Yankees are having cash flow issues

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Billy Witz @billywitz

The Yankees have lost $166 million in ticket revenue - and its still declining - since they last won a World Series.

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The financial figures, from the public filings the Yankees are required to make on their stadium bonds, represent a 42 percent loss in ticket and suite revenues over the last seven seasons. And despite the team’s compelling play this season, attendance through the first quarter of their home schedule is down from the same point last year.

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So perhaps it is no surprise that Steinbrenner wants the Yankees’ payroll to dip below next season’s $197 million luxury-tax threshold. It would be the first time since the tax was instituted in 2003 that the Yankees would be below the threshold and it would come just in time to avoid the onerous penalties for repeat offenders that will kick in next season. Still, Steinbrenner maintained that the decline in ticket and suite revenues had nothing to do with his payroll objective.

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Last year, ticket and suite revenues declined $46 million. It was a sharper-than-expected drop that was cited by Moody’s, the bond rating service, as a factor in its decision this month to downgrade the outlook of the $1.2 billion in stadium bonds to negative from stable. The negative outlook indicates a higher likelihood that the bond ratings — currently Baa1 — could be downgraded in the next 12 to 18 months, which could then make future borrowing by the Yankees a costlier proposition.

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