In recent years, the New York Yankees have realized that their pockets aren’t bottomless. They are stuck with an aging Alex Rodriguez for the next five years. They are stuck with a declining Mark Teixeira for the next four years. They had to trade A.J. Burnett, and only two mainstays in their lineup in 2012 are below age 30 (Russell Martin and Robinson Cano, each at age 29).
But there’s no way the New York Yankees, of all teams, can fall off the cliff in four years even if their prospects don’t develop, right? In 2016, Rodriguez will be 40, Teixeira, 36, Sabathia, 35, and if Derek Jeter sticks around and signs another contract or two, he will be 42. If the contracts continue to be too much to handle, and if the age in their players continue to show, the Yankees have the potential to face their first losing season since 1992.
So could the Yankees organization actually be finding subtle ways to get some extra money into their pockets? Not necessarily, and nothing is proven. There are, however, thirty-two Yankee Stadium workers who believe it to be true. In the lower levels of the field level, these workers provide a waiter service for fans. This service, like most other waiting services, involves a service charge that is supposed to go to the waiters. These waiters claim that the profits from the service charge went straight to the Yankees and Legends Hospitality LLC, a company that runs Yankee Stadium’s concessions, and believe that the team owes them between $500,000 and $1 million.
The team might not be the only side possibly at fault, however. The service charge lasted from 2009-2011, and was taken away before the 2012 season.
So why are the workers grouping together a year later? Both the Yankees and Legends Hospitality LLC have declined to comment.