October 12, 2011
MLS promises NYC team if someone builds a stadium
MLS commissioner Don Garber made his clearest statement yet yesterday that he'd like to see a team in New York City — once there's a stadium for it to play in:
"If we can build a stadium we're going to have a team in New York City. But we have a lot of work to do before we get that stadium built," Garber said, referencing Flushing Meadows, Willets Point and Randall's Island as potential sites. "I feel better about it now than I have at any other point."
A lot of work to do is, if anything, an understatement: Flushing Meadows Park has already lost public parkland to a contentious expansion of the U.S. Tennis Center, developer proposals have already been filed with the city for Willets Point (though it's possible a soccer stadium could be wedged into an existing plan), and Randall's Island is inaccessible by subway in a city where 54% of households don't own cars.
The biggest hurdle, though, is how to pay for it: Construction costs are high in the New York area, and the New York Red Bulls' arena cost $200 million and required major subsidies from the city of Harrison, New Jersey. Garber acknowledged the issue, "joking," according to the New York Daily News:
"We always love to use other people's money. [But] it's too early say how we would finance it."
Ha. Ha. Ha.
May 12, 2010
Mets "talking" with Islanders, MLS about Queens move
More rumors of rumors, but: New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon tells Newsday (via its new sister publication Gothamist, since Newsday has hidden all its articles behind a $5/week paywall) that he's "had conversations with Islanders owner Charles [Wang] and we've talked about Queens," and that he's also talked to MLS commissioner Don Garber about a soccer stadium, though "we probably can't do both."
Any hockey or soccer venue would presumably be built in the Citi Field parking lot, though Willets Point is always a possibility as well if New York City follows through with its redevelopment plans. The bigger question — who would pay for it — Wilpon and Newsday left undiscussed.
If nothing else, anyway, this gives Wang some added leverage on his move threats to kick Nassau County into approving his plans there. And who knows, maybe Wilpon is just doing his fellow owner a favor by tossing out some red meat to the tabloids — though right now it's not like his team doesn't have its own ways to get itself into the paper.
November 17, 2009
Silverdome sold for less than a studio apartment in Manhattan
And we have a winner in the Pontiac Silverdome auction: A Toronto-based real estate company won the 34-year-old former home of the Detroit Lions with a bid of $583,000, or just over 1% of what it cost to build originally. Even though the price was low, getting the stadium into private hands was important for Pontiac's financial health, according to Fred Leeb, the city's emergency manager. "Even I have to admit that the number is lower than I would like," Fred Leeb, Pontiac's state-appointed emergency financial manager, told the Wall Street Journal. "But I'm happy that we made the decision. Procrastination was literally costing us millions of dollars."
The names of the Silverdome's new owners weren't revealed, but Leeb did say that they plan on using the dome for a Major League Soccer franchise, as well as a pro women's soccer team. That's a bit odd, given MLS's increasing insistence that its teams play in soccer-only stadiums, but I guess at that price, the Toronto group can afford to buy a stadium that it plans to throw away in a couple of years.
March 26, 2009
Not everyone united on DC stadium plan
The Washington Post reports that the Prince George's County Council's General Assembly Committee voted 5-0, with two abstentions, against the next step in the stadium process. Specifically, the committee voted to recommend opposing state legislation allowing the Maryland Stadium Authority to begin design, site study, and financing work on the proposed new stadium for DC United. This vote is non-binding, and such votes represent "the sense of the Council at that time" according to Council Chairman Marilynn M. Bland.
While other Council members were silent on the reasons for the vote, Eric Olsen took issue with an obscure throw-in part of the plan allowing for new headquarters for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, bypassing the council. According to Olsen, "That is a fatal flaw."
DC United spokesman Doug Hicks appeared bemused. "It's difficult to react to today's vote, as we've not yet spoken to the legislators and don't know what, exactly, they are opposed to."