Many have questioned Hal Steinbrenner after his latest comments about the New York Yankees’ payroll and revenue.
Reports later indicated that it was possible that Steinbrenner made those comments because big league teams could be going into a war with smaller-market clubs, which would potentially help the Yankees in some sense make more money if he got others to believe they don't make as much. Ultimately, however, it likely won't change a lot, as owners will be able to see what's being made by other teams around the league. This isn’t a he-said, she-said type of thing, as real numbers will have to be thrown out there.
But others viewed it as a sign of disrespect to the organization, and in general, were unhappy with Steinbrenner. That includes longtime New York City voice Mike Francesa, who went on a bit of a rant about what Steinbrenner had to say to the media about the revenue and payroll comments.
“What was Hal thinking? I am shocked,” Francesa said, per the New York Post.
“He always gets questions about the payroll. I’m even surprised he would say that he would like the payroll to be lower because that sends off all the bells and whistles [with Yankee fans]. But to get into whining about a payment that actually saves him money in property taxes.”
“[Seven-hundred million], and this is after they try to hide everything,” he said. “Remember, how many holding companies do the Yankees have? Listen, I don’t want to get into all of this stuff, but let’s be honest, Hal opened Pandora’s box. Owners would rather jump out of a building than ever let anybody order their books. They will never let anybody near their books. Why? Because they would sing a very interesting tune.”
As he touched on, it was probably a bad idea for Steinbrenner to even bring up the payroll, as we've seen that fans are questioning it.
Ultimately, I think this was more of a leverage play against small-market owners, and not the actual reality of the Yankees.
We'll see what the Yankees do and if that was the case soon.