Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Report: Yankees, CBS Radio Deal Worth $15M Yearly

John Sterling in Yankees Broadcast Booth
The Yankees appear to have outdone the Mets again.

The NYTimes is reporting their new radio deal, when completed, will put them on WFAN Radio for the next 10 years for at least $15 million a year, according to an executive briefed on the negotiations but not authorized to comment.  WFAN could also carry the New York City Football Club, an expansion Major League Soccer team that is a partnership of the Yankees and Manchester City of England’s Premier League.

Read Original Posting “CBS Radio Moving Yankees Broadcast To WFAN: Click Here

By moving to all-sports WFAN 660 AM / 101.9 FM from all-news WCBS 880 AM after this season, the Yankees will bump the Mets from WFAN, ending an association between the team and the station that began with the station’s inception in 1987.

The identity of the Mets’ new radio home is almost as uncertain as the season when they will become winners again.

“What was important for the Mets was WFAN’s signal, 660, the best AM signal in North America, which is a big bonus for the Mets and their network,” said Joel Hollander, a former chief executive of CBS Radio, the owner of WFAN and WCBS-AM, the radio home of the Yankees since 2002. “That was something the Mets liked very much.”

During a visit to a firehouse Tuesday in Midtown Manhattan, Jeff Wilpon, the Mets’ chief operating officer, said it was “fairly accurate” that the team was leaving WFAN, and he indicated that for a while longer, Mets radio rights would be in limbo.

 According to sports media columnist Bob Raissman at NYDaily News,the Mets were getting between $6 million and $7 million per year in their deal with WFAN, which expires at the end of this season.

WFAN will be hard-pressed to make money over the course of the contract with a $15 million-$20 mil per-year nut to cover. Raisman writes just ask the suits at Boston’s WEEI who saw their station turned upside down by a 10-year deal with the Red Sox worth $18 million per.(Photo: The Greedy Pinstripes)

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