History
In 1998, the Yankees had their most successful season in modern history, winning a combined total of 125 regular season and playoff games, culminating in a World Series championship. The team was in discussions to be sold to Cablevision, who at the time owned the broadcast rights to every MLB, NBA and NHL team in the New York City Metropolitan area. The proposed deal fell through because the two sides could not come to an agreement that would include George Steinbrenner continuing to run the team for the new owners.
After the proposed sale fell through, the Yankees and Nets agreed to merge business operations, creating a combined holding company. This was done to increase the negotiating power of both teams for future television contracts and stadium and arena construction deals. The pre-merger owners would continue to control their teams, with a minority interest in the other team. This arrangement was approved by both Major League Baseball and the NBA.
YankeeNets engaged in marketing agreements with the New York Giants football team and the British football powerhouse Manchester United, which resulted in exclusive Giants and Manchester United programming on the YES Network for a period of time. The company also created an affiliate, Puck Holdings, which purchased the New Jersey Devils ice hockey team, to have relationships in all major league professional sports, and to give better leverage to the Nets in constructing a new arena – the Prudential Center, which was ultimately built as the home of the Devils without the Nets involvement – in Newark. The Devils were was later sold in 2004 to Jeffrey Vanderbeek, a minority share holder of Puck Holdings.
Read more about this topic: Yankee Global Enterprises
Famous quotes containing the word history:
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