS also could not place Yankees telecasts on the network’s owned and operated Channel 2 WCBS-TV because of Federal Communication Commission rules involving network ownership and properties. Steinbrenner was not looking to buy into the Yankees and only turned his attention to the franchise after he could not buy into his hometown Cleveland Indians franchise in 1971.
Dickinson was a very serious contender to buy the team. He apparently offered the most money but something happened. Dickinson had the deal tentatively done at the end of 1972 but got cold feet. Someone talked him out of going ahead with the acquisition of the New York Yankees on December 29th, 1972.
Paley and CBS took over a team that was neglected by Topping and Webb for whatever reason and ran the franchise during some rather poor years as the franchise could not replace Yogi Berra, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle.
CBS did sign a 30-year lease deal with Mayor John Lindsay and the Lindsay administration for a renovation of the ballpark, which was built in 1922, on August 8th, 1972. The lease would have started once the renovations were done.
CBS was shopping the team around at the time the lease agreement was announced.
Bergen County Republican State Senator Fairleigh Dickinson wanted the franchise. It was State Senator Dickinson who in 1969 pushed for the creation of the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission. The New Jersey legislature approved a bill that was signed into law by Governor Richard Hughes that would change the area. Eventually the state would build a football stadium, a racetrack and an arena off Route 4, but it is possible that the football stadium might have been joined by a baseball stadium.
According to Congressman Frank J. Guarini, Dickinson’s plan was upended after a strong objection by his executive secretary. Dickinson’s offer of $12.5 million (around $97 million today) n for the team was supposed to be sent to a CBS’s directors’ meeting in Philadelphia for review, but was withdrawn at the time of its arrival.
Dickinson was out, which made the sale process much easier for Steinbrenner’s group.
It is not known whether the CBS-New York City renovation lease would have been broken had Dickinson purchased the Yankees.
Dickinson was not the only suitor from New Jersey for the Yankees.
Sonny Werblin, who became the chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority in 1971, all of a sudden had an investor come to him and tell him that he wanted to buy the Yankees and had a $12.5 million ready to go. But Michael Burke who ran the Yankees for CBS and stayed on with the Steinbrenner group said the team was no longer on the market.
The Dickinson bid was the last real attempt at bringing Major League Baseball to New Jersey. It is somewhat ironic that New Jersey has struck out in landing a Major League team. After all the first baseball game allegedly was played in Hoboken on June 19th, 1846. The last game at Elysian Fields in Hoboken took place in 1873.
The Brooklyn Dodgers franchise owner Walter O’Malley shifted some of his home games in 1956 and 1957 to Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium, where attendance was good. But O’Malley was looking for a new stadium in Brooklyn and was using the Jersey City games as leverage for a ballpark.
O’Malley never really considered New Jersey and moved to Los Angeles.
In the late 1980s, Major League Baseball hosted presentations from areas around the country to identify possible expansion or relocation markets. New Jersey officials explained why the state should be considered prime baseball territory, but it was a waste of time, as Major League Baseball shelved the plan.
Periodically George Steinbrenner would make noises about taking his Yankees to New Jersey if he did not get a new stadium on the west side of Manhattan. But Steinbrenner was never really serious about leaving New York City. He would eventually get assistance from New York City and New York State financially and built a new Bronx stadium.
In 2000, Major League Baseball concluded that the New York City market could support three teams. But there is no interest in bringing Major League Baseball to New Jersey and even if someone wanted to set up shop in New Jersey, both Hal Steinbrenner and the Mets franchise owner Steve Cohen can block any attempt to establishing a Major League Baseball franchise because of territorial rules. George’s son Hank is the chairman and managing general partner of Yankee Global Enterprises (YGE), which owns the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. YGE also has a 20% minority stake in the American soccer club New York City Football Club of Major League Soccer and a 10 percent minority stake in Italian soccer club AC Milan of Serie A. The Yankees baseball team is worth a reported $8.2 billion according to Forbes.
The Bronx Bombers could have ended up in East Rutherford. But an executive secretary’s objection cost New Jersey the Yankees.
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