November 02, 2005

Secrets of the Yankees EIS

As the New York Yankees stadium project wends its way through the city land-use process - the next public meeting of Bronx Community Board 4 is scheduled for Thursday, November 17, in the gym of the Bronx School for Law, Government & Justice, to hold the throngs who are expected to attend - I've been picking my way through the 707-page draft environmental impact statement that spells out the details of the plan. (PDF file here for the strong of stomach.) Among the interesting tidbits of note:

• The estimated total construction cost for new parking garages is given as $234.8 million in 2006 dollars. Since the state legislature has only approved $75 million in state bonds for the garages, it's a bit of a mystery where the other $160 million will come from.
• Total projected cost of upkeep to the current Yankee Stadium is given at $574 million over the next 30 years, against projected rent receipts of $497 million; by building a new stadium where the Yanks pay no rent but all maintenance costs, then, the DEIS estimates that the city would save $77 million. (The DEIS calls this a "cumulative total," which apparently means the sum of all the individual payments over time, not the present value - the document is extremely sloppy at distinguishing the two kinds of figures, which are analagous to the total amount of mortgage checks you write to your bank, versus the actual price of your home.) While the document is silent on what constitutes "upkeep," you'll recall that the city previously acknowledged that this represented not routine maintenance, but meeting the Yanks' demand for a stadium "on par with other first class major league baseball facilities located around the country." No figure is given for simple maintenance costs, which in recent years have been significantly less than rent receipts, leaving the city with a net surplus of about $7 million a year that would disappear with a new stadium.
• The DEIS cites a study - as yet not publicly released - by Economic Research Associates showing that the "incremental economic benefit" from the new stadium would be $258 million; I've looked and looked, and can't find any indication where they got that figure. In a separate chart, the "incremental permanent annual impact" in public tax revenue is given at $14.4 million, about $6.6 million of which would accrue to the city. Even taking this figure at face value, over 30 years this would amount to a present value for the city of about $91 million - or $64 million less than the city would be putting out in upfront cash, even before accounting for all the hidden tax and rent breaks. So much for Hardy Adasko's "major net benefit."
• Though the section on "socioeconomic conditions" (which includes economic cost/benefit) runs 24 pages, the city doesn't appear to have studied what the impact would be on existing city-owned parking garages around Yankee Stadium (the city currently gets 60% of gross revenues, which could end up being siphoned off by the new state garages), or the loss of economic activity at local stores that would lose business to the Yankee-run mall space inside the new stadium.
• Finally, in calculating economic impact, the city lets slip the projected ticket price to watch the Bronx Bombers play in their new home. Estimated cost of a Yankee game in 2009 if the old stadium is retained: $45. Estimated cost in 2009 at a new stadium: $57.

If your eyes haven't yet glazed over, there's still more analysis of the Yankees DEIS over at the Save Our Parks blog, courtesy of urban planner and CB4 member Lukas Herbert, who's actually read through the entire document and lived to tell the tale. [NOTE: Herbert's full analysis is now available here as a PDF file.]

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