Despite the team's success in recent years -- 13 consecutive trips to the playoffs, four World Series titles and six American League pennants since 1996 -- huge revenue sharing payments have resulted in the team failing to turn a profit, Steinbrenner said. Much of this occurred because his dad insisted upon pouring revenue back into the team.

"It's frustrating," Steinbrenner said. "People don't realize that for the last 10 years, even when we were winning all these championships, we were not making a profit. People were thinking that we were stockpiling money left and right and that's not the way it is. We won in '96 and lost money. In '98 we came close to breaking even; we made a little bit in some sense. There are things that we are trying to do that will at least get the team back to an even baseline. We have been successful, though, in utilizing the Yankee brand to initiate other businesses like the YES Network."