The New York Yankees. When you hear the name New York Yankees you think of the best team/organization not only in American professional sports but the greatest throughout the world. George Steinbrenner has turned the New York Yankees name and logo into more than a baseball team it’s a trademark a symbol now around the world. He has turned the Yankees into the riches team in baseball with a payroll of over 200,000,000 million dollars and the franchise its self is worth 1.5 billion dollars. Dishing out money unheard of to free agents but the Yankees do not just make all their money through baseball. George Steinbrenner has the Yankees running like a business; he does this by portraying his team a certain way through the media and by using the media a certain way to his advantage. George markets his team very well by using the media through TV, internet, papers, etc. Another aspect George uses to his advantage is public relations. He wants the public to be thinking about the New York Yankees everyday any time they see that NY logo.
The New York Yankees have led the majors in attendance for 5 straight years some of this without a doubt because of the talent the Yankees put on the field every year. They are always competitive and can pay the top players to come to New York but where and how do they get some of this money and how do they always have such a great fan base? Well a lot of this can be attributed to their media usage; the Yankees are always in the news making top stories for what free agent signing they want or what blockbuster trade they want to make an example of this is the Alex Rodriguez trade. The Red Sox had the trade almost done with the Rangers that would have sent a star to Boston but then the Yanks came in and basically took him from the sox. This I believe shows fans that the Yankees and George Steinbrenner are always trying to make it seem that the Yankees are always working harder than everyone to be the best and that they want to win more than any other team. Which I believe draws more and more fans to games because this is what fans all want is to win. The Yankees have made an image of them self’s through the media as the evil empire always trying to one up someone and trying to by their way to the top. This has made people always have an opinion you either hate them or you can not get enough of them and I think this is exactly what George and the Yankees want, for you either you hate the Yankees or you love them you will always be thinking about them and watching them.
The Yankees are a global icon you see Yankee merchandise everywhere you go. Why is this? Well the Yankees use the TV to their advantage. The Yankees actually have their own TV network. It is called the “YES” network which is the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network. On this network the Yankees portray themselves as a classy and traditional organization. They have Emmy award winning shows such as Yankeeography, center stage, and Kids on Deck. Yankeeography basically shows the unbelievable tradition of this organization and that no other team in sports can compare. Center stage is where you get celebrities and they talk just about how they got to be where they are today. And kids on deck are for the kids, you get to hang with the players and see what they are like off the field. This is trying to portray them as very likable people and make you want to see them play. These are just a couple of shows that air and that feed peoples interests and make people think a certain way about the Yankees. This is what I believe makes the Yankees so smart. On this Network it is also where the Yankees actual games are broadcast and during the broadcast there will be different awards the Yankees have sponsors for. The amount of awards and prizes possible is out of this world. You go through a game and hear about 10 different awards and prizes and every one is sponsored. Each time the Yankees get a certain amount of money for each. The Yankees also do a lot of commercials with their players. For example Derek Jeter and George Steinbrenner ended up doing about 2 or 3 commercials for Visa and today Derek Jeter does commercials for Gillette and Ford but these are not for the Yankees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH7BaQEguYs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j5Xr1t6DJc
That does not mean it does not benefit the New York Yankees, every time you see a commercial with Derek Jeter in it your first thinking is the Yankees. So by doing this having this Network, these sponsors, and commercials what they are trying to do is make you think more and more about the New York Yankees and build up your interest and increase your chance of buying a product of the Yankees or even going to game.
When George Steinbrenner first bought the Yankees they were just a baseball team but now they are billion dollar corporation. The first thing he said when he came was that he was going to run this like a business. He installed a dress coed and that no one on the team was to have any type of facial hair. Everyone was to be clean cut to portray an image, an image that was a professional and likeable image to the public. The public relation is very important to this organization. Without a good relationship with the public there would essentially be no way for the organization to make any money because without the publics interest there will be no way to sell merchandise or tickets to fill the seats. So when people were hired as public relations they would answer fan mail for players to make them look like good guys. An example of this is when Marty Appel was hired he said “one of his favorite things was working with Mickey Mantle and handling his fan mail writing back for the Mick” but he also said it was his worst job because sometimes the letters just got boring. But this is one job of the public relations that makes the players extremely likeable to their fan base to keep them coming to the games. Another big thing is to market the Yankees products anywhere possible TV (commercials), Papers, and internet. The internet is a big marketing tool weather it is selling merchandise, tickets to games, or selling souvenirs. The Yankees official website could be one of there biggest marketing tools they have, it is very easy to access and find what you are looking for.
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=nyy
You can buy tickets to game or special events, you can buy jerseys, hats, shirts; you can get memorabilia, signed baseballs or jerseys that you can give as gifts. The website has a store to buy items, it has up to date news about the yanks, tickets sales, and a lot more of just marketing the team trying to get people to spend money. I just think that the internet is one of the biggest assets.
So as you can see the Yankees use the media very well, they try to show an image of what they want to be portrayed as to the public. They do things a certain way to make the image believable and what they think their paying fans want from them. George Steinbrenner treated the Yankees and still does today not only as a major league team but as a corporation a business. He put rules in from day one and has stuck to those rules through out his tenure. He thinks all his players should look a certain way for once again a certain image. I think that George Steinbrenner knew that everyone would not always like the Yankees but he wanted everyone to have an opinion on his team and to always be thinking about them one way or another. The conclusion that I have come to is that the Yankees and George Steinbrenner focus a lot on marketing the Yankees through all types of media: television, paper, news, and internet. Putting out all different kind of ways to sell anything they can to make money. Like George said he is treating it like a business and the overall goal is make money and that is what he has done. But they also try to portray their players and organization a certain way as well to not only their fans but the other teams in the league and their fans. The New York Yankees are now a global empire the brand is an iconic figure because of the way they marketed and portrayed their product as a business and always wanting to that they are never satisfied by being the best.
Work Cited
The Official Site of The New York Yankees yankees.com: Homepage. Web. 12 Dec. 2009.
YouTube - Shellee Nicols-commercial w/ Derek Jeter." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 13 Dec. 2009.
"YouTube - Jeter - Steinbrenner VISA Commercial." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 13 Dec. 2009.
SABR : SABR Nine: Former Yankees Public Relations Director Marty Appel." The Society For American Baseball Research. Web. 13 Dec. 2009.
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