Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Credit crunch? What credit crunch?

The New York Yankees earlier this month borrowed $105 million from a group of banks led by Goldman Sachs to cover final cost overruns at the new Yankee Stadium, sources said.

The loan brings the total debt on the stadium, which opens next month, to more than $1.3 billion. Despite concerns about the economy’s effect on sales at the new stadium, the Yankees, in the loan document, project healthy revenue, sources said.

The collateral for the loan is limited to sponsorships, premium seating and ticket sales, categories that are expected to total $330 million this season, said a finance source who’s read the loan prospectus, which cited the figure. Concessions revenue is housed in the team’s new Legends Hospitality partnership with the Dallas Cowboys . . .

. . . Another source said that when adding in the Yankees’ fees from the YES Network and other media, and calculating in concessions revenue, total dollars generated by the team should exceed $450 million. That would make the club one of the highest-revenue clubs in pro sports, if not the highest.

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