It’s been a bad couple of days for the proposed New York Jets stadium on Manhattan’s West Side, which has come under attack not just from local community activists and New Yorkers upset at the $4 billion pricetag, but from two more powerful local interests: the New York Times, and Cablevision, owners of Madison Square Garden.
Yesterday, the Times editorialized that the stadium “is starting to look more like an expensive albatross,” and suggested it be cut out of the proposed Hudson Yards project and perhaps built on cheaper land in Queens. Now comes word that to placate Cablevision, the Jets have agreed to redesign their proposed stadium to rule out its use for arena-sized events, thus avoiding any potential competition with the nearby Madison Square Garden.
As Brian Hatch notes at NewYorkGames.org: “Will the Jets still pay $800 million? Their contribution went up from around $300 million to $800 million at the same time the arena idea materialized. Without event income from the facility, they may not be able to pay as much into the plan.” One also wonders what this will do to deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff’s one-year-overdue financing scheme, given that the Jets had been promising an economic boost from 150 events a year to be held at the stadium-cum-arena.