That is simply operating income, which is total income from day-to-day operations (i.e., ticket sales, concessions). To view the top earners of the year, you're going to want to click on revenues, which tallies everything including sponsorship deals and other non-daily revenues as well. This list will more accurately reflect the status of the league. The Yankees' payroll in 2009 was 201,449,189 according to MLBcontracts. This is more than almost 80% of the other teams in the MLB earned.