Sports Media

Yankees Players Must Pay For WiFi On Team Airplane

Christopher Bagdonas / MLB / March 16, 2023

Yankees Must Pay For Their Own Internet

Here’s an unexpected story. New York Yankees players must pay for their own WiFi on the team’s airplane. Despite having one of the highest payrolls in baseball, Hal Steinbrenner can’t cough up a couple of grand for internet. Guess what: only one other team in baseball doesn’t cover the cost of airplane internet. The Cincinnati Reds. The fourth most valuable franchise in sports can’t set aside forty grand each year to let the guys watch some movies or call loved ones. I’m a Yankees fan and this baffles me. I knew that Steve Cohen was already outpacing the Bronx Bombers financially. This is just a slap in the face. Each player has to be charged $9 a flight by Delta to get on-plane wifi.

Head Scratching

The Yankees have some very handsomely paid players. Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton are on monster deals. This Winter, they added both Aaron Judge and Carlos Rodon to that list. I understand that scared money doesn’t make money. But how can you let something like this happen? Ironically enough, Judge uses T-Mobile as his cell service provider. The same company allows users to have free internet on Delta flights. Thankfully, we know at least one player this does not affect. Reliever Michael King is still on a family T-Mobile plan with his parents. As for others, it may not be shocking to say their team flights could resemble something like this:

Hal Steinbrenner when he sees a Yankee watching a movie on the team plane pic.twitter.com/zJhc48L7vj
— Fitz (@FitzGSN_) March 15, 2023

Sports Illustrated did a great job interviewing players around the league about this. And it doesn’t change the fact that this is baffling. While former pitcher Jameson Taillon left this Winter, thankfully it wasn’t because of the WiFi debacle. He did point out that the Yankees plane is customized with Poker tables and other features. All in all, this is just a hilarious story. There’s no better way to summarize the New York Yankees in 2023 than exactly this.