March 7, 2005
West Side Stadium Insanity
For better or for worse, there is too much to say about the fight over the MTA railyards on the West Side, the possible home of a West Side stadium for the NJ Jets or just a big commercial-residential development or maybe even a power plant. NJ (Acting) Governor Richard Codey made a point to show how it would only cost $450 million for the Jets to build a new stadium in NJ, versus the $1+ billion NYC plan. The NY Times notes that the NJ overture has put the Mayor on guard, but the Mayor pooh-poohed it, saying it was just a publicity ploy. Gothamist has to agree: Even though the NJ plan might make economic sense, we can understand that the Jets would want their own stadium - we just don't know where, if not in the media capital of the country/world. To make things more complicated, the NFL has suggested that NYC might be Super Bowl country in 2010, if there is a West Side Stadium. And the Post is reporting that Jets owners Woody Johnson may bid to buy the Rangers and Knicks, so Cablevision butts out of the bidding process.
The funniest thing to come out of this is how Bruce Ratner's Brooklyn Nets arena is not a sure thing (in spite of Ratner, the city and the state signing an agreement last week) because there were no other bids on the site and the MTA may pursue an auction. What's crazy for these developers is that it's like the MTA suddenly remembered, "Hey, we can make more money if we put the lots onto the open market." Again, who are the dopes running this agency? And speaking of the Nets, you guys are killing us. Rebuilding, reschmuilding - this is just sad.
Newsday has a look at the possible outcomes of the stadium fight and the Daily News wonders if the Mayor's passion for the unpopular West Side stadium means he has a political death wish.
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What about the possibility of the Jets buying MSG from Cablevision (along with the Knicks and Rangers)?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/287574p-246218c.html
okay.. cablevision buys the jets, moves the knicks/rangers to the stadium.. they get more per seat rev on basketball and hockey, the stadium/arena gets used practically every day (making it a whole lot more useful than a stadium that would only get used 30 or forty times a year) , and they tear down MSG (after 2012), save the post office from looking like something out of Minority Report, build a new Penn from the ground up.. the list keeps going..
If the Jets don't get the stadium, they should move to Los Angeles. Honestly, what kind of city doesn't let its own football team spend a $1 billion of its own money on a stadium? In most cities you're lucky to get a dime out of the team. And this is a stadium that the city and state will make a lot of money off of as a convention center.
I think the rangers and knicks should go to the west side and MSG should be turned into a subway station. Wouldn't it be great to hold the superbowl or World Cup. The Word Cup is the greatest tournement on eart and it should be held in the greatest city on earth