A 3rd Team In New York?

Since the Yankees won the World Series, there have been rumblings among baseball insiders about the need to correct the “Yankee problem,” namely the fact that the Yankees outspend some clubs by more than 100 million dollars. While a salary cap is the most popular suggestion, a cap on teams would by nature by a cap upon player salaries, and therefore would require approval of the players union. Tim Marchman suggests that one way baseball can deal with the competitive imbalance while bypassing the MLBPA is to add another club in NY:

According to the measure used by the Office of Management and Budget, the New York metropolitan region numbers about 19 million people. In other words, New York has one MLB team for every 9.5 million people. Chicago, by this measure, has one for every five million people, just as Miami and Atlanta do. Los Angeles has one for every 6.5 million people, as do Dallas and Philadelphia. (This doesn’t even take into account New York’s vast, inherent wealth.) As we learned a decade ago, baseball at large is quite willing to jury-rig a silly tax system that only works against the Yankees, because everyone else benefits, be it poor teams getting handouts or rich teams who see the Yankees ever so slightly chastened in their spending. With the collective bargaining agreement coming up for renegotiation, a bad economy and a Yankees team that looks like it will be ferociously good over the next few years even if the likes of Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera begin their inevitable decline, it’s quite likely that their continued high spending will provoke some new set of ineffectual regulations meant to reign them in a bit. The better solution would be to place a third team in New York. That would bring the town’s population:team ratio down to the level of Los Angeles or Philadelphia, and with the same number of people and dollars chasing more baseball, would quite likely bring Yankee spending down a hair without doing anything punitive or unfair. The main holdup is baseball’s archaic territorial rights system, which has also trapped the A’s in Oakland when they should really be in San Jose.

I agree with Tim in that this is certainly a better solution than raising the luxury tax, which is basically a redistribution system that penalizes the Yankees for effectively utilizing their market advantage. An additional team in New York would be an organic solution, creating more competition in the market and helping equalize the playing field. A team in New Jersey or even Brooklyn would have a built-in audience of locals, and a motivated owner could help bring in players to make the team a success within its first 5-6 seasons. While some might suggest that there is no way for anyone to put a dent in the Yankee revenues, it is important to note that the Mets of the late 60′s and mid to late 80′s did just that. The Mets were the talk of the town and consistently outdrew the Yankees over those time spans. It would likely be a difficult go for a 3rd New York club at first, but I think it could work.

Follow Me On Twitter