Baseball’s most successful and famous team, the New York Yankees, has become a franchise far beyond the sport, turning into a global brand.

The 27-time World Series winners dominated the sport for four decades before new life was breathed into the team by George Steinbrenner when he acquired the franchise in 1973 for $10 million. The Ohio-born businessman and a group of minority investors purchased the struggling Yankees from CBS ownership and set about turning the team into a global enterprise.

In the almost 40 years that ensued with the Yankees, seven world titles followed, with the franchise’s most recent title coming in 2009, a year before his death at the age of 80. Before he died, Steinbrenner named his successor to keep the family’s hold of the team, which they still own today.

In 2005, Steinbrenner selected his son-in-law, Steve Swindal, to be his successor, with Swindal working for the American Shipbuilding Company owned by Steinbrenner after marrying Jennifer Steinbrenner in 1983 before he joined the Yankees front office, becoming a general partner of the team and chairman of Yankee Global Enterprises in 1998.

But following Swindal’s divorce from Jennifer in 2007, the Yankees bought Swindal out of his financial stake in the team with George’s son, Hal, succeeding him as chairman of the Yankees. George officially retired in 2008 and handed control of the Yankees to his sons Hal and Hank Steinbrenner.

Hal, 54, still remains as the managing general partner of the team and has overseen the Yankees’ rise as the most valuable baseball franchise, worth $7.1 billion, according to Forbes. The Steinbrenner family also collectively owns 25 per cent of YES Network, 20 per cent of MLS club New York City FC, a stake in Legends Hospitality, and 10 per cent in Italian soccer giants AC Milan.

George Steinbrenner

George Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees in 1973

It appears that the next successor of the Yankees has already been sought with Hal revealing the ideal candidate to be Steve Swindal Jr., nephew of Hal, grandson of George, and son of Steve and Jennifer. Stephen Jr. works in the baseball operations department of the Yankees and is currently viewed as the heir to the Yankees thrown.

Steve Jr. has been involved with the family business since his teenage years. “I think I understood at an early age that I was obviously born into a family where I was going to have opportunities that other people might not have,” Swindal said in an interview with the New York Post earlier this year. “This [working for the Yankees] is all I ever wanted to do,” he added.

Despite his apparent future role, Swindal praised Hal and asserted his support of his uncle and current Yankees’ boss. “Hopefully, Hal’s not going anywhere for a long time because I think he’s really good at this. And I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves because he’s not as outspoken as my grandfather was,” Steve Jr. said.

“He’s really, really, really good at this. Unfortunately, the championships, the World Series this past 10 or 12 years haven’t come to show that. But I will be his fervent defender. I really do think he’s great.”