On this day in New York · January 3, 1973
Steinbrenner's Group Buys the Yankees From CBS
A shipbuilder from Cleveland tells reporters he'll be an absentee owner, then spends the next three decades proving that was the last honest thing anyone heard him say.
The facts
- Date
- January 3, 1973
- Seller
- CBS, which had owned the Yankees since 1965
- Announced price
- $10 million
- Actual net cost
- $8.8 million, after CBS bought back two parking garages for $1.2 million
On January 3, 1973, a twelve-man investment group led by George Steinbrenner bought the New York Yankees from CBS, which had owned the team since 1965 and watched it slide into irrelevance. The headline price was $10 million, a bargain for a marquee franchise in the country's biggest media market, and Steinbrenner's own stake at the start was a modest slice of the group. CBS had thrown in two parking garages it had bought from the city as part of the package, and when CBS bought those garages back for $1.2 million soon after the deal closed, the group's real net cost dropped to $8.8 million. Minority partner E. Michael Burke was set up to keep running the club day to day, an arrangement that lasted about as long as it took Steinbrenner to find the office.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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On January 3, 1973, Steinbrenner and minority partner Burke led a group of investors which also included Nederlander, Crown, Ginsberg, Guren, John DeLorean, Nelson Bunker Hunt, and Marvin L. Warner in purchasing the Yankees from CBS.
Wikipedia entry on George Steinbrenner
Source: Wikipedia -
The net cost to the group for the Yankees was, therefore, $8.8 million.
Wikipedia entry on George Steinbrenner
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
This sale is the hinge that turns the Yankees into the Yankees New Yorkers argue about today, free agents chased with checkbooks, managers hired and fired on a whim, a team run less like a club and more like a tabloid front page.
Sources
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