It wasn’t just in NYC baseball that we see how winning and spending money are closely connected. NYC politricks has the same effect when a multi-billionaire put his “weight on it”. In his bid for a third consecutive term, NYC mayor, Michael Bloomberg, shattered the previous record that he had established for campaign spending.
The Bloomberg machine was reportedly spending upwards of $850,000 per day in the lead up to this year’s election. As you might imagine, his opponent the NYC comptroller William Thompson was nowhere near that amount.
The final tally of votes gave Bloomberg the victory but the margin was barely 6 percentage points higher than Thompson. Just like the Yankees World Series triumph over the Phillies was closer than most people would like to imagine it makes you wonder what the outcome would have been if these two clubs, Team Bloomberg and Team Steinbrenner had not decided to break the bank on the way to the top.
The question I have for the Bloomberg administration is what do they plan on doing to offset the campaign expenditures? We already know what the Yankees have done. They have secured over a billion and a half dollars of TAXPAYER money to build their new stadium. The building is a monument to their status as feudal lords over the south Bronx. With all the money the Yankees generate from shit like merchandising and television licensing you might think that they wouldn’t need to dig in the pockets of the public like they did. That was money that NYC sorely needs to place in the city’s infrastructure and educational systems. Maybe then more Black boys might be able to graduate high school?
The rich don’t get richer by educating the poor or even by making sure that the potholes in the street get filled. The rich get richer by making us poorer. Here’s an interesting graph detailing the current value of the Yankees franchise. They are assessed at exactly the amount of money that they received from the taxpayers. So it isn’t the Wall Street field suite owners that make the Yankees so damn valuable. It is folks like you and me. I hope that at least you are enjoying your World Series win since you paid for it.
