Yankees president says Mets should pay more in revenue sharing
The rivalry between the Yankees and Mets will always maintain some level of intensity. There’s just no way to escape the geographical ties that bind them and the natural animosity it festers as they battle for the vast yet competitive New York market.
As a result of that battle, comparisons will always be made based on their successes, failures and how their respective businesses are conducted. It’s a dynamic that never completely cools either. Not during the cold months of winter, not when one team or the other is down, and certainly not when the teams are set up to collide in meaningful games, which should be the case in 2016.
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With that in mind, the rivalry not only maintained its warmth this winter, a couple more logs may have been tossed on the fire based on comments made by Yankees president Randy Levine.
Speaking to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal specifically about his issues with baseball’s revenue sharing system and his desire for changes in the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement, Levine made it clear he believes the Mets aren’t paying their fair share. At least not compared to his Yankees.
“What is very burdensome to us — and is unfair — is the amount of money we have to pay in revenue sharing compared, for example, to teams in our market that pay 10 times less than us,” Yankees president Randy Levine told FOX Sports.
“Hopefully that is something that will get looked at in the next labor agreement.”
Teams in our market is actually one team: The Mets. So there you have it.
Revenue sharing is one of those issues where somebody, somewhere will always think the system is working against them. And in many of those cases, it probably is. Still, it’s not believed that revenue sharing will be a big enough issue to hamper baseball’s CBA negotiations this winter. In fact, both Levine and commissioner Rob Manfred expressed optimism that a satisfactory deal can be worked out.
“We’ve had extensive internal conversations,” Manfred said. “I expect both the Mets and Yankees to be fully supportive of the revenue-sharing proposals we put on the table.”
Levine said the Yankees will continue to support baseball’s plan to redistribute income and is working with Manfred, “in what thus far has been a very transparent process.”
As Rosenthal story notes, revenue sharing is calculated via a formula related to net local revenue, so it’s not as though the Mets are naming their own price. The formula itself is obviously complicated, as the many avenues of income and expenses are characterized and weighed differently. Most of that information never travels beyond the ownership level, so it’s difficult for those on the outside to grasp the process. But Levine obviously feels something is off balance, perhaps because he feels the Mets are doing better financially than they say they are.
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For what it’s worth, the Yankees generated the most revenue in the majors in 2015 according to Forbes magazine. The final number was $516 million even after figuring in their $90 million revenue sharing payment and their $26 million luxury tax bill for exceeding the payroll threshold.
The Mets’ revenue was $313 million, though it’s unclear what they paid in revenue sharing.
Also not clear is what the best or most satisfying solution will be to the teams paying the most in revenue sharing, but it is clear who will be most vocal.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
