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August 29, 2006

NYC stadiums cost city an extra $46m

In this week's Village Voice, I revisit the revelation that the New York Yankees billed city taxpayers for their lobbying and front-office costs under a lease clause allowing them to deduct "stadium planning costs" from their rent. (Info on the Mets' deductions should be forthcoming shortly.) The latest documents show that those on the public payroll included three members of George Steinbrenner's family, plus the lawyers who wrote up the giveaway lease clause in the first place.

It also turns out that those rent deductions - $46 million in total between the Mets and Yanks - were, under the original deal arranged by then-mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2001, supposed to be recouped by the city as credits against public stadium construction costs. But when Mayor Mike Bloomberg reworked the deals last year, the teams were covering all the stadium construction, in exchange for getting free land, free rent, and tax breaks - leaving nothing for the city to use those credits against.

In my Voice article, I called this "leaving $46 million on the table," which isn't quite right - as I subsequently confirmed with a city official, the rent credits were bargained away during negotiations for the new stadium deal, meaning the city did presumably get something in exchange. But it does mean that New York City's twin-stadium subsidy is now not the $371 million previously reported, but rather $417 million, since Bloomberg effectively tore up $46 million in IOU's along with the cash he handed out. Total federal, state, and city subsidies: $847 million. That's quite the "investment."

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