From the Daily News' Juan Gonzalez:There's $137 million to pay for concessions at the new stadium - including a swank new Yankees Steakhouse, a Hard Rock Cafe, a museum and a conference center. The Yankees added most of those items to the stadium budget after the city approved the original financing plan.
Other enhancements include:
- $14.2 million for various scoreboard changes.
- $5 million for fancy public- bathroom improvements, including "burnished and glazed block" and "solid surface countertops."
- $10.5 million for new "suite level upgrades."
- $10.7 million for a huge new "video board."
- $8.7 million for the team's administrative offices.
The financial details that the team submitted list such a complicated split between public and private funding for those costs that it's almost impossible to separate them.
"This is bizarre," said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester), a longtime critic of the stadium deal. "We don't have enough money for our schools or the subways, yet they want to give the Yankees money for a steakhouse and granite ramps?"
Bloomberg keeps telling ordinary New Yorkers we need to tighten our belts in hard times. He needs to tell it to the Yankees.
The NY Times' Jim Dwyer has more:
When New York goes through a drought, it is the custom to shut down public fountains, like those in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art — not because they use all that much water, but because the dancing towers of water give the illusion of abundance.
They just turn off the spigots.
30 comments:
C'mon, NY'ers need to fork over more $$$ so the few people in the City that can afford to go to the stadium can do so in comfort and security.
Hear that Republicans? Make Bloomie a Republican, Republicans become mine enemy.
Are we going to Yankee stadium to watch a baseball game or see a Broadway play? what a waste of money for nothing. there was nothing wrong with the 30 year old Yankee stadium that was there. what a tear down society we are. all we do is make landfills.
makes you wanna not be a fan anymore
no matter what we say or do they will get the money im sure
The truly remarkable thing about this is that these outrages have only just started to capture the big newspapers' attention.
Q: where the fuck were they when the original-- also outrageous-- stadium deals were passed?
Queens Crap didn't exist, of course, so we're exonerated but most of the media ignored it them, or rolled over.
Neil deMause-- see his website--
http://www.fieldofschemes.com
Was telling people over and over, in detail, that this shit was a total sham from the start. Neil also did it in the Voice quite a bit, also, and still does online.
Mr. Crappy, this just in--
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2009/01/yanks_bond_requ.html
This all goes back to the scumbag Steinbrenner's decades of threats that he'd leave the Bronx but only got real momentum when Giuliani & Co. did the minor league stadium giveaways at Coney and Staten, the former of which was also cause for razing the Thunderbolt.
What's ironic-- and points out one more time what hyprocrite crooks Bloomberg and the City Council are-- is Bloomberg legitimately criticized Rudy's last-minute stadium deals when he took office.
What the fuck changed?
People can enjoy pro sports or not but there's not a single legitimate argument that the public should pay for even one goddamn bag of peanuts in the process.
Bring Me The Head of Randy Levine,
Ernie Koy, Jr
Bronx Bureau
Who Walk In Brooklyn
None of you seem to understand how a bond issuance works.
As far as I know, private citizens purchase these bonds and the city will act simply as a "binding agent" / intermediary in the transaction. So this is, essentially, a loan from private investors to the Yankees via the trust and assurances of the city government. If the Yankees are not profitable and can not sustain payment of the loan, the city is obliged to take any measures necessary to ensure payment. Confiscation of property is not out of the realm of possibility. The Yankees have to make money or else the city will take it back for the investors.
This isn't tax money [paid by you and I] changing hands. Tax money doesn't come to play, unless you are counting the cost of documentation and proper pens to sign the documents [let's say a couple of hundred dollars].
The issue is repeatedly, ignorantly, and irresponsibly being raised over the "tax-free" nature of the bonds, but that just means that the exchange of funds encompassing the interest paid and the amount of the matured bond will not be taxed as a capital gain. My terminology may be off here.
So all this hubbub is not nearly what it's being made out to be. In this economy, the Yankees are just about the best investment that a city govt. can stand behind. Note that the stadium itself is almost already complete, unlike Atlantic / Hudson Yards, Silvercup, Maspeth Freight Tunnel, etc.
I live in Maspeth too, Maspethian, and you don't speak for every Maspethian. I don't know about any of you, but I don't see the point to arguments against the city simply standing behind private investment in the stadium. It's much ado about nothing.
Ernie,
You may not have seen this YouTube video of Bloomberg in 2004 (pre-re-election #1):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJgmME5l_Os
Alan
And to Mr. Koy, regarding your minor league baseball stadium remark and how it blights the wonderful Coney Island, I would say that Coney Island has been and continues to be the premier, outmoded, salty and forgotten shithole on the eastern seaboard, outclassing Seaside Heights, Long Branch and even, yes, the infamous Atlantic City. Sorry to burst your bubble, but every taxpayer, assemblyman, senator, councilmember, judge, cop, fireman, garbageman, streetsweeper, and representative in the state and city should be spread eagle to attract any kind of economic rejuvenation to the area.
Erect a concrete bunker over Nathan's, the minor league park, the aquarium. Then nuke everything else. Including the most fractured glass-shimmering, condom-dodging beach known to mankind.
I believe in restoration and preservation, but that requires INVESTMENT and OPPORTUNITY.
"The issue is repeatedly, ignorantly, and irresponsibly being raised over the "tax-free" nature of the bonds, but that just means that the exchange of funds encompassing the interest paid and the amount of the matured bond will not be taxed as a capital gain."
And that means the City loses tax revenue.
Also the cost of what the City is responsible for with respect to this project has skyrocketed.
?! How does the city lose tax revenue, when every last ticket, concession sale, foam hands, Snoopy Yankee, caps, shirts, et al. are bearers of SALES TAX, not to mention the boost in toll collections on drivers, the spike in revenue up the 4 line for the MTA, cold cash revenue from the parking garages that will be channeled directly back to the city [parking and tolls combined, I imagine the city will net upwards$25 per car for homegames]...
These untold billions of $$$ [considering the intended life of the stadium]are simply "details", I guess.
More "details" that Gonzalez couldn't sort through, regarding the current split of already-made private and public -backed funding. All of sudden Gonzales can't sort out the "details". Maybe because the "details" would render his argument completely ridiculous and render his article a sham/slander piece intended to rouse the rabble. Thanks for sharing, Gonzo. If you were really a Latino-issues reporter worth your salt you would be covering how Columbia University has managed to declare blocks of Latino businesses as blighted and has exacted emminent domain to expand its empire. I believe a Columbia U research team determined that the community was blighted. What a surprise.
You know, there is crap that needs reporting, but this ain't it.
And the Yankees could have afforded all that without the tax breaks.
How about taking kids' parks away and forcing them to wait years for inferior replacement spaces atop parking garages?
Let's not forget the peripheral dollars earned through tourism...Yankee Stadium being perceived as a the national nexus point for the national game. Those aren't all Manhattanites and Long Islanders on the ticket lines, I can assure you. People fly in during the summer from around the country and around the world. And if they go to see a sports team, they go see the Yankees.
Not to mention all of the support services in the environs, businesses and vendors around the stadium...I should be sinking my point in here, but I know I'm probably not.
Yes, yes, yes! As long as it makes money SCREW the neighborhood!
*anonymous* More heartache, my goodness, the horror, the shock and dismay. The local little leaguers may have to caravan a few minutes away for a year or two until they get this:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/nyy_stadium/html/nyy_redevelopment.html#parks
I'm quite sure your average little leaguer in the neighborhood won't mind the temporary displacement while the world's baseball mecca, located in their neighborhood, is made newer, bigger, and shinier.
Oh man...like kids who can't afford to see a game are going to be all excited about the "baseball mecca" being prepped for yuppies and tourists where they used to play.
What else does the neighborhood get? The South Bronx's largest single employer. I don't know if you've ever been to the stadium, but it's not some college kid from NYU that works the beer tap. And it's not some teenager from the North Shore throwing me my bag of peanuts.
So, what would you have us erect in the obviously troubled South Bronx? A Che Guevara tshirt factory, maybe?
Less seats = less vending jobs...
Bleacher and tier seats are about the same price as before, kiddo. Don't forget, your average blue-collar Yankee fan is already paying the city tax, the sales tax, state tax, etc. Let's fucking tax ourselves into oblivion. For the sake of taxing ourselves into oblivion. Because the goal, evidently, is to tax ourselves into oblivion.
Actually, minor league teams have very inexpensive tickets and you get to see good baseball played by up-and-comers. A day at the park. Oh yeah, minor league stadiums piss you off as well, because Coney Island is pristine.
You just can't win with some people.
Bleacher and tier seats are about the same price as before, kiddo. Don't forget, your average blue-collar Yankee fan is already paying the city tax, the sales tax, state tax, etc. Let's fucking tax ourselves into oblivion. For the sake of taxing ourselves into oblivion. Because the goal, evidently, is to tax ourselves into oblivion.
Actually, minor league teams have very inexpensive tickets and you get to see good baseball played by up-and-comers. A day at the park. Oh yeah, minor league stadiums piss you off as well, because Coney Island is pristine.
You just can't win with some people.
"Less seats = less vending jobs..."
Fantastic, Gonzalez-esque math right there.
That means my work's done. God Bless.
"Bleacher and tier seats are about the same price as before, kiddo. Don't forget, your average blue-collar Yankee fan is already paying the city tax, the sales tax, state tax, etc."
Yes, and the seats weren't exactly filled with locals, were they?
"minor league teams have very inexpensive tickets and you get to see good baseball played by up-and-comers."
They don't have a minor league stadium. They have a major league stadium - the "baseball mecca" that they are supposed to be jumping for joy over but won't let them see a game for less than an arm and a leg.
So your proposal is this:
TAX EVERYONE INTO OBLIVION.
Correct? Novel concept. Suicide is painless. Sometimes.
Don't know what the hell you are talking about and I have the feeling that neither do you.
I know what I'm talking about. Here's pictures of what the evil Yankee empire and their scheme to make the poor humble people of the Bronx suffer:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/nyy_stadium/html/nyy_redevelopment.html#updates
Oops - that doesn't look so bad, actually. Tell the truth, for a project that's still not even close to finishing, looks pretty good.
I know wtf I'm talking about. You're the one who's full of CRAP.
"Also the cost of what the City is responsible for with respect to this project has skyrocketed."
Well, as reported right here on Queens Crapper, the city will net into the hundreds of millions in tax BENEFITS from both the Yankee Stadium [which is being handled well] and the Citi Field [which is woefully mishandled] projects.
Don't get me wrong, if I can hold out a olive branch herem, I don't favor each and every development. I live in Maspeth, I see all the shoeboxes piling up around me. But I also see positive things, like the park being put in where the big oil tanks used to be [then again, I imagine that brownfield couldn't be used for very much else].
I think Citi Field is being misdeveloped and botched. The community will not benefit.
FYI the gas tanks park was supposed to be a home depot.
FYI the Yankees have not lived up to one stipulation of their CBA.
Waste of money beyond belief especially when bloomie starts tacking on expensive countertops for people to destroy in public bathrooms.Every city in the U.S. the last 5 years is building new stadiums and there all done with way too much public money.
Yankee stadium takes the cake as a total waste of money that could fix the hidden waste of pork spent by every politician in this state except about two maybe that Patterson claims its the citizens resposibility to fix the budget with silly taxes.Hes a real piece of work too whos proud he memorizes everything he needs to say and learn from govt.Hello Gov?You dont think millions of documents can be hidden from you.Bloomie might have his flunkies shred documents like oliver while he throws tantrums.
LIBERTY BOY IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED YOU ARE SHOVELING SHIT AGAINST THE TIDE ON THIS SITE. THEY JUST NEED TO BITCH
What evidence do you have that Citi Field is "mis managed" when it is costing less than New Yankee Stadium and there is much less need for additional financing.
It it New Yankee Stadium which is over budget by a large amount.
If the stadium is such a profitable enterprise, why are Yankee/Met officials so anxious to suck off the gubmints teet? I believe in private enterprise, ergo, Yankee Stadium should be built by the Yankees.
Like it or not, seat licenses are not affordable by any middle class NY'er.
Liberty Boy - Why isnt a guy who wants to open a deli on the corner worthy of "a loan from private investors to the *subject* via the trust and assurances of the city government."
I know the NY city government. There are certain regs that get 'relaxed' when it is a project of favor. Both stadiums fall into that category. Contractors can snap their fingers to get quick (and lightly supervised) approval.
Try building a house, or an extension. It is a different story.
And you lie when you say it isnt taxpayer $$$. If the city is insuring these obligations, there are insurance premiums. As risky as the economy gets the higher these premiums go.
Again, you are lying by alleging there is no cost to NYC taxpayers.
And the result still is:
Seats in new Yankee Stadium:
12,000 fewer - price of tix - 15 % more
Seats in Citifield, 7-8000 people fewer - 15% fewer, price of tix - about 12 % higher.
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