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May 26, 2006
Yanks, Mets stadiums still on hold
The planned May 1 groundbreaking date for new New York Yankees and Mets stadiums has come and gone, and the two teams are no closer to starting work on the $2.1 billion projects. Now Metro New York reports that the National Park Service, which is required to okay the Yankees' plan since it would use federally funded parkland, hasn't even received the state's application for the project, let alone started to evaluate it, a process that the Park Service previously indicated could take anywhere up a year to complete. Given that Gov. George Pataki's lame-duck administration has slowed to a glacial pace - "everybody over there is busy working on their resumes," one Albany insider told me recently - it's anybody's guess how long things will remain up in the air.
The Internal Revenue Service, meanwhile, is still reviewing the city's questionable tax-exempt bond scheme; city officials told Metro that the IRS has requested further information, and a ruling is expected in "probably a few months." At the earliest, then, it looks like the teams won't start work until 2007, which would likely mean delaying the stadiums' Opening Day 2009 debut - and that's assuming that neither the Park Service nor the IRS rejects the plans and sends everyone back to the drawing board. The lesson here? Yogi is always right.
Do you know Spitzer's views on the new stadium plans? Depending on the economic circumstances Gov. Spitzer might not want his first big deal to be $2 billion dollars in unpopular subsidies to teams owned by Republicans.
I'm not saying Democrats don't do bad stadium deals as well (they do) but Spitzer would have nothing to gain politically by doing legacy deals started by Bloomberg and Pataki for Wilpon and Steinbrenner. The unions that want the construction jobs could be placated with remodelling plans, which create more jobs anyway.
It also doesn't appear that the New York DC contingent is pushing any of these reviews forward. Here's to bureaucratic delays! Sometimes they work in your favor.
Posted by joejoejoe on May 27, 2006 04:00 AM
I guess it's conceivable that, if things drag on long enough, Spitzer could pull a Jon Corzine and try to stop the Mets and Yanks deals, or at least renegotiate them. He'd need to find a hook to do so, though - at this point the state has already signed off on just about everything it needs to for the projects to go forward.
Posted by Neil on May 28, 2006 12:45 AM
I hope this kills the New Yankee Stadium deal. There is no need to get rid of the most storied stadium in sports history for a cheap knock off. But I hope the Mets deal happens, I like the Ebbets plan.
Posted by Natsfan7 on June 1, 2006 06:00 PM
I hope this kills the New Yankee Stadium deal. There is no need to get rid of the most storied stadium in sports history for a cheap knock off. But I hope the Mets deal happens, I like the Ebbets plan.
Posted by Natsfan7 on June 1, 2006 06:01 PM