Pols say no to more MSG tax breaks

From DNA Info:

City and state politicians rallied on the steps of City Hall Tuesday morning to drum up support for a measure that would eliminate a decades-old, multimillion-dollar tax break for The Madison Square Garden Company, which owns "The World's Most Famous Arena," as well as the Knicks and Rangers.

The company, led by executive chairman James Dolan, has been given as much as $16 million a year in tax breaks since 1982, according to the city's Independent Budget Office — or nearly $350 million over the past 31 years, politicians who oppose the tax break said.

Assemblymen David Weprin and Brian Kavanagh and State Senator James Sanders have said that the money should instead go toward cash-strapped city services. In April, they introduced bills in both houses of the State Legislature that would erase the tax exemption.

On Tuesday, they announced that the bills have gained more than 40 co-sponsors, as well as support from City Council members across New York, including incoming Councilman Corey Johnson, whose district includes Madison Square Garden.

There is "no possible justification at this point, with needed revenue for New York," Weprin said at Tuesday's press conference, speaking in front of about 20 labor union members. "We've lost police, lost firefighters. There's talk of closing firehouses, senior centers."

Arena owners battle on Long Island

From Crains:

Out on Long Island, it is shaping up as the heavyweight bout of the decade—the Knockout in Nassau County. It's a winner-take-all contest in which the prize, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming decades, is the right to rebuild and run the badly faded Nassau Coliseum.

In one corner stands a team captained by Madison Square Garden Co., a squad led by hometown heroes James Dolan and Scott Rechler, aided by MSG Chief Executive Hank Ratner. The Dolans control the island's biggest cable television network and newspaper, while Rechler is the island's largest office landlord. In the other corner is the Barclays Center team. Call them the Brooklyn Globetrotters, coached by developer Bruce Ratner with a bench that includes Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov and Jay Z.

Round 1 in the contest kicked off in May, with the announcement of four bidders, which was narrowed to just two the following month. Final proposals for the 63-acre property in Uniondale were submitted on Aug. 9. Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano is expected to announce a victor any day.

Both sides are aggressively swinging for the prize, which includes a share of ticket sales to events, dinner bills, bar tabs and receipts from the shops that both bidders plan to erect around the arena. The winner will control the property for 20 to 30 years.

Local officials say they are delighted at how the bout has shaped up—especially after two previous taxpayer-financed attempts to revamp the Coliseum went nowhere. Those setbacks prompted the Islanders hockey team to skate off to the Barclays Center, which will be its home as early as the 2014-2015 season.

"We're thrilled we have two industry giants prepared to reinvent the Coliseum," said Mr. Mangano.

For MSG, the contest is an opportunity to add another gem to the crown of its ever-expanding entertainment-venue business, which includes managing Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theater and the LA Forum. For Barclays, coming off a blockbuster inaugural year at its downtown Brooklyn arena, winning the Coliseum contract could mark the first step toward the launch of a business that not only competes with the Garden in New York City but around the world.

You can keep your peanuts and crack jacks...

From NBC:

A new study of health violations at the nation's 107 sports venues find some gross oversights, and New York establishments are among the worst offenders.

Nearly one-third of all stadiums and arenas have been cited for at least one "major" health violation, the ESPN study found.

ESPN tallied up each arena's percentages of "critical violations," or cases in which vendors sold food that "might pose a serious risk for foodborne illnesses."

Offenses in New York range from food not kept a the proper temperature --like warm chicken -- to "mouse excreta" and dead fruit flies.

Madison Square Garden ranked the worst, where 61 percent of MSG vendors were cited this year for unsanitary conditions. Inspectors also observed large amounts of mouse droppings throughout establishments, the study found.

Yankee Stadium and Citi Field rated only slightly better, with 48 percent of vendors cited in The Bronx and 45 in Flushing Meadows.

Nassau Coliseum was the only New York-area establishment that didn't have any violations, according to the survey.

MSG and Yankee officials alike said the violations were remedied immediately following the inspections.

Too many arenas spoil the revenue

From the NY Times:

By the time the arena in Brooklyn, which will be called Barclays Center, is built, there will be a total of nearly 100,000 seats to fill, 365 days a year.

For most of the last 30 years, there were only three arenas in the New York area: the Garden, Nassau Coliseum and the Izod Center, which opened in 1981 as the Brendan Byrne Arena. Each facility, at one time or another, was home to at least two major sports franchises. But in New York, as in the rest of the country, teams have sought and obtained new buildings — a trend that has contributed to a glut of arenas.

All of this competition can eat deeply into revenues.

The competition in the New York area is not just for fans and performers, but also for public subsidies, corporate sponsors and well-heeled tenants for luxury suites.

Interesting. This very problem was the reason an arena at Atlantic Terminal was eliminated from consideration by the state back in 1985:

So what changed in all that time? Why does the city need an arena there now when we have even more of them now than we had 24 years ago?