Let me know when you grow a small family run business to the point where 4 owners can retire before they are 50.
Probably the best public funding the Jets would get on a new stadium in Yonkers would be in the form of tax abatements on the stadium and related enterprises for a fixed period of time, likely 20-30 years. Yonkers and the state would both benefit in a huge way from the increase in the local tax base from all the workers employed by the project and then afterwards. They'd get taxes out of the customers in the form of sales tax. The Jets however would get significant tax abatements on the revenues they generated at the stadium and their partners would get the same at the related enterprises. It's a win-win kind of public funding because in return for their initial investment the Jets get a tax-free status for a period of years and recover the investment over time alongside the revenues that the stadium produces. Other sports establishments in NYC proper would have a similar reaction to the one they had about the West Side Stadium project but their ability to foul up the works would be really low over the city line in Yonkers. Particularly with the local pols 100% behind the project because of the boost to the local economy.
To be sure, I was never a fan of a stadium on the west side of Manhattan. The stadium should have been built in Queens, or Yonkers.
And for the record, I'm not a fan of Ebbetts Field II either. Old Man Wilpon built a shrine to Da Bums and had to have his arm twisted to add Met history to the joint. If Cohen had owned the team before CitiField was built, it would look a lot different and probably with a dome.
I feel you totally in regard to this. I'd take a refurbished Shea Stadium over Citi Field for the Mets any day of the week.
Having been to over 50 stadiums across the world. I've yet to set foot in the horrible looking thing that is MetLife. Looks nothing special and just a house for 80,000 people and then leave. World class stadiums feel electric, make you feel like you have great views across a variety of seats. Great transport links which in turn help the outside of the stadium become a centre for trade and events. However, NFL football is 8 games a year, and unless you are turning it into a multi team/sport/event space. There really is little point in spending a fortune for 8 days a year. Sent from my M2007J20CG using Tapatalk
They also added more than one bathroom with 9 urinals for every 24,000 people like Giants Stadium had which is a nice improvement. Outside of that it pretty much sucks balls.
I read the article, and there a few good points there to be sure. He correctly brings up the point about the roof: it should have been done, and I said that as well. However, there are a couple glaring holes in the logic as well. For example, the biggest argument to move is "First and foremost, it is too big. With over 82,000 seats, it will be the largest NFL stadium once the LA Coliseum is retired". He is suggesting 60-65K. That's fine, but attendance this year was 72K. And this is with the Jets winning 4 games, 3d worst record in NFL. If we finally become a good team, we will have 75K+ easily, probably full 82. Also, while I see the point of saving on cost and making fewer seats by never investing in these, once they invested to build extra seats, that money is gone. Now you can accommodate more fans, who actually are coming. Jets have a loyal and large fan base. How can this possibly be a problem now that you spent a little more for extra seats and they are actually being used? That was a point to save some money at the time. Now this point is irrelevant and it is actually good for the fans. IMO it is simply idiotic to site this as "first and foremost" reason to move out. Second point to me is even more idiotic. Because expensive club seats have buffets and people are often inside eating and drinking, it looks as though some stands are empty, which he calls embarrassment. What? He may not know this, but the main reason why they took down old stadium (with same # of seats) instead of just renaming it is because these club seats bring enormous revenue. A lot of corporations use these, and this is bread and butter of the whole scheme to replace Giants stadium with Metlife in the same darn location with same seating capacity. That's why they spent half a bil each with Giants: to get these revenues, which would recoup their investment as compared to paying nothing and keeping old stadium. Finally, the guy is estimating new stadium to cost 3b. I challenge that number to be higher now - given the cost of materials skyrocketing (this article is from 2020). He thinks he can sell Metlife stake to Giants easily. I am not so sure. Giants are paying half the maintenance now and enjoy the stadium as their own for 10 days in the year. Why would they spend half a bil or more plus pay full taxes and maintenance costs to enjoy these same 10 days? Even so, Jets are down 2.5 bil if they build new stadium, and most likely closer to 3.5 bil as constriction costs are up. He thinks it will increase valuation by 1 bil. I am not sure it will, but even if it does, you are down 1.5 bil at least. That's about half of current valuation. It's like each point Ira makes is more idiotic than the last businesswise. Sorry to keep this long, but analyzing this with slight scrutiny, it does not take Warren Buffet to see that Ira's conclusions make absolutely no sense and is complete idiotism. Don't hire this guy as your financial advisor, that's all I gotta say about that.
It was my first ever visit to ML and my first Jets game in several decades and although the game was interesting, the rest of the "experience" was not. The PA announcer had given me a headache by halftime as he says the same several things over and over REALLY LOUD. I do plan on making a trip this year to Citi Field just to experience it. I've been to a lot of ball parks and most do try to maximize the ambiance of the team, the city its in, all of it. I'm not sure even if the Jets win, the stadium experience would be improved as it just doesn't "feel" welcoming at all. Hard to quantify but that's the reality of it. It will never be Wrigley Field and I get that.
I gotta say, they did a great job with Citi Field IMO..... aside from the the Dodgers / Jackie Robinson shrine as you walk in. As great of a man as he was, the whole thing is a bit bizarre. Great memories as a kid at Shea, but this ballpark is alot nicer.... especially when theyre doing shitty and you can walk around with a beer and still see most of the game btw, my family has a "brick" out front
I do a lot of work in stadiums for my job so I’ve been to a bunch around the country. The one and only area MetLife stacks up to others is concessions. There’s some really good food in the stadium. From your standard hot dogs and chicken fingers to speciality stuff like Asian fusion. And that’s about where MetLife peaks. Location is shit, it’s ugly, there’s no charm or character to it whatsoever, navigating the parking lots intertwined with multiple local roads is a shitshow… there are very little redeeming qualities.
As a new member you might enjoy looking through 17a New Stadium Tour - PSL's, NEW STADIUM STUFF GO HERE over in the Jets Experience section. We began pointing out the problems before it even opened. I even contacted the contractors to find about the planning for the escalators and elevators. Obviously I was very disappointed in the lack of them. Shea had a better system. Glad you pointed out the lighting-lie. At the time they said it would be like the soccer stadium in Germany that can totally change colors depending on the team playing there. Instead the lighting is about equal to what I string up outside my house for St. Patrick's Day. Joe Nolan is the PA guy that tries to wake everyone up on 3rd down. As annoying as it's gotten, it's not even original - he was doing it at Rutgers home games long before that. For some reason it didn't seem AS annoying in Piscataway,
Thanks for the info - and yes - the bullshit faint exterior green lighting was the final straw for me, as you said, the both of us could fashion a brighter green hue on the outside of our own homes.
A Jets stadium on the West Side of Manhattan would have been tiddys. Mark Davis may look like Lloyd Christmas on acid, but he got that shit done. Real estate prices are just too damn high in your area I suppose. Even for billionaires. I won't even mention the politics because let's just not talk politics in here. If you know what I'm saying and I think you do.
To be fair, I visit them for a different type of event. The company I work for holds stadium shows a couple times throughout the year. But I have seen Jets games at some of them. Minnesota - freakin awesome. Place is beautiful, centrally located in the city, tunnels connecting all the buildings in the city that lead to the stadium so when it’s 2 degrees you can walk indoors. Only thing I didn’t like was no real tailgate options since it’s in the city. But there are tons and tons of bars and restaurants nearby. Cleveland - sounds crazy, but it’s true. It’s a hunk of shit but it feels like it’s a hunk of shit for a reason. It’s right on the lake which is awesome for fall games, there’s a shipyard (or maybe a train yard I can’t remember), so its got charm. Also very very easy to get to. Dallas - I mean no explanation necessary NOLA - older stadium but location location location. Id put it on the lower end of nice. Nashville - stadium is a straight up dump but the surrounding area is amazing. Broadway with music, bars and food galore and the stadium is walkable from all of it. Other side of that coin… places like Tampa and Miami suck. Tampa really has no redeeming qualities as a city in general and no one cares about NFL football in Miami and their stadium reflects it. Next up… Lambeau
Someone needs to tweet Elon. See if he can build us a floating, $10B stadium. Tell him it's Mars related or needed to ensure free speech in the NFL. Seriously, how do TWO nfl franchises team up for a cheap, bland air conditioner of a stadium? Can you even imagine the uproar if they tried to get away with this AFTER SoFi or the Radiers stadium? They were too fricken cheap to even put a retractable roof on it.
