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July 27, 2007
IBO official confirms (sort of) that the city would lose $ on arena
Atlantic Yards Report
The Brooklyn Paper picked up on Norman Oder's analysis, which revised Independent Budget Office calculations that conclude the arena will be a money loser for the City:
The Paper got an IBO official to agree, sort of:
The amount of direct subsidy that the city will give Ratner to build the arena has more than doubled — jumping from $100 million to $205 million — in the two years since the city’s Independent Budget Office said the arena create “a modest” net gain of $107 million in tax revenue.
IBO Deputy Director George Sweeting said the new numbers came as a little surprise to him.
“Because the size of the city contribution has grown, the gain from the arena is certainly less than $30 million and it could be a loss,” said Sweeting, adding that the organization had no plans to do the math again.
Actually, the additional $105 million wouldn't all go to the arena block, but even if a minimum of $28.5 million were directed to the arena block--and that's likely--the city tab turns into a loss. Too bad IBO won't take another look.
NoLandGrab: The people are going to lose money on an arena that will, according to Ratner's own figures, be making the Brucester $60 million a year.
Posted by lumi at July 27, 2007 8:06 AM