April 01, 2006

Giants/Jets stadium back on again

The New York Giants and Jets have resolved their differences with new New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, with the three parties announcing yesterday that they've agreed to a revised deal on the teams' planned $1 billion stadium complex. After all the posturing, the changes to the agreement are pretty anticlimactic: The state will get out of $30 million in up-front infrastructure costs, but will both give up its claim to a share of naming rights revenues and allow the teams to sell naming rights to the entire Meadowlands sports complex, which could be worth even more than that. As Gary Rose, chairman of the state's Economic Growth Council, hastily backtracked: "It's pretty hard to go back to the dawn of time, when this whole thing seemed to have started. In fairness, you have to pick it up where it is and make judgments on whether you think it should go forward. And we decided that yes, it should."

On an even bigger issue, meanwhile - how much of a property tax break the teams will get on the 520,000 square feet of commercial development they plan to build next to the stadium - Corzine punted, saying only that the Jets and Giants need to reach an agreement with the city of East Rutherford on property taxes before the deal can be finalized. While East Rutherford Mayor James Cassella called this "a step in the right direction," it's still possible that legal action will be needed to resolve the tax dispute - or that it could yet derail the project altogether.

One noted New England-based sports economist opined to the New York Times that "in a fairer world, the deal would have been sweeter for New Jersey. But you've got to give Corzine credit for the way he stuck his neck out and said, 'Hey, wait a minute, I know a deal has been negotiated, but we need to look at this.'" Or to look at it another way: Corzine made some headlines as being tough on stadiums, but ultimately didn't get much in the way of a better deal for his state's taxpayers. Sound familiar?