May 19, 2004
Jets stadium cost now near $2B?
After months of speculation, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Peter Kalikow may have finally let slip how much he expects his agency to be paid for development rights to the Manhattan rail yards where a proposed Jets stadium would be built: $1.2 billion, according to the New York Observer's Blair Golson. Assuming a roughly even split between the stadium site and a similar site a block east that would be used for more of the city's Hudson Yards plan, that would raise the total cost of the Jets stadium alone to a staggering $2 billion, and send the full Hudson Yards price tag in the direction of $7 billion.
"That figure has the potential to wreak havoc with Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff’s financing proposal for the stadium," notes Golson, who cites one "prominent stadium supporter" as saying: "This is the main weakness of the West Side plan, and it always has been. There’s lots of other stuff you can waffle on, but the M.T.A.’s cut for its air rights? There’s not much wiggle room."
