Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- New York Yankees fans have been paying for the team’s 27th championship all year, so the ballclub probably won’t get a windfall for winning the World Series.

“The winning was already priced into the cost of the tickets,” said Vince Gennaro, a Purchase, New York-based consultant to Major League Baseball teams. “They are simply fulfilling the expectations you had when you bought them.”

The Yankees have won more championships than any major professional sports team in North America and missed the playoffs only once since 1995. Fans and sponsors are paying more to help finance a team that carries a $208 million payroll, the highest in baseball and almost $63 million more than that of the New York Mets, who are second.

Ticket prices for regular-season games at the new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium averaged a highest-in-baseball $72.97, up 76 percent from a year earlier, according to Team Marketing Report, a Chicago-based industry newsletter. The major-league average was $26.64, 5 percent more than 2008. By the end of April, the team cut season-ticket prices on a few hundred premium seats.

Yankees President Randy Levine declined to comment through spokeswoman Alice McGillion.

At the beginning of the season, Forbes magazine estimated the Yankees franchise value at $1.5 billion, the highest in baseball, with $375 million in revenue, also the most.

Yankees Spending

The Yankees have not been shy about spending money to win. Alex Rodriguez makes $33 million this season, more than any other player, and the Yankees third baseman was joined at the club this year by first baseman Mark Teixeira ($20.6 million), and pitchers A.J. Burnett ($16.5 million) and CC Sabathia ($15.3 million).

The Yankees, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 last night to win the World Series four games to two, sold an average of 46,440 tickets in their first season at the 52,325-seat stadium for a total attendance of 3.7 million, the most in the American League for the seventh straight year. Last season, a franchise-record 4.3 million fans watched Yankees home games.

With ticket sales at that level and most corporate sponsors tied into long-term agreements, winning the World Series for the first time since 2000 will do more to protect the club’s fan base than boost revenue, consultants said.

‘Strength of Brand’

“It cements the strength of the brand, and maintains their image as one of the best franchises in professional sports,” said John Moag, founder of Moag & Co., a Baltimore-based investment bank.

Bernhard Schroeder, a director at the Entrepreneurial Management Center at San Diego State University, said the title will help the team win younger fans.

“In places where baseball is coming up they are looking for the reigning champion,” Schroeder said. “That’s what this will do. It will bring in the next generation of Yankees fans.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Curtis Eichelberger in Washington at ceichelberge@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 5, 2009 00:37 EST