November 15, 2004

Bloomberg's Jets air war

Much ado about New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's $1.4 billion Jets stadium plan in recent days, though nothing so concrete as indication how it'd be paid for:

• The war of words between Bloomberg and Madison Square Garden owners Cablevision continues to rage out of control, with the mayor accusing the cable company of "lying to New Yorkers and trying to end their Olympic dreams" and saying that a company getting an $11 million-a-year tax break from the city should be "less selfish." (Bloomberg had previously said he'd look into repealing the Garden's 20-year-old property-tax exemption, but since then has seemed more interested in maintaining it to use as a rhetorical bludgeon against stadium opponents.) Cablevision responded by calling for a voter referendum on the Jets stadium plans.
• Not that a referendum is likely to happen, but it's pretty clear which way voters would go on one: The latest poll numbers show that 77% are opposed to using taxpayer money on a stadium, and only 39% agree with the mayor's contention that a West Side stadium is necessary to lure the Olympics. A majority (57%-39%) did say that they'd support a stadium if it generated enough money to pay for itself, as the mayor contends it will; the poll didn't ask respondents whether they thought Bloomberg had been smoking the city charter on this one.
• Cablevision announced its own plan for a $300 million renovation of Madison Square Garden, making sure to note that "we are using several hundred million dollars of our own money" to do so. Of course, $11 million a year of that is taxpayer money, but then they're getting that subsidy regardless, so they do have a point.
• Finally, in a New York Times op-ed yesterday, sports economist Andrew Zimbalist estimated there could be an additional $150 million in hidden costs for the Jets stadium, including a $55 million platform over the West Side Highway and a $66 million "game porch" on the stadium's north side.

Zimbalist also took a shot at Bloomberg's continued efforts to evade legislative oversight of the stadium project, concluding, "If the stadium's economic benefits are as obvious as Joe Namath asserts, the project's supporters should have no problem with standard democratic operating procedures and full disclosure." I'll have more on the attempted Jets end-run in this week's Village Voice - out tomorrow afternoon on the Voice website, Wednesday in dead-tree format.

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