[stiffy]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

We're still talking about the same city, and thus, the same economic locale, the same economic market: the New York City metropolitan area. That the Yankees have tapped into that area more effectively than have the Mets (or the Giants or Dodgers, if you go further back) is a reflection on its organizational abilities.

Unless, that is, you wish to subdivide the New York City metropolitan area into smaller, discrete economic markets. (And there may be justification in doing so.)

Regardless of the discussion around fan interest and loyalty (my thoughts on these are not carved in stone, and I am happy to hear other viewpoints on the subjects), the point remains that the economic capacity of the locale has a huge impact on the financial well-being on the the club residing in that locale.

If the Yankees moved to Topeka, Kansas, it is highly unlikely the club would continue generating hundreds of millions of dollars in local revenue from ticket sales, club seats and luxury suites, concessions, advertising, and local broadcasting since the Topeka area has only a fraction of the population and per capita income of the New York City metropolitan area.

To further your point, the MLB even calculates those teams as having the same market score for CBA purposes (found on page 253 of this PDF):

CLUB  SCORE
NYY    235
NYM    235
LAD    178
LAA    178
CHI    124
CWS    124
TOR    119
WSH    113
PHI    111
OAK    108
SF     108
BOS    101
TEX    101
ATL     96
HOU     93
SEA     81
MIN     76
DET     74
ARI     72
TB      72
BAL     70
COL     70
MIA     69
CLE     64
SD      60
STL     57
PIT     56
KC      53
MIL     52
CIN     51