"Don't talk to me about aesthetics or tradition. Talk to me about what sells and what's good right now. And what the American people like is to think the underdog still has a chance"
About this Quote
Steinbrenner strips the romance off sports and shows you the wiring underneath: sentiment is just another input, and the only sacred metric is what moves product today. The brusque dismissal of “aesthetics or tradition” isn’t just impatience; it’s a power move. He’s positioning himself as the adult in the room, the guy who won’t let nostalgia overrule revenue. Coming from the owner of the Yankees - baseball’s most mythologized empire - the line lands with delicious tension: the steward of tradition openly treating tradition as expendable.
The shrewd twist is that he doesn’t reject story. He rejects the wrong kind of story. “What sells” isn’t merely winning; it’s the feeling of possibility. Steinbrenner recognizes that American fandom is built on a civic fairy tale: that hierarchies can be upset, that the little guy can matter, that money doesn’t decide everything even when it obviously does. He’s basically admitting the paradox modern sports runs on: the league is a business, and the business depends on fans believing it isn’t purely a business.
Contextually, this is late-20th-century sports capitalism speaking plainly: television, merchandising, and superstar economics reshaping what teams are. The underdog, in his framing, is less a moral cause than a market necessity - competitive hope as a renewable resource. It’s cynical, yes, but also clear-eyed: sell people a chance, and they’ll forgive you for the machine that manufactures it.
The shrewd twist is that he doesn’t reject story. He rejects the wrong kind of story. “What sells” isn’t merely winning; it’s the feeling of possibility. Steinbrenner recognizes that American fandom is built on a civic fairy tale: that hierarchies can be upset, that the little guy can matter, that money doesn’t decide everything even when it obviously does. He’s basically admitting the paradox modern sports runs on: the league is a business, and the business depends on fans believing it isn’t purely a business.
Contextually, this is late-20th-century sports capitalism speaking plainly: television, merchandising, and superstar economics reshaping what teams are. The underdog, in his framing, is less a moral cause than a market necessity - competitive hope as a renewable resource. It’s cynical, yes, but also clear-eyed: sell people a chance, and they’ll forgive you for the machine that manufactures it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Marketing |
|---|
More Quotes by George
Add to List
