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The New York Yankees Cope with the Great Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Abstract

The New York Yankees donated their financial records to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. These records provide a rare glimpse into the business of professional team sports. I use these records to examine how the Yankees' management reacted to the Great Depression. Since the team possessed both price-setting power over ticket prices andmonopsony power over player salaries, how did the team adjust ticket prices and salaries in response to the falling incomes of its customers and general deflation of the early 1930s? How did the team's response differ from other teams in Major League Baseball?

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2007. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

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Bewley, Truman F. Why Wages Don’t Fall during a Recession. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Burk, Robert F. Much More Than a Game. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Craig, Peter S. “Organized Baseball: An Industry Study of $100 Million Spectator Sport.” BA thesis, Oberlin College, 1950.Google Scholar
Gregory, Paul M. The Baseball Player. Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press, 1956.Google Scholar
Quirk, James, and Fort, Rodney D.. Pay Dirt: The Business of Professional Team Sports. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Seymour, Harold. Baseball: The Golden Age. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Thorn, John, Pete, Palmer, and Michael, Gershman. Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball, 7th ed. Kingston, New York: Total Sports Publishers, 2001.Google Scholar
Voigt, David. American Baseball: From Gentleman’s Sport to the Commissioner System. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966.Google Scholar
Zimbalist, Andrew. Baseball and Billions: A Probing Look inside the Big Business of Our National Pastime. New York: Basic Books, 1992.Google Scholar
Fort, Rodney. “Inelastic Sports Pricing.” Mangerial and Decision Economics 25 (2004):8794.Google Scholar
Hanes, Christopher. “Nominal Wage Rigidity and Industry Characteristics in the Downturns of 1893, 1929, and 1981.” American Economic Review 90 (2000): 1, 432–6.Google Scholar
Haupert, Michael. “Bonus Clauses and the Standard Player Contract.” Baseball Research Journal 36 (2007): 109–15.Google Scholar
Haupert, Michael, and Ken, Winter. “Pay Ball: Estimating the Profitability of the New York Yankees, 1915-1937.” Essays in Economics and Business History 11 (2003): 89102.Google Scholar
Surdam, David. “Non-Price Determinants of Demand for Baseball Games: Evidence from New York Yankees’ and Philadelphia Phillies’ Financial Records.” Journal of Economics (forthcoming).Google Scholar
New York Times, “Ads for today’s game,” July 1, 1931, 30; June 1, 1932, 30; July 1, 1932, 26; July 1, 1933, 10; and July 13, 1934, 20.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Indians Reduce Admission Prices,” February 5, 1933, 3:2.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Ladies’ Day Announced: Yankees to Be Hosts to Fair Fans Every Friday,” March 23, 1938, 27.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Indians Reduce Admission Prices,” February 5, 1933, 3:2.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Major Leagues Will Not Cut Ticket Prices Because They Were Not Raised in Boom Times,” January 16, 1932, 20.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Four Half-Price Days, One Free For Women at Braves’ Contests,” April 7, 1932, 32.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Yankees Will Enlarge Stadium to Seat 84,000 at Ball Games,” February 5, 1936, 22; see also “Yankees Plan New Stand,” March 4, 1933, 16.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Dodgers Plan New Bleachers to Give 6,500 55-Cent Seats,” March 8, 1933, 2 and “Cubs to Enlarge Park,” October 12, 1935, 22.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Ladies’ Day Announced,” 27.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Ruppert Belittles Suggestion Yanks Should Aid Weak Clubs,” November 10, 1932, 1.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Giants and Yanks Complete Arrangements for Broadcasting of Their Home Contests,” January 26, 1939, 25 and “Ball Games on the Air: Reader Scolds Giants and Yanks for Stand on Broadcasts,” May 8, 1943,13.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Majors to Reduce Squads on May 15,” December 14, 1932, 29 and “Salary Cuts and Reduction of Player Limit Voted By Major Leagues,” December 11, 1931, 37.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Salary Cuts and Reduction of Player Limit,” 37.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Indians to Cut Salaries,” January 20, 1933, 22.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Klein of Phillies Goes to the Cubs,” November 22, 1933, 25.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Landis Cuts His Own Pay $10,000 to $40,000; Has Drawn $652,500,” January 8, 1933, 3:1.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Fans Will Pay the Tax,” June 16, 1932, 28.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Hack Wilson Balks at $25,500 Pay Cut,” January 9, 22.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Hack Wilson Sold to Robins by Cards,” January 24, X:1-2.Google Scholar
New York Times, “Hack Wilson, After Conference with Carey, Plans to Sign with Robins Today,” February 1, 25.Google Scholar
New York Times, “One-Year Contract With Robins,” February 2, 35.Google Scholar
The Sporting News, “‘Game Coming Back Bigger Than Ever,’ Says Ruppert, Ready to Enlarge Park,” January 19, 1933, 3.Google Scholar
The Sporting News, “Not the Same Law,” June 23, 1932, 4.Google Scholar
The Sporting News, “Ruth and $50,000,” January 26, 1933, 4.Google Scholar
The Sporting News, “Ruppert Belittles Suggestion,” November 10, 1932, 1.Google Scholar
New York Yankees Baseball Club. General Ledger and Cash Books. National Baseball Hall of Fame, 1913–1944.Google Scholar
New York Yankees Baseball Club. Yankee Baseball Collection, 1913–1950. New York Public Library, 1913–1950.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States. Washington, DC, 1975.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress. Organized Baseball:Hearings before the Subcommittee on the Study of Monopoly Power of the Committee on the Judiciary. Serial No. 1, Part 6, 82nd Cong., 1st Session, Washington, DC, 1952.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress. Organized Professional Team Sports. Hearings before the Antitrust Subcommittee. 85th Cong., 1st. Washington, DC, 1957.Google Scholar