May 27, 2006

Newark mayor: Not so fast, Devils

Newark mayor-elect Cory Booker, who takes office July 1, is threatening to throw the brakes on the New Jersey Devils' $310 million arena project, calling it a "bamboozlement" that could end up costing the city more than the $210 million that's been reported. (The city would actually get rent and arena revenues as part of the deal, but they wouldn't be enough to pay off the city's construction costs.) Booker said if a cost-benefit analysis shows that backing out of the arena would be a better deal for the city than completing it, he won't hesitate to shut it down: "If the project will hemorrhage money for decades, we're gonna stop it," he told the AP yesterday.

This would be awfully late in the game to throw a wrench into the Devils arena plans - the project broke ground last October, and the steelwork has already started to go up - but not entirely unprecedented. In fact, you could say it's becoming a New Jersey tradition.