There are signs of a return to normalcy around Yankee Stadium. The Jeter Meter reads “Welcome Home Yankees,” and two new murals pay homage to the Bronx Bombers. 

The pandemic put pro-sports on pause, but the team is set to start playing again in late July.

• MLB Sets 60-Game Schedule Beginning July 23 or 24, Yankees and Mets to Train in New York

Their much-anticipated return will be without spectators in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Struggling business owners around the stadium say it might be the last strike for them.

“I just received a real estate tax bill and rent bill. Why are we even paying that when we are deprived of making a living?” said Joseph Bastone, the owner of the Yankee Tavern.

Joseph Bastone has owned  the Yankee Tavern for over 35 years. It’s been in the Concourse Village neighborhood since 1927.

He says he lost more than $300,000 after shutting down because of the pandemic. 

The absence of fans flocking to the area before and after the games means he may not be able to recover. He’s not alone. Owners of some of the restaurants, bars and souvenir shops by  the stadium say they are also in financial peril.

“They’re on the verge of extinction,” said Cary Goodman, the executive director of the local Business Improvement District. They all owe several months rent … The Yankees are going to make tens of millions of dollars in commercials and sponsorships, but unlike the normal times, none of that money is going to come back into the neighborhood.”

That’s why Goodman sent the Mayor’s office this letter, requesting the city renegotiate the lease with the Yankees, requiring them to pay fair market rent. He said that money can go to help the shops and community here. The Yankees’ current lease is for $1 a year. The deal was negotiated during the Bloomberg administration to keep the team from leaving.

The BID wants the Yankees to pay as much rent as local business owners do—that ranges between $60 and $120 per square foot.

The stadium takes up 1.3 million square feet. At current leasing rates, that would generate more than $100 million dollars in revenue. 

A spokeswoman for Mayor de Blasio told NY1 his office is reviewing the letter.

The Yankees accused the head of the Business Improvement District of seeking to “grandstand for himself by trying to use the Yankee’s name.”

The team claimed that local businesses called to say they do not stand with him.

“The Yankees pay a lot more than a dollar a year in rent, and we have a wonderful relationship with our neighbors and community partners,” The team added. “It is our honor to distribute millions of dollars to charitable causes in our community every year, as well as making the Stadium available to support and address a variety of Bronx-based initiatives.”

“It’s not the Yankees responsibility to take care of us,” said Bastone. “They are not the ones that closed down the economy. It was the city and the sate.”

He and other bar owners in the area will set up TV screens outside, in hopes attracting baseball fans eager to be close to the Stadium, since they can’t go in it.