Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Yankees Pinch Pennies, Produce Laughable Economic Impact Report Without Having to Hire Economist

So I finally got a hold of the Yankees' 2015 spring training economic impact "report" {see links at bottom of page}...and WOOOOOOOO, did I get a lesson in economics! As we'd expect from the Yankees: it's a lesson in bad economics.

The entire "report" consists of four pages, and similar to the Rays' laughable spring training economic impact report of 2014, the analysis isn't worth the cracker jack box it came out of.

First of all, the Yankees appear to have done the report themselves, rather than hire an economist or firm to analyze data for them.  Second of all, the team claims $162 million in economic impact last year...from 17 spring training games.

That breaks down to $9.5M in economic impact for each game...or $950 per person per game!?!?!?

Oh, but the bogus assumptions continue:
  1. Nearly 40,000 Yankees fans came to Florida last year for the primary purpose of watching baseball, staying for an average of 7.5 nights each, but going to just one Yankees game each.  Of course that's ridiculous, but acknowledging fans go to multiple games over the course of a spring diminishes all those economic impact claims!
  2. About 43,000 fans came to Florida for reasons other than baseball last year, but took in a Yankees game while they were here. Yet the team still counted their entire $90 million supposedly spent in Florida as spring training-related economic impact.  That represents 56% of the Yankees' claimed total impact.
  3. Not one single Yankees fan from outside the state attended more than one spring training game last year.  Ha.
Oh, the team didn't even survey fans themselves; they simply took out-of-state/in-state percentages from a 2009 statewide spring training study.  Which explains other discrepencies in the "report," such as how the team suggests on Pg. 4 that an analysis of spending receipts showed 27% of spring training fans (46,417) were from Hillsborough County...yet on Pg. 2, they estimated all but 39,747 fans came from outside the county.  Psshhhhttt....minor details!

The Yankees should be embarrassed to put out these numbers and the Tampa Tribune should be embarrassed to have relied on them in an editorial.

Meanwhile, the numbers may or may not have helped convince Hillsborough County leaders to give the league's most valuable franchise another $30 million or so in tax money.

All told, $30 million for a more than 20-year spring training contract extension isn't a bad deal these days.

But yes, the $13 million or so in Hillsborough County bed tax money could have absolutely gone toward a Rays stadium...so Tampa's nearly-impossible task of financing a stadium just got a little bit harder.

Click on the four-page "report" to read the Yankees' economic claims:





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11 comments:

  1. PatApril 13, 2016 at 4:50 PM

    Maybe the Yankees should rely on the Conference Board of Canada that produced an extensive Economic and Financial Impact study for Montreal.

    http://www.ccmmdev.com/baseball/analyse_retombees_baseball_131212.pdf

    They have plenty of expertise and economists to perform such study.

    P.S. Some basic tips that children learned in high school.

    Rule #1: A cover page is required.

    Rule #2: A bibliography is also required.

    Rule #3: A table of contents is mandatory.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 13, 2016 at 10:17 PM

    An article that sounded like "the blind leading the blind" written by the blind...
    I guess Ocala is definitely out now, but does that mean the Rays are out to, because the Rays were why the Stankees were planning to move?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownApril 17, 2016 at 3:35 PM

      http://www.tbo.com/list/news-opinion-editorials/editorial-a-home-run-for-the-economy-20160326/

      Delete
    2. Noah PranskyApril 18, 2016 at 10:50 AM

      Yup, a great editorial....if it were based on fact instead of a bogus impact report and conjecture/speculation.

      Delete
    3. UnknownApril 18, 2016 at 3:31 PM

      Well, in sales psychology "if you don't like that number, cut it in half", so if you don't believe the estimated the overall economic impact at $162 million (which seems pretty high), cut-it-in-half, $81 mill, "don't believe that #", cut-it-in-half, $40.5 mill, "don't believe that #", cut-it-in-half, $20 mill!, "don't believe that #", cut-it-in-half, $10 mill!? Ok, $10 million!? So for $40 million, it would only take 4 years to break even, then the other 24 years is profit...
      Besides, b/c it goes against YOUR "opinions" it's "bogus", lol, you show your true Bah'stun stubbornness every post. Where's YOUR "facts"???

      Delete
    4. Noah PranskyApril 18, 2016 at 4:41 PM

      SHM.

      Delete
    5. UnknownApril 19, 2016 at 5:06 PM

      Oh, so Hillsborough only is in for $13 million, even a better deal for Tampa's tax payers..

      Delete
    6. UnknownApril 19, 2016 at 5:07 PM

      Thank god your not one of our Mayors...

      Delete
  3. AnonymousApril 18, 2016 at 10:55 AM

    This is great journalism. Scams like the entire baseball industry should be highlighted, so that society can make better informed self-investment decisions. It's surprising how little effort the Yankees put into their bullsh*t. If I was scamming people that hard, I would at least try a little.

    ReplyDelete

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