"Yankees near deal with city on sale of Yankee Stadium pieces" Daily News 3/25/9

Yankees near deal with city on sale of Yankee Stadium pieces
BY BILL EGBERT AND GREG B. SMITH
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Wednesday, March 25th 2009, 4:00 AM
The Yankees could pocket millions selling pieces of the House that Ruth Built under a tentative agreement with the city, sources say.

Under an "agreement in principle," the Yankees would pay the city $10 million for the sale of what is salvaged from the soon-to-be demolished city-owned building.

Profits from sales above $10 million go to the Yankees, with the team paying the city 5% of whatever it makes once sales reach $15.9 million, 10% above $17 million and so on.

Pieces of the old Stadium are a potential gold mine, with fanatics willing to pay for everything from bathroom fixtures to the letters that spell YANKEES on the building's facade.

The deal - haggled over for more than a year - may yet collapse. City Controller William Thompson recently gave it tentative approval, but officials said the Yankees have balked.

"There is no signed contract," Yankee spokeswoman Alice McGillion said. "Until there is, we aren't going to comment."

The city owns the Stadium and leases it to the Yankees. Nearly everything inside belongs to the city, including 56,928 seats, foul poles, toilets, sinks and even the giant "bat" outside the stadium.

The Yankees own lockers, bases, the dirt and the turf.

The city is sponsoring $1.2 billion in tax exempt bonds for the new stadium, as well as spending $400 million on parks and other improvements nearby.