November 30, 2008

Yanks swapped suite for city assets

Now that the New York Yankees' new stadium is all but complete, the revelations don't stop coming about the political process that got it built. The latest: According to e-mails by city officials obtained by state assemblymember Richard Brodsky, City Hall gave the team 250 free parking spaces in a taxpayer-built garage, handed over revenues from three new billboards along the Major Deegan Expressway, and lobbied the IRS to approve $940 million in tax-exempt bonds, all to get the Yanks to give the city a free luxury suite - in the left-field corner.

Rough estimate of the value of what the city gave up: $1.6 million a year. Estimated annual cost of a luxury suite down the foul lines at the new stadium: $600,000. That's not exactly a bargain for city taxpayers - not that city taxpayers will be allowed to sit in the thing regardless.

(More on this in my article on the Village Voice blog.)