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February 11, 2008
New York Times Credulity Friday Edition
Here are a couple we missed from last Friday's New York Times, noteworthy because a) they appeared on the same page of the Sports section, and b) both stories swallow the teams' spin hook, line and sinker.
Sports Business: You Can’t Buy the Naming Rights, but Call It the Billion-Dollar Ballpark
by Richard Sandomir
It was Lonn Trost, the Yankees’ chief operating officer, who noted the new costs Thursday during a news-media tour of the construction site. They will be borne by the team, not the city and the state, which are footing the bill for new parks, new garages and a new Metro-North station, and financed by borrowing beyond the $866 million in tax-exempt bonds and $64 million in taxable bonds that are financing the stadium’s construction.
NoLandGrab: Sandomir fails to mention that estimates by Good Jobs New York and stadium-subsidy expert Neil deMause put the cost to the taxpayers of the new Yankee Stadium at between $663 million and $799 million.
The article is also noteworthy for these tidbits:
Another $60 million is to pay for security improvements that were recommended by the New York Police Department and $50 million was associated with starting construction several months late in August 2006 because of lawsuits.
NLG: OK, Newark close streets for security reasons and the NYPD recommends $60 million worth of security upgrades to Yankee Stadium, but the Atlantic Yards security plan is iron-clad without even the need for bollards? And there goes another pesky community lawsuit stickin' it to the little guy — in this case, over something as trivial as the seizing of public parkland for George Steinbrenner's private benefit.
How is that Community Benefits Agreement coming, anyway?
Face-Lift at the Garden Taps Corporate Money
by David S. Joachim
The Devils have moved into their new arena in Newark, and the Mets, the Yankees, the Giants, the Jets and the Nets are building or designing new homes — all of them with more luxury seating and more space for advertising.
But the Knicks and the Rangers are stuck in limbo as they await approval of a plan to move one block west, across Eighth Avenue, to a newly constructed Madison Square Garden where the James A. Farley Post Office stands.
Until the wrecking ball arrives, Cablevision, which owns the Garden and both teams, is busy remodeling some sections of its dowdy yellowing arena in an effort to squeeze out a few (million) extra dollars from its corporate clients.
NoLandGrab: Poor James Dolan! How can he be expected to make a buck in the "dowdy yellowing" World's Most-Famous Arena, even with his paltry $11.5 million annual property-tax exemption?
So far as we can tell, Madison Square Garden suffers from a mediocre hockey team and a downright dysfunctional basketball squad, not physical obsolescence. With $8 beers, $4 waters and a family of four easily shelling out $500 for a Knicks' or Rangers' game, MSG's revenue stream appears to be neither "dowdy" nor "yellowing."
Posted by eric at February 11, 2008 3:38 PM