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July 2, 2008
So, why aren't naming rights counted as sports facility subsidies?
Atlantic Yards Report
From part deux of an interview with Neil deMause, the Brooklyn-based author of "Field of Schemes" explains why there's absolutely no good reason why the public shouldn't benefit from lucrative naming-rights deals, and how that relates to the creative financing scheme, dubbed PILOTs:
There’s no reason for this to be private money. If the public is building the stadium, if the public is owning the stadium, why should the team get to slap a name and get the money from it, or consider the money from it that pays off the stadium as paying off their share.
Y’know, I rent; if I decide to put a giant billboard on the roof of my house here--if my landlord lets me do it, I really don’t think he could let me keep all the money from it. If I say, I’d like to move into your apartment, but in order to pay my rent, I have to put a big billboard outside, he’s going to look at me as if I had two heads.
...
It’s very odd that the state will own everything about the arena except the part that makes money.
[Photo: Atlantic Yards developer and NJ Nets owner Bruce Ratner announcing the arena-naming-rights deal with Barclays Bank.]
Posted by lumi at July 2, 2008 4:51 AM