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July 29, 2011
Losing $30M in annual fees shows city whiffed big-time on new Yankee Stadium, Citi Field
NY Daily News
by Juan Gonzalez
Here's a shocker — New York City's park users are getting screwed at the expenses of the Yankees and Mets.
If you want to know why more than 450 city park workers are about to be laid off or why the Parks Department has imposed outrageous fee increases, just take a look at the new Mets and Yankees ballparks.
Deals the Bloomberg administration negotiated in 2006 have stripped some $30 million in annual revenue the Parks Department once generated from Shea Stadium and the old Yankee Stadium.
This is not something City Hall wants you to know. Parks officials only confirmed the revenue loss after the Daily News asked why budget documents showed a dramatic drop in the agency's franchise income since 2008.
...As recently as 2008, the two ballparks represented nearly half of the $51 million in concessions revenue generated by the entire Parks system.
On top of that, the city was taking in an additional $6 million annually from parking fees at Shea and the old Yankee Stadium.
Once the new ballparks opened, all that revenue disappeared - even the parking money.
..."The elected officials who voted for this welfare for rich professional teams should be ashamed of themselves," said Geoffrey Croft, director of New York City Park Advocates.
NoLandGrab: Don't worry. Surely that lost revenue will be made up with the Barclays Center, right?
Posted by eric at July 29, 2011 1:00 PM