Despite the New York Yankees’ first trade deadline selloff in more than a generation, club sources said the franchise’s remaining 2016 business operations will be largely unaffected.
The Yankees parted ways with pitchers Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Ivan Nova and designated hitter/outfielder Carlos Beltran before MLB’s non-waiver trade deadline last week. It was the first time since 1989 that the Yankees dealt a star player as a seller, fueled by a largely listless season in which the club has stood only at the fringes of playoff contention.
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The Yankees’ deadline selloff made headlines.
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The on-field performance is a shift from the past quarter-century in which the Yankees have won five World Series and built a far-reaching business empire on a foundation of constant contention.
But with this season now more than two-thirds complete, the incremental revenue loss to the Yankees due to the trades is likely to be minimal at best.
“Most of our tickets for the rest of the season that we’ll sell have been sold, our rights fee from YES is our rights fee, and the sponsor dollars for 2016 are also locked in,” said a club source speaking on the condition of anonymity. “And actually, we’ve already heard from several of our sponsors who said they really like what we’ve done with these trades.”
The trades yielded pitcher Adam Warren and a dozen prospects, several of them among the highest rated in baseball by scouts, as the Yankees seek to rebuild.
The Yankees’ average attendance as of last week of 38,775 a game is down 5 percent from a year ago. But last Wednesday’s game against the crosstown New York Mets, the first game at Yankee Stadium since the trades, generated a sellout crowd of 48,339, the Yankees’ sixth this season. Team sources similarly said sales for the duration of the 2016 season are up since the trades. Marquee dates against the rival Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers stand among the Yankees’ remaining 25 home games.
Season-ticket renewals for the 2017 season, yet to be issued, will represent another window into fan opinion on the changes.
The immediate outlook for Yankees partners and others that do business around the club may not be as strong. At YES, 80 percent owned by 21st Century Fox and 20 percent by the Yankees, ratings are down by double-digit percentages. YES also remains in a carriage dispute with Comcast that has kept the network out of more than 900,000 New York-area homes since last fall.
Resale ticket prices and ticket no-shows also stand at risk. Ticket aggregator TiqIQ is projecting resale listing prices for the Yankees in the final two months to range between $75 and $85, down from $87.37 last season, and $112.37 two years ago.
The Yankees, however, insulated themselves in June, striking a ticket resale partnership stretching more than six years with StubHub that contains financial guarantees to the club worth more than $100 million and makes the company one of the team’s five largest sponsors. The deal contains an effective price floor that has helped lift the market for Yankees tickets.
“The whole StubHub partnership has altered the market for the Yankees, but actually in a good way,” said Ben King, a New York-based ticket broker. “You’re not seeing all the $6 tickets like you did before.”
