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April 13, 2009
High-Dollar Stadiums In A Low-Rent Economy
All Things Considered
By Mike Pesca
Both New York baseball teams christen their deluxe new stadiums this week: The Mets on Monday and the Yankees on Thursday. But these high-dollar baseball palaces — designed to be financed in part by luxury suites and swanky seats — are arriving at what may be the worst economic time since Lou Gehrig retired.
Reporter Mike Pesca does a fairly good job of not letting Mayor Bloomberg off the hook, after Bloomberg tries to gloss over the cost of the ballparks to the taxpayers as a "relatively small amount for infrastructure," running into the hundreds-of-millions of dollars. However, Pesca totally missed the fact that future taxes are being divereted to paying back the bonds (sorta like striking a deal with the city to divert your property tax to help pay off your mortgage). This is significant because Bloomberg has also repeatedly asserted that the arena that Bruce Ratner wants to build is being privately financed.
Posted by lumi at April 13, 2009 5:19 AM