It’s no secret that the Yankees have the highest payroll in baseball, not to mention one of the highest payrolls in professional sports. In fact, it is one of the reasons that people either love or hate these New York sluggers. People have long criticized the team for “buying” championships and so on and so forth. But what could that money buy you if you were to apply it elsewhere? Below, we outline what the New York Yankees payroll could buy you in today’s market for the most popular commodities [see also Doomsday Special: 7 Hard Asset Investments You Can Hold in Your Hand].
First things first, the Yankees 2012 payroll adds up to a whopping $195,998,004. Just in case you were wondering, the lowest payroll comes from the Oakland A’s which amounts to just under $50 million, nearly four times smaller than the Yankees’ salary expenditures.
Gold
Let’s start with everyone’s favorite commodity: gold. This safe haven precious metal has long been an investor favorite as a store of value and as as a way to protect themselves against market crashes and dips. Instead of paying the Bronx Bombers for a whole year, you could buy approximately 121,061 ounces of the yellow metal. That’s roughly 7,566 pounds, or the weight of two average sized cars with room for a few passengers in each. The only thing you’d have to worry about is how to store such massive amounts of the metal in a safe location [see also Three Reasons Why Gold Is Overvalued].
Silver
The numbers for silver are a bit more stunning, as this commodity comes with a much cheaper price tag. The 2012 payroll would afford one about 6,925,724 ounces of silver, or 432,857 pounds of the other precious metal. To give you a better idea of just how much silver that actually is, it would take a little over five standard 737 planes to match that amount, with room for a flight crew in each of the aircraft [see also 25 Ways To Invest In Silver].
Copper
Finally, we move on to everyone’s favorite industrial metal, copper. Want to talk about staggering numbers? The Yankees payroll could purchase approximately 56,646,821 ounces of copper, or 3.5 million pounds. To find a comparable by weight, you would have to look to the NASA “crawler”, which is the vehicle that transports shuttles and spaceships to the launch pad. The vehicle is so large that it can only travel at about 0.75 mph and required three years to build [see also 13 Ways To Invest In Copper].
Notable Players
| Amount (oz.) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Silver | Copper | |
| Yankees | 121,061 | 6,925,724 | 56,646,821 |
| Alex Rodriguez | 18,529 | 1,058,201 | 8,670,520 |
| CC Sabathia | 15,000 | 856,638 | 7,018,992 |
| Derek Jeter | 9,715 | 554,632 | 4,546,059 |
Diving a bit deeper into the payroll, some of the Yankees notable players can also buy a fair amount of the three aforementioned metals with just their personal take-homes. Alex Rodriguez, who will make $30 million this year, could buy 18,529 ounces of gold, 1,058,201 ounces of silver, or 8,670,520 ounces of copper. CC Sabathia ($24.2 million) could walk away with 15,000 ounces of gold, 856,638 ounces of silver, or 7,018,992 ounces of copper. And finally, Derek Jeter ($15.7 million) could purchase 9,715 ounces of gold, 554,632 ounces of silver, or 4,546,059 ounces of copper [see also The Ten Commandments of Commodity Investing].
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Photo courtesy of Matt Boulton
Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
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