Most often, the Yankees have come out ahead, winning eight World Series in that time as opposed to two for the Mets, and not stumbling into habitual losing or financial peril as their cross-town rival recently has.
Now the Yankees appear to have outdone the Mets again. Their new radio deal, when completed, will put them on WFAN Radio for the next 10 years for at least $15 million a year, according to an executive briefed on the negotiations but not authorized to comment. WFAN could also carry the New York City Football Club, an expansion Major League Soccer team that is a partnership of the Yankees and Manchester City of England’s Premier League.
By moving to all-sports WFAN from all-news WCBS-AM after this season, the Yankees will bump the Mets from WFAN, ending an association between the team and the station that began with the station’s inception in 1987.
The identity of the Mets’ new radio home is almost as uncertain as the season when they will become winners again.
“What was important for the Mets was WFAN’s signal, 660, the best AM signal in North America, which is a big bonus for the Mets and their network,” said Joel Hollander, a former chief executive of CBS Radio, the owner of WFAN and WCBS-AM, the radio home of the Yankees since 2002. “That was something the Mets liked very much.”
WFAN is also on the FM dial at 101.9.
During a visit to a firehouse Tuesday in Midtown Manhattan, Jeff Wilpon, the Mets’ chief operating officer, said it was “fairly accurate” that the team was leaving WFAN, and he indicated that for a while longer, Mets radio rights would be in limbo.
“We’re still negotiating with numerous parties about what we’re going to do with our radio,” Wilpon said. He said it would probably take about six weeks to complete a deal with a new station.
Michael Harrison, the editor and publisher of Talkers magazine, called the development a “minor blow” to the Mets.
“Ultimately, sports fans will listen to the team they want to hear on any station,” Harrison said. “It doesn’t matter all that much what the station is.”
He said the Mets could be hurt if they moved to a station lacking a signal powerful enough to reach the geographic swath of the New York market.
The Mets could be negotiating with ESPN New York Radio, at 98.7 FM; WOR-AM, at 710, which is owned by Clear Channel Communications; and WABC-AM, at 770. ESPN and WOR showed particular interest in the Yankees’ rights.
Hollander said he doubted the Mets would replace the Yankees at WCBS.
Still, whatever the Mets will be paid, it most likely will not approach what the Yankees are getting.
The price tag of $15 million or more underscores the Yankees’ greater advertiser and audience appeal — and the desire by CBS Radio to keep them from leaving. This year, WCBS is paying the Yankees about $14 million, about double what WFAN is paying the Mets.
“They’re so cash-rich at CBS Radio that they’re letting them do it,” Hollander said. “They didn’t want to lose the brand.”
Lonn Trost, the Yankees’ chief operating officer, declined to give any details of the change, but said, “We’re getting close.”
Yankee games drew a 1.4 rating in 2011 that fell to a 1.0 last season, according to Scarborough, a media research firm.
The Mets’ rating of 0.9 in 2011 decreased to a 0.8 in 2012. This season’s Scarborough rating was unavailable.
The futures of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman as the Yankees’ radio announcers do not seem in doubt. Ultimately, the Yankees have final approval over the announcers but consult with the station, and the team has shown no unhappiness with them. But over the next 10 years at WFAN, their workload could be reduced to allow the Yankees to introduce a younger voice who might be with the team for next two or three decades. Sterling, in his 25th season with the Yankees, is in his 70s; Waldman, in her ninth season, is 67.
Assuming that they return, they will now call Yankee games on a station devoted to sports, not news.
“Across the country, we’re seeing time and again that when they have the option, teams go to all-sports stations,” said Frank Saxe, managing editor of Inside Radio, an industry publication. “It’s not just baseball, but all leagues realize that if you’re in a sports environment, you have a better opportunity to reach your core fan.”
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/sports/baseball/yankees-moving-to-wfan-bumping-the-mets.html?partner=rss&emc=rss