here you go, I just sent it off The purpose of this letter is to express my support of the bill proposed by Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone banning ?personal seat licenses? from being levied in New Jersey. As you may know the New York Giants have proposed a personal seat license program in which season ticket holders will be forced to pay an exorbitant cost in order for the right to purchase season tickets. The New York Jets have also announced that a similar plan is forthcoming This charge ranges from $1,000.00 per seat to $20,000.00 per seat and is in addition to the price of the actual tickets. The team has claimed that the new stadium construction is 100% over budget and as a result they are implementing these fees. At the very least the teams should provide an accounting of these cost overruns they are citing, as they defy belief. Current long term ticketholders who?s seats are certain areas of the stadium will be faced with an $80,000.00 bill to stay where they are. The possibility also exists that many people who have tickets located in the $1,000.00 zone will lose their seats to people looking for a less expensive option. I am currently a Jets season ticket holder, and this is an issue that is very important to me as I look forward to years of attending games with my sons.
A couple of things. First, The NFL works hand in hand with DircTV on the price of Sunday Ticket. It's all about maximizing revenue. When the price rises, the NFL has given its blessing. Second, Dish Network wants nothing to do with a premium sports package. That consumer is not their target audience. They still don't even carry the YES network. The are not willing to put up the cash outlay to acquire the rights to the Sunday Ticket. The bidding will be interesting on the next contract. The biggest nugget for DirecTV is the exclusivity. They paid a premium to be the only provider. No single cable company can be a an exclusive provider as none of them have coverage in every area of the country. So, will every cable provider put up the same money to get the package? It's easy to say get the ticket on cable, but that can be complicated. What happens if Cablevision passes? Then a lot of New York folks will still have to use DirecTV. The other issue for cable is capacity. Because the systems nationwide were built piece meal, they are not the same. they have different capacity and quality issues. If the capacity is not there to carry the full slate, the NFL is not going to allow them to pick and choose which games they show each week.
Excellent letter, Screed. May I inject a couple of things? 1) I inserted a couple of typos and punctuations in bold. Not being critical at all of the body of the letter, which I think is fantastic. Just my opinion as to "cleaning it up" a bit more. 2) I believe it reads easier if there are a couple of paragraph breaks, so I suggested those above also. To take this whole idea of Screed's a step further, I would also like someone to research a list of all NJ Assemblymen and maybe furnish a list of which ones to write to depending upon where you are from in NJ. I'm not very good at that sort of political thing, but perhaps someone out there has access to a list of names and addresses or works in Trenton, etc. We could get the ball rolling on a large scale if we can come up with a mailing list of where to send the letters. Thanks again Screed... great letter. Anyone else who wants to draft their own, please feel free to post it as an "example letter" here as well.
Thanks for your kind words, I appreciate the comments, I was typing this while I was doing something else so... There is a website that allows you to click on your town and it gives you a list of your representatives. The page with your represenatives has an option to send an email to one or all of them. There are a series of options there. It takes all of 2 minutes to send the letter. I cant post links yet, so I will have to bastardize the link, but you should get the point. WWWWWnjleg.state.nj.us/districts/municipalities.asp
Well for sure I would have loved to hear the program you refer to but living in Texas well U know the rest. Certainly on a radio program NYGs fan would be pissed. Is not everyone when they have to spend unnecassary money such as for PSLs so they can watch a FB game? The keyer question would be how many of those POed NYGs fans are out that there that would be willing to contribute to a "suit" fund to sue both the NYJs & NYGs. IMHO when push came to shove they will duck into the nearest foxhole rather then pony up money to fight the owners. They will most probably say it is not worth it & so they will move on & watch the games on TV. Also someone ought to check when NJ elected officals next meet & my guess would be Jan 09 which would make the PSLs are foregone conclusion so writing to your rep would have no value
I think the best bet is the Jets not getting the money they want, even if they are allowed to ask for it.
It'll be interesting to see what the Jets come up with. I'm not buying into the Giants' explanations of why they're doing this and the reasons why the numbers are so high. In fact, I'm one who thinks the Giants didn't do very much math at all (cost calculations) to back into the numbers. They appear to have loaded the numbers up front based on what they think the traffic will bear. Their prices are too pat... too even. Nice round numbers like $20,000, $10,000, $7500, etc. It's almost as if they picked these numbers out of thin air. Out of their asses is more like it. If I were Woody Johnson, I'd give this a TON of thought, including the current economy and the fact that the Jets went 4-12 last year. The Jets are not the SB Champion NY Giants at this point, and quite frankly, don't have anything except a supposedly upgraded team (on paper) to show us there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Woody could come across as a very classy owner and earn a great deal of respect in the NY area if were to first come out with a complete cost-analysis breakdown of what his costs will be versus estimates of what the off-sets to these costs will be (income from cornerstone contributors, naming rights, concession profit estimates, parking revenue, upscale restaurant income, sales of box seats, wearing apparel and merchandise, etc. Then offer these numbers to the public and present a much more believable plan than Mara and Tisch presented. Give the fans an accounting of what the hell is going on and, if there's a deficit, show the fans how you intend to make up for it with more reasonable PSLs and ticket prices. I'd also try to explore more creative financing plans for his half of the stadium to try to get around the 5-year payout bullshit. It's possible to do this, believe me. There are lenders out there who will jump at the chance to work a customize a deal for such a franchise. Mara used the excuse about how tight the lending markets are right now, especially with banks foreclosing, etc. Give us a break and quit insulting our intelligence. Yes, the markets are tight right now for homeowners with credit scores of less that 650! These are two premier NY teams with a new stadium, a rail head to bring in all the customers you'd ever want, 5-star restaurants with which to generate all kinds of income, a captive audience, etc., etc. This is a business plan that would make even Microsoft or Google jealous! As Carton said the other day, the business plan basically allows the Jets and Giants to print their own money going forward! So don't insult the intelligence of the public by claiming you're in the same boat as some poor slob working for the Sanitation Department trying to refinance his home so he can make mortgage payments. The comparison is ludicrous! No... Woody can come out of this with pride and dignity (and tons of respect) if he approaches this thing by first exploring every avenue of deflecting the huge up-front costs, instead of merely passing them on to his loyal fans, like the despicable Mara and Tisch are attempting to do.
Somebody posted that the tix are late this year because so many tix holders already opted out & those that were on the wait list also seem not to much in a hurry to sign up. If that report is correct then your suggestion of withholding the funds sounds like a logical way to go. In my case as posted earlier my son & I decided that Woody will not get penny one from us for PSLs
We have no real way of knowing how many ticketholders have opted out, but I have seen evidence right here in this board of those on the wait list seeming, as you put it, "not too much in a hurry to sign up." There were a few guys that posted queries about what to do because theri number had come up and they had to make up their minds. Some have opted for the one-year delay or postponement. A year or two ago, your would have never seen this. Guys would have jumped at the chance to get their Jets tickets. I'm sorry to say that the Giants are probably not having these "problems" that the Jets are having... there are something like 173,000 (is that number correct?) Giants fans on the waiting list and especially after they've just won the SB, I doubt there are any who will be postponing their chance to become Giants season ticketholders.
I was thinking this too. Who wouldn't lend money to the Maras, Tisches or Johnsons? Unless the whole lending industry has dried up, which it hasn't, it's an outright bullshit excuse.
Damn straight it is. There are lenders, financiers and money brokers on Wall Street whose only job it is to put together all kinds of packages for projects exactly like this, I don't care how big the project is. They have access to private investor groups and Real Estate Investment Mutual Fund managers, for example, with billions in cash money just licking their chops at a chance to finance a project like this. I don't know what the credit ratings of the Jets and Giants are, but it's easily found out. Projects like this are financed all the time at much more favorable terms than five-year payouts for quality borrowers with excellent balance sheets like these teams carry. And especially if they present a business plan that is basically a f*cking ATM machine, which is what this will be. Two NFL franchises in the greatest city in the United States... New York... with all those huge numbers of customers and fans you can draw on... all the revenue that produces.. all the companies chomping at the bit to buy into the "cornerstones" and the naming rights and advertising on the marques? Mara should be ashamed of himself for even going there... playing the "poor man" card and attempting to sell his hardship case as if he's having trouble with financing...using that as an excuse to pawn the entire 5-year load off on his loyal fans that were with his father through thick and thin when he was in f*cking diapers. This is pure greed... nothing else. As Carton said, 5 years from now it's all paid off on the backs of the ticketholders and the Giants have the world's largest money press and ATM machine at their disposal. He must really think his Giants fans are pretty stupid.
Hold on, Champ. Don't go sending in any cancellation notices just yet. We all need to let this play out. I don't think this is as etched in stone as people think it is. First off, Mara has sent out his notices to his 50-yard line people already, the $20,000 PSL folks. It's going to be interesting to see what their response is going to be. He's basically given them an ultimatum... "You have 30 days to decide. Send in 20% or lose your seats." What if he gets a 6-7% response rate? Secondly, the Jets are curiously quiet about this. I think time is on our side in that regard too, because if the Jets had already decided to go with the cockamamie Mara program, they would have just jumped in and said, "Us too!" Woody didn't. And every day that goes by tells me something is being worked on in Mr. Johnson's office. Woody Johnson is no stranger to high-finance projects and the world of commercial lending/borrowing. There are huge assets off-shore, for example, entitiies willing to lend billions of dollars.. Arab emirate money, for example. And the value of the dollar right now is shit... worst level in decades practically. If you're in Europe or the Middle East, and you invest in anything in the U.S. right now, you're investing at $.50 on the dollar. Not to mention the power of the the Johnson name as it relates to J&J. Johnson and Johnson has an S&P and Moodies credit rating equal to the best in the business world... as good as Microsoft, Walgreens, WalMart (probably better than WalMart), etc. You don't think that having the Johnson name (or the J&J name) as guarantor on a lousy $800 Million loan for a stadium with this kind of revenue doesn't attract attention from some supreme lenders around the world, eager to get in on this kind of investment? Call me naive, but there is still a chance (I know... a slim one) that Woody comes out with some kind of program that works for all of us. That's why I believe time is on our side... because nothing has yet been announced. Suppose the Jets come out and say, "We've succeeded in getting the financing in place that we need for our half ($800 Million) of the project. Although we appreciate the offer from the NFL for their $150 Million loan which would be payable in 5 years, we have secured funds from off-shore investors and others which equal the entire loan amount of $800 million. This loan is a 25-year loan and enables us to spread out the debt while still enjoying an excellent revenue stream from all sources availabile to us as a result of the new stadium. As such, our current ticketholders will remain in their current seats and will be assessed a PSL in the neighborhood of $2,000 per seat. We feel this is fair to the NY Jets organization and also to our loyal fans who have so patiently waited all these years for a championship."
sec 227...this would be a dream come true. And I know that you and I are in the same boat here...In sheer disbelief that something like this could come about? Now Champ has voiced his displeasure, but he seems to think that boycotting the Jets is the way to go. Lets think about this...why are we on this site?? Because we all sleep, breathe, and bleed Green and White!! Why else would we waste our time on here, unless we loved the JETS?? Unless we loved going to games, loved our sections, loved seeing the Jetolands on the horizon as we made our way into the parking lot, loved our tailgate section, loved the walk into the stadium (as we proudly looked at our gate, and section), loved the Jets sprinting onto the field, and loved the spectacle of the game! We love being fans!! We love our team! Now I don't know Champ at all...but he seems to have the attitude that PSL's are it, and he is out. He doesn't like the bitching and moaning...He seems to think that it is what it is, and we have to deal with it. But HE IS OUT. Well you know what...I DONT WANT TO BE OUT! I love going to the games, I love supporting our (lets say for lack of a better word...meager) team. And this is why I voice my hatred at these outlandish prices. Not only just PSL's, but ticket prices. I think it's easy to say "OH, JUST FUKIT!! I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS!". But you know what...we have all dealt with the pain, and the suffering for 30 some years now...So there is no reason we shouldn't fight this. And who is to know that someone in the Jets front office isn't reading these posts, and reporting them?? I think that might be a bit far fetched, but then again, who knows?? So when I agree with Champ, that we should just disband, and give up...I want to fight for this. Because we all love this team, and experience when we gather for 8 magical weekends in the Meadowlands. I want to see this through, and I want to see what Woody has to say. I hope to God that someone is reading, because we deserve better. And like I said, I don't know you at all Champ. And I am not taking shots at you...But you know why you're on this site. You BLEED GREEN AND WHITE!
For what it's worth, my name was called, and I was offered FIELD LEVEL seats.. So I think a lot of people opted out
What I don't understand is that by the costs going 100% over estimates how is it that they don't have a roof to go over it which would bring a super bowl which would more than make up for these "costs"
i was offered uppers.. called up and was pissing and moaning about how they were crappy seats, and they offered me 4 together on the field, so I took them
for a year, well a month j/k that speaks volumes to me about how not even the implementation of psls but the idea of the implementation of psls is affecting things. to imagine that they didnt happen how many people may have really jumped the gun. i am confused about the 100% over that they are talking about, i dont ever remember it being talked about for less than 1.3 bill. or am i wrong and it was originally thought of as 800 mill together? or did they plan for 1.3 and now its costed 2.6? yeah it sure as hell would be nice to get a detailed accounting of monies rather than the bs lies that appear to be coming out right now.
