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June 28, 2007

Bricks and taxes: More hidden NYC subsidies

The New York Mets sent out a survey to fans last week asking if they'd consider buying personally inscribed commemorative bricks that would be placed outside the team's new stadium when it opens in 2009. As I report in this week's Village Voice, though the city of New York will own the stadium - and, presumably, the bricks - it wouldn't get any revenues from the brick sale, just as taxpayers won't see a dime from Citigroup's $400 million naming rights deal for the new building.

While this isn't a city cost - the brick money wouldn't exist without the new stadium - it is a city subsidy, since the Mets are getting control of a revenue stream that would otherwise flow to city coffers. (While the Mets won't talk about pricing, other teams have raised as much as several million dollars by this method.) It's also fairly unprecedented: I haven't been able to confirm that it's the first case of a team selling brick sponsorships at a publicly owned stadium, but in all the other examples I've been able to find (Lambeau Field, Busch Stadium, the Staples Center, and a whole slew of college facilities) it's the landlord collecting the payments, not the tenant.

One borough to the south, meanwhile, the Atlantic Yards project that includes an arena for the would-be Brooklyn Nets is getting additional tax breaks, courtesy of the revised affordable-housing program approved by the state legislature last week. While other new buildings in brownstone Brooklyn will have to include 20% affordable apartments to get city property tax exemptions, the Atlantic Yards project would be allowed to credit its buildings with no affordable units with the affordable units in neighboring buildings - a special provision estimated to be worth at least $100 million. No one is saying how Nets owner Bruce Ratner managed to get this special treatment, but it's pretty easy to guess.

COMMENTS

I can't wait to see the nets in brooklyn. Thank you bruce ratner. You are the best .

Posted by dan on June 29, 2007 12:22 PM

I can't wait to see the nets in brooklyn. Thank you bruce ratner. You are the best .

Posted by dan on June 29, 2007 12:23 PM

I can't wait to see the nets in brooklyn. Thank you bruce ratner. You are the best .

Posted by dan on June 29, 2007 12:23 PM

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