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Paley and CBS took over a team that was neglected by Topping and Webb for whatever reason and ran the franchise during some rather poor years as the franchise could not replace Yogi Berra, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle.

CBS did sign a 30-year lease deal with Mayor John Lindsay and the Lindsay administration for a renovation of the ballpark, which was built in 1922, on August 8, 1972. The lease would have started once the renovations were done.

CBS was shopping the team around at the time the lease agreement was announced.

Bergen County Republican State Senator Fairleigh Dickinson wanted the franchise. It was State Senator Dickinson who in 1969 pushed for the creation of the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission. The New Jersey legislature approved a bill that was signed into law by Governor Richard Hughes that would change the area. Eventually the state would build a football stadium, a racetrack and an arena off of Route 4, but it is possible that the football stadium might have been joined by a baseball stadium.

According to a source, Dickinson's plan was upended after a strong objection by his executive secretary. Dickinson's offer of $12.5 million for the team was supposed to be sent to a CBS’s directors’ meeting in Philadelphia for review, but was withdrawn at the time of its arrival.

Dickinson was out, which made the sale process much easier for Steinbrenner's group.

It is not known whether the CBS-New York City renovation lease would have been broken had Dickinson purchased the Yankees.

Dickinson was not the only suitor from New Jersey for the Yankees.

Sonny Werblin, who became the chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority in 1971, all of a sudden had an investor come to him and tell him that he wanted to buy the Yankees and had a $12.5 million ready to go. But Michael Burke who ran the Yankees for CBS and stayed on with the Steinbrenner group said the team was no longer on the market.

The Dickinson bid was the last real attempt at bringing Major League Baseball to New Jersey. It is somewhat ironic that New Jersey has struck out in landing a Major League team. After all the first baseball game allegedly was played in Hoboken on June 19, 1846. The last game at Elysian Fields in Hoboken took place in 1873.

The Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley shifted some of his home games in 1956 and 1957 to Jersey City's Roosevelt Stadium, where attendance was good. But O'Malley was looking for a new stadium in Brooklyn and was using the Jersey City games as leverage for a ballpark.

O'Malley never really considered New Jersey and moved to Los Angeles.