July 19, 2004
NYC comptroller: S.I. park a bad deal
The $79 million stadium that New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani built for the Staten Island Yankees minor-league club in 2001 - the most expensive minor-league park ever built - is "not a good deal for the city" so far, city comptroller William Thompson told the Staten Island Advance. The Yankees drew just 163,000 fans last year, a little over 4,000 per game in the 6,500-seat park, which cuts into the city's rent receipts: according to the team's lease with the city, rent payments are linked to ticket sales, with the mini-Yanks paying no rent at all if attendance drops below 125,000. Given that this is only the team's fourth season, that attendance at Staten Island games has declined each year so far, and that the team's lease has another 16 years to run, this doesn't bode well for New York taxpayers recouping the investment that Giuliani made on their behalf.
