Steinbrenner plans to lower Yankees payroll

[Auggie]

espn.com / 3-1-12

TAMPA, Fla. -- The days of the bloated New York Yankees payrolls are numbered.

So said Hal Steinbrenner, the team's managing general partner and the younger son of the late George M. Steinbrenner III, who on Thursday confirmed what his general manager, Brian Cashman, has been saying all winter: that over the next two seasons, the Yankees' payroll would be drastically trimmed, all the way down to $189 million by the start of the 2014 season.

"I'm looking at it as a goal, but my goals are normally considered a requirement," Steinbrenner said. "Plenty of teams win without the kind of payrolls we have."

The reason, of course, is the luxury tax, into which the Yankees have paid more than 90 percent of the total collected by Major League Baseball since it was instituted in 2003 -- $206 million of the $227 million assessed to just four teams: the Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels.

MORE: http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7633938/new-york-yankees-hal-steinbrenner-plans-lower-team-payroll

I'll believe it when I see it.

[El Supremo]

1. Well, I can dream...

[bluedigger]

2. Huh! I wonder why?

[hughee99]

3. Does the money they had to pay Burnett to go away count against the tax? n/t

[Drum]

5. Lol, seriously!

[Drum]

4. Because I didn't know, & needed to check: Information on sports' Luxury Tax, as found on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_tax_%28sports%29

My 2 cents:
I applaud this move by the Junior Steinbrenner (said as a Yanks fan--ever since I moved to NYC in '89) as it may quell some of the "Satan's Evil Empire" yada-yada-yada. BUT...I was interested to learn--no, I didn't know--that the Yankees' extravagances (along with those of other teams) forced them to contribute to some not-Yankees-centric funds and programs...IOW, things mandated by others.

It's an abstract and largely oblique question, but I respectfully ask the "haters" as well as the pure fans of the game and those in-the-know: is is better to achieve parity in payroll, if these taxes/levie$ are no longer there for other markets and for baseball development in general?

I ask respectfully...aware of my naivete on this matter, and without partisan bias.

-Drum