Steinbrenner Suffers Heart Attack

New York Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner reportedly suffered a heart attack this morning. The 80 year old Steinbrenner, who paid $10 million for the team in 1973, was vilified in the press in his early years of owning the iconic franchise for meddling too much. Yet Steinbrenner may go down as the greatest owner in baseball history. Under his reign the team has won 11 pennants, 7 world championships and is now worth $1.6 billion, almost twice the value of the New York Mets. More important, Steinbrenner rebuilt the Yankee brand, which had been debased during the years CBS owned the franchise (Steinbrenner is the only owner to pay less for an MLB team than his predecessor) but is now worth $328 million, making the New York Yankees the most valuable sports brand in the world. Steinbrenner also had the foresight to leverage that brand into building the most valuable regional sports channel in the country (YES Network) and joining forces with the Dallas Cowboys to create Legends Hospitality Management, a stadium services business.