January 30, 2005
Jets' $200M land gap
Or maybe we won't need that subpoena after all. According to the New York Times' Charles Bagli (citing "executives who have been briefed on the negotiations"), the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority is asking for $300 million from the New York Jets for the development rights to the rail yards where the team wants to site its new stadium. That's far less than was previously rumored, but still far more than the number the Jets had in mind, which Bagli pegs at a little more than $100 million. Writes Bagli:
The Jets have complained in the past that Gov. George E. Pataki has not pushed Mr. Kalikow to move more quickly. According to several people who know him, Mr. Kalikow has been reluctant to make a "sweetheart" deal with the Jets to sell the development rights for a low price when the transportation authority is facing a fare increase and multibillion-dollar deficits in its capital budget.
The fiend!
If the Jets are still haggling over nickels and dimes - okay, a few million nickels and dimes - it may be because their profit margin on what would be the world's most expensive stadium ever is already being squeezed: Bagli reports that the Jets believe that their share of the stadium construction costs, previously estimated at $800 million, would now be more like $1 billion. (Score one for Betsy Gotbaum.) The way things are going, it may not take legislative opposition to kill the Stadium That Ate Manhattan; the Jets could yet end up walking away from the deal just because even with all the public subsidies, it just still costs too damn much.
