June 30, 2003
NY minor-league parks not paying off
That $110 million that New York taxpayers spent on new minor-league ballparks for the Staten Island Yankees and Brooklyn Cyclones isn't exactly paying off as promised. The Daily News reports that predictions of a stadium-led revitalization of Coney Island have been slow to materialize, with business at local stores up a meager two percent since the ballpark opened. Meanwhile, city comptroller Bill Thompson has charged that the Baby Yankees have been undercounting ticket sales, leading to a $373,000 shortfall in rent payments to the city. Gosh, where have we heard that before?
June 24, 2003
Detroit threatens Tiger Stadium (again)
After two complete rounds of "requests for proposals" on what to do with Tiger Stadium, four years after the Tigers abandoned it for Comerica Park, the city of Detroit has a new idea: tear it down and build a giant retail store. For the Navin Field Consortium, a group that had quietly submitted a proposal to return Tiger Stadium to its earlier dimensions and use it as a minor-league ballpark, the news was especially exasperating. "If a big box retailer is interested in Detroit, there are many potential sites to choose from, none of which has an 8-1/2 acre historic steel and concrete baseball stadium that has to be torn down first," the consortium's Frank Rashid fumed to FoS News. Rashid further noted that stores aren't exactly clamoring for the site: "Any retailer interested in Michigan and Trumbull could have responded to the city's Request-for-Proposals when we did." Detroit News online readers, meanwhile, have a different idea about what ought to be torn down.
DC to MLB: You first
MLB may not be the only one that can play hardball in the continuing skirmish over the Montreal Expos. D.C. council finance chair Jack Evans now says he'll hold off on a stadium finance bill until MLB commits to giving his city the Expos. (Northern Virginia officials had previously made similar demands.) With the third suitor, Portland, Oregon, also making little headway on a stadium bill, MLB could be faced with an unpleasant choice on July 15, when it is scheduled to decide the Expos' fate: tip its hand by picking a new home for the team, and then hope that the city comes up with the stadium dough; or delay a decision until next year, likely pushing any relocation back until 2006 at the earliest. It's far cry from the original plan to unleash a bidding war for the team, but then, times are tough all over.
June 14, 2003
D.C., Va. stadium battles continue
The latest in the municipal bidding war for the Montreal Expos: D.C. mayor Anthony Williams' $339 million stadium plan has been battered from all sides, with the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute issuing a report that stadiums are bad investments for cities; D.C. chief financial officer warning that the financing plan could face a $2 million a year shortfall if the team plays too poorly to sell enough tickets; and both Republican opponents and community groups say the district should restore other budget cuts before building a stadium. Oh, and the city council has expressed little interest in funding Williams' plan, with council finance chair Jack Evans noting: "There is great support locally for baseball and not great support for public financing for baseball."
Across the Potomac, meanwhile, the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority is facing accusations that is violated public meetings laws by selecting stadium sites without a vote. The authority's response? Hire a guerrilla conflict mediator.
In Portland, Oregon, meanwhile, stadium backers just went to a ballgame, which by comparison sounds like a great idea.
June 10, 2003
Nets to leave Jersey?
While New Jersey Nets fans wonder if point guard Jason Kidd will bolt as a free agent after this season's NBA Finals run, the Nets owners - actually the sports conglomerate YankeeNets - are quietly shopping around for a new home of their own. With plans for a $355 million, publicly financed Newark arena apparently stalled for good, the Nets have reportedly talked to New York City officials about building an arena there. (The rumors should probably be taken with a large helping of salt: The article cited unnamed "people familiar with the situation," which is often newspaperspeak for YankeeNets spinmeister Howard Rubinstein.) Meanwhile, New York Islanders owner Charles Wang has said he'd like to buy the Nets and move them to Long Island. Because, you know, it worked so well the last time.
June 05, 2003
Garment workers oppose Manhattan stadium
At a public hearing held today by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on plans for a stadium on Manhattan's West Side (actually a presentation of the Draft Scoping Document on the plan's Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement, and aren't you glad you know that now), residents and workers from the neighborhood spoke out against the proposal - most notably members of the garment industry, who said the $3.7 billion plan to redevelop the area would "devastate" the neighboring garment district by driving up rents. Members of the powerful garment trade union UNITE filled the meeting hall, loudly cheering suggestions that the planned Olympic stadium be scrapped, and that the money instead go to fund more needed projects.
Speaking in favor of the plan were various representatives of Manhattan real estate and development interests, plus a spokesman for Madison Square Garden, who praised the plan for "providing needed flexibility to our efforts to plan for the future of Madison Square Garden." While Cablevision, the Garden's corporate owner, has been quiet so far on its plans, there has been much speculation that a new sports arena could be part of the West Side project.
Say it ain't so, Mario
Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Mario Lemieux, hailed as a hero when he bought the team out of bankruptcy in 1999 and kept it in town, now says he feels "betrayed"by the lack of public funding for a new arena. "This franchise is a free agent in 2007. I hope they understand that," Lemieux told the Associated Press, in the time-honored tradition of the veiled move threat. Both the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County say there's no money in their budgets for a new hockey arena.
June 01, 2003
NYC stadium funding plan stalls
To the surprise of no one, New York City's $3.7 billion plan to build an Olympic stadium and other development on Manhattan's West Side is running into money troubles. Deputy mayor for economic development (and former NYC2012 president, and West Side landowner) Dan Doctoroff abandoned his initial tax increment financing (TIF) plan in February in favor of payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT), which is largely the same plan under a different name. Now comes word from the city planning department that in order to generate enough revenue to pay off the mammoth project, they'll need to project 40 million square feet of office space development, double the initial estimate. "They are trying to make the finances fit by increasing the commercial space," West Side community activist John Fisher told Newsday. "They're just pulling numbers out of the sky."
