It’s official: the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (Class AAA; International League) franchise has been sold to Mandalay Baseball Properties and the New York Yankees for $14.6 million.
The sale was finalized this morning by the Lackawanna County Multi-Purpose Stadium Authority. The proceeds from the sale will immediately go toward the renovation of PNC Field, which could begin as soon as Friday.
The sale price is a pretty good deal for the Yankees and Mandalay; usually you see a Triple-A team going for $17 million or more. There are some mitigating factors, though: the team will lose money this year playing on the road while ballpark renovations proceed, and the sale of the team was tied to the new ballpark, where the new SWB Yankees will pay some $900,000 annually in rent over 30 years and cover any construction cost overruns.
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