Friday, November 23, 2012

A one-sided deal?

From Crains:

While the identity of a potential team owner of the 20th MLS team remains under wraps, it is widely expected to be a big name who can help bankroll the 25,000-seat venue in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

The stadium is considered a legacy project for the Bloomberg administration, which has outlined terms of a prospective deal: a 35-year, $1-a-year lease, with no sales taxes on construction materials, no property taxes and no revenue sharing with the city. The plan also requires an agreement to share parking lots with Citi Field. Events at the new soccer stadium would be scheduled to avoid conflicts with Mets home games and U.S. Open tennis.


Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for Major League Soccer. What are the benefits for us taxpayers?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

David Beckham has an automatic buy-in deal for a franchise at the end of his playing contract, which is coincidentally up this season (doubtful he'll play another year). MLS is gonna bankroll a substantive chunk of the deal for him, and use the "star power" factor to continue to trump up the outright lie that this is a good idea.

Anonymous said...

"Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for Major League Soccer. What are the benefits for us taxpayers?"

More traffic and congestion. Theft of our tax money. Par for the course, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

the "Cosmos" had extreme star power with PELE ,BECKENBAUER, Coniglia and world players ETC. but the sport failed in NYC in the late 1970's.

Jerry Rotondi said...

The benefits to us taxpayers, I suppose, is that we'll get advance notice before being told to strip and bend over!

Anonymous said...

Maybe Colombian drug cartel money will finance it.

Anonymous said...

The potential fans/customers don't have the $$$ for tickets. They play the sport but can't afford tickets..........

Anonymous said...

What's changed from the 1970's in the economics of Soccer? The paychecks the stars want and get will eventually bankrupt the teams and the league. We will never get that parkland back.

Why can't it be located in any other stadium, it is not as if all of them are being used 365 days in year.

Anonymous said...

Put this stadium in Far Rockaway if MLS want such a sweetheart deal!

Otherwise there is no public benefit at all? Explain that to me?

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 3: And Giorgio Chinaglia (although he was a nasty guy). But the rest of the league didn't build for the long term and those guys got old.

Anonymous said...

Soccer? Who plays soccer? Who would pay $50 to watch soccer? Come on, who are they kidding? Even the television media will not air a soccer game. We've been down this road before. Talk of a soccer stadium is just pie in the sky!

Anonymous said...

Everyone welcome the newest MLS team : The Flushing MS13's!!!