Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

The Yankees winning the American League Pennant and participating in the World Series will give the economy of New York City a boost of an estimated $107 million to $128 million, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi announced today.

"Winning their 38th American League Pennant clearly establishes the Yankees as the best team in baseball history," said Mayor Giuliani. "But this year's win is especially significant. By battling back from two games down to win the Divisional Series and then the Pennant, they exhibited the resilient spirit of all New Yorkers who are courageously coming together to make our City even stronger and better than ever."

"This is not just another World Series for New York City. The economic benefits of the Series speak for themselves. In the context of September 11, what's most important is the boost to the City's spirit," said Hevesi. "The Yankees are champions and all New Yorkers are champions."

The $107 million estimate includes the benefits from the first and second round playoff games played at Yankee Stadium and assumes the Series lasts four games, with the Yankees playing two games at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The higher $128 million estimate assumes the Series goes for at least five games, with three in Yankee Stadium.

According to an analysis conducted every year by the City Comptroller's Office, each World Series home game generates $13.8 million in direct revenues, including $6.3 million in ticket sales, $3.5 million in media revenues and $4 million in concession and advertising revenues. Every dollar spent in the City generates additional economic activity, which is known as the multiplier effect. Using a conservative multiplier of 1.5, the total economic benefit of each game is $20.75 million. Thus, if two games are played in New York, the Series will generate a total of $41.4 million, while three New York games will be worth $62.1 million.

American League Championship games generated about $12.7 million in direct and indirect economic activity. The three games played in New York were worth a total of $38.1 million.

The Division Series games were worth about $9 million each. So the three New York games generated about $27 million.

Source: NYC Comptroller's Office, based on data from Yankees (www.yankees.com) and interviews with vendors/officials. "Game"=Home Game (revenues from away games are shared with away teams, but this share is offset by the Yankees' sharing revenues with visitors at home games). The multiplier is lower than the Federal RIMS II input-output number for sports, because Yankee players receiving a sizable share of playoff spending mostly live outside the City.

Source: NYC Comptroller's Office, based on per-game data in Table 1. The multiplier of 1.5 balances two opposing factors: (1) The multiplier might be raised compared with 2000 on the basis that the Yankees being in the World Series makes more of a difference in 2001 because the tourism industry is depressed by the 9-11 attack, creating more unutilized capacity in sports bars, hotels and restaurants. (2) The multiplier might be lowered because of layoffs and recession conditions, which reduce disposable income and likely spending. In the absence of other information, the multiplier is left unchanged. The figures assume no significant new developments that might deter people from traveling to, or attending, a public event of this nature.