Giants, Jets hit NFL with $300 million stadium bill Friday, November 03, 2006 BY MATTHEW FUTTERMAN / Star-Ledger Staff Giants co-owner John Mara has told the National Football League his team and the Jets will not build a new, shared stadium in the Meadowlands unless they receive $300 million in funding from the league, according to several NFL owners.Mara's ultimatum, delivered at the NFL owners' meeting in New Orleans last week, comes as the league mulls the Giants' and Jets' controversial application for what has become known as "G-3 funding." The money has helped 10 other NFL teams build or renovate stadiums since 1999, with as much as $150 million in league subsidies for each building.The Giants and Jets have spent months studying how to finance their planned $1.2 billion stadium with or without the money from the NFL, but they have privately concluded the project will be too expensive and risky without the league's support. Publicly, the teams are acting more diplomatically, not wanting to anger or embarrass their fellow owners as they seek their support.In a statement, Alice McGillion, a spokeswoman for the joint stadium venture, said the teams' application for G-3 funding is "going through the normal review process and we expect to be able to work through any related issues. We are anxious to move forward and we are not considering any other alternative."Mara and Jets owner Woody Johnson declined comment for this story and other owners declined to be identified to avoid breaking the league protocol against discussing specific internal disputes.The teams' difficulty in securing league funding has caught state officials off guard.Former Gov. Richard Codey, who engineered the deal for the stadium last year, first with the Giants and later with the Jets, said when the teams and the state agreed to move ahead with the project it was not contingent on $300 million from the NFL.However, at the time, the teams expected the stadium to cost $800 million to $900 million. Now, with prices for labor and construction materials rising, the teams expect the stadium could cost as much as $1.3 billion, and the NFL funding has become vital. "The commissioner's office was always behind this, so I'm still hopeful it's going to happen," Codey said this week.In part, the planned 80,000-seat stadium at the Meadowlands is becoming a victim of its expected success. With 200 luxury suites, 10,000 premium club seats and a naming rights deal that will likely produce as much as $20 million a year, the new stadium is expected to produce more than $100 million a year in gross revenues for each team, and $22 million in profits.Since 1999, NFL owners, who share much of their revenues, have helped subsidize construction of stadiums by giving up the visiting team's one-third share of club seat receipts in the new buildings. Funding has been limited to $150 million for each facility, but since the Giants and Jets will share this stadium, they want $300 million.The potential problem for everyone -- except the Giants and Jets -- is the money the stadium generates goes into the pot of the NFL's total football revenues. Under the new collective bargaining agreement with the Players' Association, the players receive 59 percent of the total football revenues.When the revenues go up, so do the players' salaries and, according to the league's projections, the new stadium's expected success will force teams to spend an additional $2 million a year on salaries each year from 2010, when the stadium is expected to open, until 2024.So, for example, a small-market team such as Buffalo could see its expenses rise significantly even though its revenues don't get much of a bump."The discussion going on is about whether G-3 should be extended or revised and what should the stadium finance program be going forward," said Greg Aiello, the NFL's chief spokesman.Reached at his home in Dallas yesterday, Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt said the Giants-Jets application presents a conundrum for the league. "The facts and figures seem to show that maybe there's been a disparate effect -- that the beneficiaries are the teams seeking the G-3 and the players, while the others, in this case 30 or 31 teams, are penalized -- not intentionally -- by a major increase in the player aspect of it without proper credit given."Hunt said the NFL may have to return to the bargaining table and seek concessions from the Players' Association because "for us to go blindly ahead with a project that's going to hurt the other 30 teams would not be the way to go."Both the Giants and Jets have approved every other G-3 application that has come before the league the past seven years. G-3 applications must receive support from three-quarters of the league's owners. In addition, the Giants' decision to give up their lucrative local television rights 40 years ago and enter into a national television contract with the other franchises is credited with making the NFL the cash cow that it is today. Now the team, as well as the Jets and state officials, are hoping the Giants receive the same support they once gave."I would hope everyone recognizes having a first-class, premiere facility for these two franchises as a flagship for the league would be beneficial for every team owner," said Carl Goldberg, chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, the state agency that operates the Meadowlands.
Wouldn't it be funny if the deal in NJ does NOT work & they end up building a stadium in NY but still have to move to the new training facility in NJ ?
Are you kidding me. The costs of this effort are already spiraling out of control, and this is with two teams splitting the costs and putting it in NJ. Could you imagine the real costs of the Jets moving on their own to Manhattan. IMO, that was a pipe dream from the beginning and was dependent on an exorbitant amount of public funds. But hey, that is old news and I've moved on....
I know cost and infrastructure add up and the new football stadium will have about double the capacity... but how come the new Mets Stadium is only costing 450 million to build and this new Meadowlands "Mara Stadium" is topping 1 billion. All in all this is another adventure in the life of a JETS fan
I believe its because Baseball stadiums arent as big as football staduims. And yes Size does matter :up:
Yeah, football stadiums are twice the size of most baseball stadiums, but the price of steel and concrete has soared the last couple of years for various reasons. I expect the costs of the new Shea to rise as well....
So here is where all the guys who hate the idea of the Jets playing in NJ go posting about how stupid of an idea it is and how it is such a slap in the face of the fans, even though the Jets did everying possible to get an NY stadium. Go ahead, get your hopes up.... again.... lol.
That's not true, though. They did everything possible to get a Manhattan stadium. Woody didn't even consider Queens. It's actually kind of funny, because Queens hosts quite possibly the greatest sporting event in the world every year, and that's the US Open. It makes Jets games at the Meadowlands look silly. This year we ate 2 pound lobsters at the restaurant bar in between the day and evening sessions. But no, Queens isn't good enough for Woody. Know what? F him, I'm glad he's bald. Keep wearing your cap, Woody.
I don't think they did everything possible. They didn't really start to talk about the stadium until their lease deadline with NJ was coming to an end. Obviously you just don't decide one day to build a billion dollar stadium, it takes time and the Jets didn't give themselves enough time. When given the deadline by NJ, they panicked into not even being half owners and went ahead with the deal. Not a bad thing, but I'd have liked to see them in NY. I'm guessing it is expensive because of the open/close top they are putting on it, but I don't know much about it, so maybe not. They are trying to make it pretty state of the art though.
Here we go again. Building a stadium in Queens would have been a stupid financial move when compared to NJ. This has been beaten to death on these forums. They had everything in place for a Manhattan stadium. They had it all done in enough time. It got to a vote. The Jets had everything in place. It was killed by CABLEVISION. Blame them. Not the Jets. Not Woody.
Well, to be fair, I never really talked about it on the other threads. The Jets had everything in place and they KNEW people would fight them, it happens everywhere you go. I live in a town in MD where they are fighting them putting a Wal*Mart in. They knew it would be voted on and they might lose, but it isn't over if you lose once, you retool, reset, restart and go for it again, but with the lack of time, they couldn't. Either way, its over now, I agree, and I think they build the stadium in NJ, which will be an awesome site, I'm sure.
LOL. That was awesome. A serious question though: Anyone with more knowledge of the league's rules or this whole situation, feel free to correct me, but does the NFL have any reason whatsoever to approve this funding? I know some people have said that if we're sharing a stadium anyway, there's no reason to build a new one. Seems like this argument would make sense to the league, too; if I'm getting the article right, the NFL would be paying $300 million to help offset construction costs, but the money they'd get from the new stadium would not be significantly higher than what they get from the current stadium--and certainly not enough to make up for $300 million. It looks to me like the only reason the other owners would support this is a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" philosophy, since we and the Giants have voted for all of these loans in the past 7 years. But in terms of sheer dollars and cents, it doesn't seem to make sense for the league to approve it. Or am I way off base?
