Jets Stadium

[New Jack City]

NY POST

JAVITS MAKEOVER

By ANDY GELLER

November 3, 2003 -- The Javits Center is planning a $1.5 billion expansion that will double the exhibit space and add a grassy rooftop park, a new report says.

The expansion would also add a fifth-floor ballroom overlooking the Hudson River and a 40-story hotel, Crain's New York Business says.

Political, business and community leaders agree that expanding the center is crucial to the Big Apple's economy, the weekly says.

The Javits Center has dropped to 14th in exhibit space nationwide and is too small to accommodate 43 of the largest 200 conventions.

Meanwhile, new centers are going up in Washington and Boston.

But financing the expansion remains a problem, Crain's says.

While the center is controlled by the state, the Pataki administration has always insisted that the city pay a big portion of the cost of the project, and the state and city aren't close to reaching an agreement.

The center now runs from West 34th to 39th streets between 11th and 12th avenues.

Under the expansion, there would be a new building that would run to 42nd Street. The new building would be five stories high, one more than the existing structure.

Exhibit space would nearly double to 1.3 million square feet. Meeting space would increase tenfold, to 300,000 feet.

The hotel would be built at the corner of 42nd Street and 11th Avenue on land owned by developer Larry Silverstein, who holds the World Trade Center lease.

Javits officials say Silverstein is willing to sell.

[huaiwei]

40-storey hotel?? Any renderings to show so far? ;)

[New Jack City]

A New York State of Mind for the Jets

The NFL franchise is set to announce a $1 billion Manhattan stadium that the Big Apple hopes will ultimately help land the Olympics

The Jets are flying back to New York. The National Football League team that has been playing across the Hudson River in Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., for 19 years is expected to announce in the next two months that it will build a $1 billion, retractable-dome stadium on Manhattan's West Side, BusinessWeek has learned. The stadium would be a big boost to New York's bid to host the 2012 Olympics.

Under owner Robert Wood "Woody" Johnson IV, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ ) fortune, the Jets will pay for the bulk of the project, with taxpayers footing a still-undetermined bill for infrastructure, including transportation upgrades. The new stadium, which will also serve as a convention center and arena, will be built on a platform to be constructed over Midtown rail yards between Penn Station and the Hudson River on Manhattan's West Side. The NFL would provide some financing through a special loan program for new stadium construction.

SUBWAY DELIVERY. A proposal for a West Side stadium was first trumpeted by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in the late 1990s, when the New York Yankees were threatening to abandon the Big Apple. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was less enthusiastic at first but, along with Governor George Pataki, he has since embraced the idea, hoping it will help win the Olympic games and even possibly a Super Bowl. The International Olympics Committee will vote on the site for the 2012 games in 2005.

City officials have estimated that such a complex could eventually generate $2 billion a year in new tax revenues. Nearly 70% of those attending Jets games would use public transportation to get to the stadium, according to economic development officials.

Spokespersons for the Jets, Bloomberg, and Pataki declined to comment about an announcement, but sources say Jets President Jay Cross, hired in 2000 to help get a stadium deal done, has made great strides in recent months. Cross helped the National Basketball Assn.'s Toronto Raptors and the Miami Heat build new arenas. A Manhattan stadium announcement could come before the end of the NFL season in January, say sources.

ONE RING. The Jets would play their first season in Manhattan in 2009 under the plan. The team's lease at Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands complex expires in 2008. The Jets earlier this year opted out of participating in a $300 million renovation of that stadium.

Struggling this year with a 3-6 record, the Jets made the American Football Conference playoffs last year, but have made only one Super Bowl appearance -- a dramatic victory in 1969 -- in their 40-year history. Under owner Johnson, the team now hopes a return to Gotham will change the course of history.

http://www.pbase.com/image/23288633/original.jpg

[3tmk]

I heard that it was going to be an extension of the Javits center:
2012 website (http://www.nyc2012.com/home/index.html)

[Agglomeration]

If it's built the new Giants Stadium will stand south of the Javits Center, along 34th Street. There is talk of the Javits Center expanding northward as well as southward.

[GreatSky]

This will be a wonderful addition and will prove to be a great boost on the city's economy. By the way, what will they do with the old stadium?

[3tmk]

don't the Giants use it? as well as the metrostars

[Wu-Gambino]

Are the Nets going to NYC?

[Gulcrapek]

Nobody knows yet. Bids have been submitted from Newark, LI, and Brooklyn..

[Philip Cronin]

Originally posted by savethewtc

he has since embraced the idea, hoping it will help win the Olympic games and even possibly a Super Bowl.



The superbowl is a bigger honour than the Olympics:? :rotf:

[New Jack City]

Originally posted by Philip Cronin

The superbowl is a bigger honour than the Olympics:? :rotf:

The Superbowl is always played in city which has a warm climate during the winter, and there's been a big debate about that. That's why the article said and even the superbowl, since NYC has cold winters.

[New Jack City]

Originally posted by huaiwei

40-storey hotel?? Any renderings to show so far? ;)

Nope, no renderings so far.

NEWSDAY

Fields: Expand Javits Center Now

By Bryan Virasami
November 16, 2003

Expanding the Jacob Javits Convention Center can't wait, Borough President C. Virgina Fields contended Sunday.

Fields called on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki to accelerate a $1.5 billion expansion plan that includes a hotel and more convention space on the far West Side.

Fields said the center should become a top priority of the mayor and should be financed with Liberty bonds, which were aimed at helping the city rebuild after Sept. 11, 2001.

"We need to be able to create jobs," Fields said.

A graphic displayed by Fields showed that New York ranked 18th in convention center available space, ahead of only Detroit and San Francisco in the top 20.

She stressed that the Javitz Center loses out on many large conventions because it's not large enough to compete with other cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago or Las Vegas, with their large and up-to-date venues.

Jennifer Falk, a mayoral spokeswoman, said, "The mayor is firmly committed to the expansion of the Javits Center and we're aggressively moving forward with our plans for the far West Side."

Falk said none of the projects included under a proposal to redevelop the far West Side, such as extending the No. 7 train line, are holding up the Javitz expansion plan.

Earlier this year, officials announced some details of the far West Side plan, such as a football stadium, hotel and the extended subway line. Officials are hoping the stadium and other components will help the city win the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Fields spoke during a news conference in front of the center's 11th Avenue entrance along with Queens Assemb. Brian McLaughlin, president of New York City Central Labor Council.

"We want every convention we can possibly get here because that means jobs, jobs, jobs," McLaughlin said. The proposed new design, said Fields, would double exhibit space, and add a fifth-floor ballroom and large hotel near 42nd Street.

She quoted NYC & Company officials' estimates that such an exppansion would bring about $1 billion in visitor spending and $100 million in city/state taxes.

[bagel]

NY Times

November 29, 2003
Jets Stadium in Manhattan Moves Closer, but Issues Remain
By CHARLES V. BAGLI

State and city officials say they are inching toward a tentative agreement with the owners of the New York Jets to split the $1.5 billion cost of building a new football stadium over Manhattan's West Side rail yards.

An announcement could come as soon as January, the officials said. Under the terms of what officials said would be a nonbinding agreement, the Jets would pay up to $800 million for a modern riverfront stadium, which would also serve as an Olympic stadium if the city wins its bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The city and the state, in turn, have generally agreed to pay $300 million to $400 million to build a retractable roof, the air-conditioning system and a platform structure over the rail yards on which the stadium would sit.

But lurking beneath the expected announcement are a number of contentious unresolved issues that could delay or even scuttle the stadium project.

There is no agreement on how to pay for the extension of the No. 7 subway line from Times Square to the stadium, which is considered a crucial element of the West Side redevelopment. Nor is there consensus on the size and scope of a related project, the $1.5 billion expansion of the nearby Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, say state and city officials involved in those projects. Proponents of the Javits expansion contend that it is more important than the stadium to the city's economic life.

Finally, the city has yet to release its long-promised financial plan for the transformation of the West Side, including the stadium, an expanded convention center, new zoning for commercial and residential construction and parks and the subway extension, as the cost has climbed to $5 billion from an estimated $2.68 billion. The financial plan would presumably detail how the various projects could be turned into reality without tapping into the state's or city's current revenues, something the city has promised not to do.

"There are a series of questions that have yet to be answered about the financing, phasing and urban design," said Robert D. Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit research and advocacy group for the metropolitan region. "This is the city's most ambitious and important economic development plan in the last quarter century."

Nevertheless, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg dropped broad hints during his weekly radio program just before Thanksgiving that he hoped the city would soon strike a deal with the Jets, just as Business Week reported that a deal was imminent. But in an interview Friday, Daniel L. Doctoroff, deputy mayor for economic development and the founder of the city's Olympic bid committee, refused to set a date for any announcement.

"Progress is continuing to be made on virtually every front," Mr. Doctoroff said. "But this is an incredibly complicated jigsaw puzzle. We want to make sure that we have all the right pieces in all the right places."

In an effort to cut costs, city and state officials are considering scaling back the expansion of the Javits Center and reducing the number of stations on the subway extension, at least in the first phase. Mr. Doctoroff has said that the city's stadium obligation and the subway extension will be financed under a still unreleased plan using tax revenues from new development in the area over the next 30 years.

But the city has several reasons for wanting to move more rapidly on the stadium. The team owners, who have spent $10 million on lobbyists and designs for a stadium, have demanded that the state and the city issue "a letter of intent, or some kind of moral commitment" for the project before the team spends any more money, according to a team executive. The Jets' lease at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, their current home, expires at the end of 2008 and the team wants a home of its own for the 2009 season. That means construction has to begin soon.

Officials say the Bloomberg administration also wants to convey a sense of momentum for its Olympic bid with an announcement about the stadium, which would be used for Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. The International Olympic Committee will not select a 2012 site until the summer of 2005, but competing cities have to show some progress on their plans before then.

"It's important that decisions about the stadium get made fairly quickly," Mr. Yaro said.

The Jets and city and state officials point to the team's $800 million commitment as the largest single contribution toward stadium construction by any professional sports team. But the cost of the proposed West Side stadium is also double or triple that of the new stadiums built in Seattle, Philadelphia and Chicago, which cost $400 million to $500 million, according to the National Football League.

Many economists contend that stadiums are relatively poor public investments because they do little more than enrich the teams. But city and state officials say that the economic value of the Jets stadium is enhanced by its links to the Javits Center, whose site is between 34th and 39th Streets along 11th Avenue, just north of the rail yards. With a retractable roof, the Jets say the stadium could be used for 150 other events a year, including convention meetings and plenary sessions, concerts and other sporting events.

But there still is a great deal of controversy surrounding the stadium, its connection to Javits and other issues related to the West Side plans.

The city's stadium plan and rezoning proposal for commercial and residential development will face almost inevitable legal challenges by community groups and others who oppose the projects. Jerry Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shubert Organization, which owns half the Broadway theaters, has become increasingly outspoken about what he says are the potentially negative impacts of a stadium on the nearby theater district, Times Square and the surrounding neighborhood.

"This is all fantasy," said John Fisher, a member of the Westside Coalition, an amalgam of 35 community groups, referring to the size and complexity of the city's plans.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has said it favors extending the No. 7 line, which would bring office workers and football fans to the West Side and spark development of the relatively low-slung neighborhood. But the agency says it has no money in its capital budget for the project, whose cost ranges from $1.6 billion to $2.3 billion.

Peter S. Kalikow, chairman of the M.T.A., has also made it clear that his agency wants to be compensated for allowing the Jets to build over its rail yards, on the blocks bounded by 11th and 12th Avenues, between 30th and 34th Streets. But in what could be a stumbling block, Mr. Kalikow wants to be able to sell far more development rights from the yards than the city now envisions in its proposed rezoning of the West Side.

But the most public dispute reveals the fault line between stadium supporters and advocates for the expansion of the Javits Center over the pace and priority of their respective projects. It also illustrates the interlocking relationship between the stadium, the convention center and the subway line.

On Nov. 19, the board of the Javits operating corporation passed a resolution stating that the city's and state's current plans for the Javits center were "unacceptable," because they would result in a long delay.

For nearly a decade, the Javits Center's operating corporation and the hotel industry have sought to double the size of the convention center by expanding north to 42nd Street, which they said would generate an additional $600 million a year in convention, hotel and restaurant business. Robert E. Boyle, chairman of the Javits operating corporation, has expressed doubts about how much the stadium could really be used for conventions, and the agency's Web site does not even mention the plans to the stadium.

"The mayor constantly refers to travel and tourism as being an industry that is ripe for growth," said Jonathan M. Tisch, chief executive of Loews Hotels and chairman of New York City and Company, the city's convention and visitors bureau. An expanded convention center, he said, "would be an enormous catalyst to achieve that goal."

State officials tried to quell the uprising, telling reporters that the resolution adopted by the Javits board was unauthorized. They said that the planning and development of the Javits Center would be handled by the center's development corporation, which is headed by Charles A. Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation.

"We could have several alternatives," Mr. Gargano said. "We're working with the governor and the mayor on a plan that will work."

One problem is that the M.T.A.'s Michael Quill bus depot lies in the path of the Javits expansion, on 11th Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets. The M.T.A., which bought and renovated the depot in the mid-1990's for about $120 million, does not want to give up the garage until a new one is built, probably under the stadium platform.

But it now appears that construction of the new $400 million garage cannot start until 2009. That would delay the Javits expansion until the garage is completed in 2013, which infuriates the hotel industry.

One possibility is that Javits would be expanded only to the Quill garage on 40th Street, until a second phase could start sometime in the future, a move that Javits supporters greet with dismay.

"We need to get this built," Joseph E. Spinnato, president of the Hotel Association of New York City, said of the convention center. "This is a moneymaker for the city and the state. But to be held hostage to any other part of the West Side development is not something that we're particularly happy about."

[Uncompahgre]

Originally posted by savethewtc

The Superbowl is always played in city which has a warm climate during the winter, and there's been a big debate about that. That's why the article said and even the superbowl, since NYC has cold winters.

Super Bowl XL in 2006 will be in Detroit, a rather cold town.

[entropy]

Great to see that a team called "New York" will be finally be able to exist in the City.... but the Giants need to get there too, maybe to form a rivalry between 2 boroughs as baseball as done. ANd if I'm not mistaken the Giants are valued more than the Jets are so it is sort of an oxymoron that they aren't the ones moving to the superior central city, even though their stadium is called "Giants stadium".

[New Jack City]

Crains NY

Mayor promises to more than double Javits

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has committed to more than doubling the size of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center—-representing a larger expansion than even the center itself has requested.

The mayor promised the expansion in his State of the City speech on Thursday, touting it as part of his plan to redevelop the far West Side of Manhattan and make it more “business-friendly.” Until now, the biggest expansion that was discussed would have nearly doubled the center’s space. Some Bloomberg administration officials had discussed reducing the size of the expansion, or doing it in phases.

Political, business and community leaders agree that expanding the Javits Center is crucial to the New York economy. Javits is too small to accommodate 43 of the 200 largest events ranked by Tradeshow Week, an industry publication. While the center is state-controlled, the Pataki administration has always insisted that the city pay for a significant portion of any expansion.

In his speech, the mayor also updated his plan to preserve and create 65,000 units of affordable housing in the city, saying that 10,000 new homes are currently in the development pipeline. In a few weeks, he said, he will launch a multimillion-dollar, public-private partnership that will develop up to 10,000 units of affordable housing on cleaned-up brownfields throughout the city.

[New Jack City]

Another rendering of the stadium designed by KPF:

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/01/14/arts/olym.1.583.jpg

[Wu-Gambino]

That is an NFL stadium? :puke: Looks like it would fit the Freedom Tower!

[Ed007Toronto]

What route would the No 7 line take?

[Style™]

I like it. For a stadium it looks nice. A skyscraper designed like that is a different story....


Looks great IMO! :)

[New Jack City]

Newsday

Stadium Plan to Be Unveiled

By Glenn Thrush
February 10, 2004

The Bloomberg administration will unveil a plan for financing its massive West Side redevelopment project tomorrow — but the mayor won't be there.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday that he'll spend the day lobbying Congress for an increased share of federal homeland security funding.

"I'm not going to be able to be at it," Bloomberg said yesterday at a news conference in Staten Island. "I'm going to be in Washington to see how we can ... bring home monies for the people of New York City."

That trip is part of a larger push for federal funds: Bloomberg, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Peter Kalikow will kick off a new drive for increased mass transit funding this morning in lower Manhattan.

On Wednesday, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff will unveil bankers' options for funding the expansion of the Javits Convention Center, the westward extension of the No. 7 line and leasing of land for a 80,000-seat stadium used by the Jets and Olympic athletes if the city lands the 2012 summer games.

West side community groups have vowed to fight the stadium in the courts, saying it would increase pollution and destroy dozens of residences.

The city and state will have to kick in at least $600 million for infrastructure improvements, but Bloomberg said yesterday that the Jets' offer to pay for stadium construction makes the deal too good to turn down.

"We can rent it out for eight-odd Sundays a year for somebody that's going to pay us $600, $700, $800 million," Bloomberg said. "This would be the best rental anybody has ever done in the history of the world."

On another economic topic, Bloomberg told reporters he would support a boost in the state's $5.15-per-hour minimum wage, providing he could convince New Jersey, which also has a $5.15 wage, to do the same.

"My great concern is that the whole region goes together," he said. "Otherwise people will move jobs out of the city."

[New Jack City]

Daily News

Jets stadium ready in '07?

By MELISSA GRACE and MICHAEL SAUL

A Jets stadium could be completed in Manhattan as soon as 2007 under an ambitious plan to fast-track major West Side projects, a top aide to Gov. Pataki said yesterday.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corp., also spoke of doubling exhibition space and increasing meeting room space tenfold at the "inadequate" and "outdated" Javits Convention Center.

"There is a significant void in the West Side and that is the Jacob Javits Convention Center," Gargano said in Brooklyn.

Gargano is spearheading the two-phase project, which also includes a controversial stadium for the Jets, whose Meadowlands lease is up in 2008.

The first phase would expand the convention center north to 40th St. and south to 33rd St.

This phase could cost as much as $2 billion in public funds, including about $600million for the stadium. The Jets will spend $800 million on the stadium.

Construction is set to begin in the spring of 2005, and city officials are hoping the stadium will boost New York's chances of winning its bid to host the 2012 Olympics.

Gargano said the stadium is expected to be completed in 2007 - earlier than originally envisioned - and the entire first phase should be finished in 2009.

The second phase would bring the convention center north to 42nd St. and include a premier hotel. This phase will cost about $500 million and wrap up in 2012, Gargano said.

[New Jack City]

Newsday

$2.2B Javits Plan Unveiled
Expansion linked to stadium

By Errol A. Cockfield Jr.
Staff Writer

February 13, 2004

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, Thursday unveiled details for expanding the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and linking it to a planned stadium and convention center for the Jets on Manhattan's West Side.

The proposal would double space at Javits from 745,000 square-feet to 1.53 million square-feet, and add a ballroom, a key attraction for large conferences and meetings. The two projects, side by side, would give the city an enormous corridor for hospitality.

"Let's face it, New York City's convention and meeting facilities have been inadequate for too long," Gargano said, during a luncheon speech in Brooklyn Thursday at the annual meeting of NYC & Company, the city's convention and visitors bureau.the city's convention and visitors bureau.

Gargano said officials would not release a financing plan for the expansion for at least two months, but he projected the cost could reach $2.2 billion.

Officials hope to break ground on the expansion's first phase by Spring 2005, just before the International Olympic Committee will decide whether New York or one of eight other cities would host the 2012 Olympics. The Javits expansion and the proposed Jets stadium are linchpins in the city's Olympic bid.

The center's current footprint stands from 34th to 39th streets, between 11th and 12th avenues. The first phase -- a six year project -- would take it north to 40th Street and south to 33rd Street. The second phase would then extend the convention center north to 42nd Street.

The limitations of the convention center, which opened in 1986, have hurt the city's efforts to draw signature events. Last year, the city lost 63 major events because of the Javits Center's tight size, representing an estimated $1 billion in missed economic activity, according to the convention and visitor's bureau.

Jonathan Tisch, chairman of NYC & Company's board of directors, said the Javits expansion and the new stadium will increase convention space more than tenfold.

"It will allow New York to offer an unparalleled package to attract major events," he said.

His announcement came a day after Daniel Doctoroff, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, released a $2.77 billion plan for a far West Side redevelopment that would feature a stadium and convention center for the Jets football team as its centerpiece.

While the financing for that plan is separate from the Javits expansion, both facilities would be connected. Jets president L. Jay Cross said both will host gatherings depending on an event's size, but attendees will not know the difference.

"It will be seamless," he said. "People will walk back and forth and never be aware they're walking from one building to another."

[New Jack City]

Originally posted by huaiwei

40-storey hotel?? Any renderings to show so far? ;)

From the Javits website:

An On-Site Hotel

It is our intention to have an entrance to the Javits Center on the corner of 42nd Street and 11th Avenue. Above the Center entrance a hotel will be constructed with a 50-story, 1500 room capacity with a direct connection to the Javits Center pre-function space. The artist rendering below shows the hotel on the far north corner of the expanded Javits Center. We see an on-site hotel of this scale giving the city and the Javits Center an enormous asset and a strong competitive advantage.

http://www.javitscenter.com/IMAGES/slide33.jpg

http://www.javitscenter.com/IMAGES/slide11.jpg

http://www.javitscenter.com/IMAGES/slide15.jpg

http://www.javitscenter.com/IMAGES/slide17.jpg

http://www.javitscenter.com/IMAGES/slide18.jpg

http://www.javitscenter.com/IMAGES/slide19.jpg

[New Jack City]

NY1

Mayor Reportedly Considers Raising Hotel Tax To Pay For Javits Center Expansion

FEBRUARY 18TH, 2004

The price of a hotel room in the city could be going up to help pay for changes to the Jacob Javits Convention Center, according to published reports.

The New York Post reports Wednesday that Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to increase the city's hotel room tax to pay for expansion of the Javits Center on the west side of Manhattan.

The report says the Hotel Association of New York City will support the plan as long as the tax is temporary and reasonable. The association says a new and improved facility will be an economic boon to the city.

The cost of expanding the Javits Center is estimated to be $1.4 billion.

According to the Post, the tax would likely add $2 to $3 per hotel room per night.

[New Jack City]

NY Times

Javits Center Expansion Overshadowed by Stadium Debate

March 2, 2004

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

Almost from the day the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center opened in 1986 on the West Side of Manhattan, hotel and tourism executives have lobbied to expand it to attract more conventions and trade shows, and with them the patrons who will book rooms, eat at restaurants and attend Broadway shows.

Eighteen years later, the state and the city are on the verge of announcing a $1.4 billion renovation and addition to the convention center. But that plan is entangled with a proposal to build a $1.4 billion stadium for the Jets between 30th and 34th Streets, on the south side of the center. Both are crucial elements of the city's plans for the West Side and its bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

While the stadium has come under fire from elected officials and West Side residents, as well as Broadway theater owners, the expansion of the convention center has generally received positive reviews. The Jets say they have designed a stadium that would also provide 200,000 square feet of exhibition space usable for conventions.

"The goal is to create one unique competitive convention corridor," Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff said, referring to the plans for the center and the stadium. "It'll be able to compete effectively for any major event, trade show or convention held in the United States."

A new 184-page report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which was commissioned by the Javits Convention Center, indicates that nearly doubling the center's size to 1.34 million square feet would attract half a million more visitors, 18 to 20 new trade shows and conventions, and nearly $700 million in additional business a year. But the report does not mention the stadium, a reflection of political and economic tensions.

Behind the scenes, some Javits executives, hotel executives and trade show producers have questioned how well the stadium would function with the convention center. More broadly, some economists say that the PriceWaterhouse projections may be too optimistic, given that the trade show industry is suffering from an oversupply of space and lower demand.

"The experience in recent years indicates that the expansion of major convention centers doesn't necessarily mean any increase in business," said Heywood Sanders, professor of public administration at the University of Texas in San Antonio. "Convention centers are discounting rates and providing incentives, or literally giving away space for free."

Last month, Charles A. Gargano, chairman of the Javits development corporation, formally announced that the state supported both projects. The cost of the expanded center would be covered by a hotel tax, cash from the city and refinancing of the center's debt.

The PriceWaterhouse report envisions an expansion from 38th Street north to 42nd Street, where there would be a hotel and ballroom, but the first phase would extend only to 40th Street, providing more contiguous exhibition space and 235,00 square feet of meeting space.

In the past, because of its relatively small size and lack of meeting rooms, the center has had difficulty attracting conventions and medical associations, whose attendees spend the most on hotels, restaurants and entertainment. The report shows that annual attendance is down from its peak in 1997, but PriceWaterhouse concluded that the addition would draw trade shows that do not currently come to New York, as well as larger conventions and professional associations. It warned, however, that while many large trade shows and association meetings have a big economic impact, they also bargain hard for discounts.

The center does well despite its size, high labor costs and the city's high hotel rates, the report concludes, because New York is a highly attractive international city in a region with a shortage of exhibition space.

Business leaders like Jonathan M. Tisch, chief executive of Loews Hotels and chairman of the city's convention and visitors bureau, have supported the expansion project because it would put "heads on beds" and draw other tourist business.

Not everyone, however, agrees that the stadium counts as an expansion of the convention space, even though it could be converted into an exhibition hall. Although the stadium has been described by Mr. Doctoroff as "the southern expansion of the Javits," L. Jay Cross, president of the Jets, was more modest.

"We're not saying this is the Javits expansion that they've been waiting for all these many years," Mr. Cross said. "It is a midsize, full-service exhibition hall that will serve as ancillary space for the Javits or stand on its own."

Brandishing letters from two trade show producers, Mr. Cross said there was enough demand from conventions and exhibitions that he could easily book 40 events annually, generating an estimated $38 million in tax revenue. The stadium would be connected to the center by an underground tunnel.

St. Louis is one of only three cities in the country that operate a convention center in conjunction with a stadium. The St. Louis complex, the Americas Center, is connected to a domed stadium by a short hallway. Bruce T. Sommer, its director, said he books 5 to 10 trade shows a year into the stadium, 4 religious conventions and about 5 consumer shows, as well as concerts and other sporting events. "Major trade shows do not like noncontiguous space," Mr. Sommer said. "No matter how you break it up, one piece will be better than another piece."

Among those who are not sold on the Jets stadium as a convention center is George F. Little II, whose company produces 17 shows a year at the Javits center. Mr. Little said a stadium would be no substitute for an expanded convention center, although he might book the stadium for certain events.

Mark Schienberg, president of the Greater New York Auto Dealers Association, said: "The stadium is a good-sized space to work with." But the primary need is to get the Javits expanded as much as possible."

Walter Mankoff, chairman of Community Board 4, whose district covers the West Side, described the stadium as an expensive project that would require $600 million in public subsidies. He said he doubted that it would do much convention business, but argued that it would bring traffic congestion and pollution.

"We do not agree on every detail, but we agree that the convention center needs an expansion and would be extremely helpful to the New York economy," Mr. Mankoff said. "We don't think the stadium is a proper expansion."

But even those who support expanding the center worry that the city is pushing harder for the stadium, which would require state legislation.

The expansion of the convention center is "the single most important public investment that the city and state can make," said Kathryn S. Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City. "If a legislative package is not introduced in the next couple of weeks, we'll lose yet another year in what has been a tortuous, decade-long process."

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/03/01/nyregion/javits.jpg
The Javits Convention Center is represented by light orange, with the proposed Jets stadium, left, and the planned expansion of the center both in darker orange.

[crunch]

Man, this is really impressive. I wish the same could be said for ours in Dallas, but you know, this still won't beat our F exhibit hall, the largest column-free convention space around...I believe the largest in the world!

Ah well. At least yours is awesome.

[New Jack City]

Crains NY

$600 million for Javits expansion

The city and state are proposing to give at least $300 million each to help fund the expansion of the Javits Center, on top of the $600 million they are already planning to give to the Jets for a new stadium.

Jonathan Tisch, head of Loews Hotels, mentioned the capital contribution for the convention center expansion at a Crain's New York Business forum on Tuesday. Charles Gargano, New York state's economic czar, confirmed later that the state and city are planning to pump between $600 million and $700 million into the center expansion.

In addition, the Hotel Association of New York City's executive committee has recommended to the association board that hotels pay an extra, temporary tax of $1.50 per key per night on occupied rooms as part of the private-sector portion of the Javits expansion financing plan, Mr. Tisch said. The committee has stipulated that the money be earmarked specifically for enlarging the center. Other industries would also be expected to provide a portion of revenue, based on consumer use of the expanded facility, according to Mr. Tisch.

[New Jack City]

Crains NY

$600 million for Javits expansion

March 16, 2004

The city and state are proposing to give at least $300 million each to help fund the expansion of the Javits Center, on top of the $600 million they are already planning to give to the Jets for a new stadium.

Jonathan Tisch, head of Loews Hotels, mentioned the capital contribution for the convention center expansion at a Crain's New York Business forum on Tuesday. Charles Gargano, New York state's economic czar, confirmed later that the state and city are planning to pump between $600 million and $700 million into the center expansion.

In addition, the Hotel Association of New York City's executive committee has recommended to the association board that hotels pay an extra, temporary tax of $1.50 per key per night on occupied rooms as part of the private-sector portion of the Javits expansion financing plan, Mr. Tisch said. The committee has stipulated that the money be earmarked specifically for enlarging the center. Other industries would also be expected to provide a portion of revenue, based on consumer use of the expanded facility, according to Mr. Tisch.

[New Jack City]

NY1

Deal For West Side Stadium To Be Announced

[New Jack City]

NY1

Deal For West Side Stadium To Be Announced

http://www.ny1.com/Content/images/live/59/117620.JPG

MARCH 24TH, 2004

The city and state are closing in on a deal to build a new stadium for the Jets on the far west side of Manhattan.

Sources close to the negotiations tell NY1 an agreement will be announced Thursday, though other hurdles would still remain.

The retractable dome stadium is a key part of the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympics, and it would also be part of an expansion of the Jacob Javits Convention Center. The $2.8 billion development plan for the area also includes new office and residential buildings and an extension of the No. 7 subway line.

For the stadium, the city and state would chip in $600 million to build a deck over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s rail yards on the waterfront between 30th and 34th Streets. The Jets would pay $800 million to construct the stadium on top.

The Javits expansion is expected to cost another $1.4 billion. The hotel industry – which would benefit by the city’s ability to attract larger conventions – is expected to chip in $500 million through a $1.50 per night surcharge on rooms.

However, many community groups oppose the stadium, worrying that the development will displace residents and increase traffic and pollution. Other critics say the plan wastes taxpayers’ money.

The project still has to clear several hurdles, including an environmental review and zoning approvals. Parts of deal also need the approval of the state Legislature.

From the NY Times...

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/03/24/nyregion/24stad.l.jpg
New York City and state officials say they will unveil plans tomorrow to build the Jets a 75,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof on the far West Side of Manhattan and to nearly double the size of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center next door.

[New Jack City]

Newsday

Plans for West Side stadium formally announced

The Associated Press

March 25, 2004, 12:46 PM EST

City and state officials announced plans Thursday for a $1.4 billion stadium for the New York Jets that would also anchor New York's bid for the 2012 summer Olympics.

"We will have a home to bring the Jets back from New Jersey, and pro football back to New York City," Gov. George Pataki said in making the proposal official.

Officials also announced plans to nearly double the size of the Jacob K. Javits Center next door.

The Javits Center and the stadium, which is to be called the New York Sports and Convention Center, would together form a "convention corridor" stretching along 11th Avenue from 30th to 40th streets.

The Jets have agreed to spend $800 million on the stadium, but the city and state would have to kick in $600 million for a deck over the existing rail yards and a retractable roof that will allow the facility to be used for concerts and trade shows as well as Jets games.

Despite strong support from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Pataki, the plan faces major hurdles including an environmental review, zoning approvals and likely lawsuits by opponents.

Officials say the Javits Center expansion, which would cost another $1.4 billion, would allow the city to attract larger conventions that now bypass New York for other cities.

The Javits expansion will be partly financed by a $1.50-a-night hotel tax.

The Jets currently share the Meadowlands in New Jersey with the New York Giants. Their lease expires in 2008.

The proposed stadium is part of the city's ambitious redevelopment plan for the far West Side, which also includes extending the No. 7 subway line from Times Square to 11th Avenue and 34th Street.

The new stadium would also be the centerpiece of New York's bid for the 2012 Olympics, serving as the Olympic Stadium for opening and closing ceremonies at the Games, Bloomberg said.

http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2004-03/11962589.jpg
The most recent rendition of the planned west side stadium.

http://www.nynewsday.com/media/photo/2004-03/11952439.jpg
The railyards (lower right) where a proposed New York Jets football stadium will go are shown on the west side of Manhattan.

http://www.nynewsday.com/media/photo/2004-03/11952532.jpg
The railyards where a proposed New York Jets football stadium will go are shown on the west side of Manhattan.

[New Jack City]

Huge rendering:

http://www.newyorkjets.com/stadium/images/nyscc-hires.jpg

[New Jack City]

Newsday...

http://www.nynewsday.com/media/photo/2004-03/11973973.jpg

From Westside Stadium.com: (westsidestadium.com)

http://www.westsidestadium.com/stadium650a32604b.jpg

http://www.westsidestadium.com/stadium650a32604c.jpg

http://www.westsidestadium.com/content/pictures/stadiumafternoon.jpg

http://www.westsidestadium.com/content/pictures/stadiumair.jpg

[New Jack City]

NY1

Miller Has Reservations About West Side Stadium
APRIL 22ND, 2004

City Council Speaker Gifford Miller has finally weighed in on the proposed West Side stadium for the Jets, but he hasn’t made up his mind.

The location doesn't bother him, but Miller said he has some concerns about using $300 million in taxpayer money to fund the project. The speaker said he wants to know whether the money could be better spent on other things, like education.

“The thing I want to be satisfied of before I say it's a good or bad public investment is what exactly it is in the context of other public investments,” Miller said Thursday.

Miller said he supports rezoning the Far West Side to allow new high-rises – something the Council would have to approve before construction begins.

[New Jack City]

NY Times

After City Hall Lobbying, Group Postpones Stadium Vote

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/05/06/nyregion/jets.583.jpg
The site proposed for a 75,000-seat West Side stadium. The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is at lower left.

By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: May 6, 2004

The Regional Plan Association put off a vote on whether to oppose a $1.4 billion West Side stadium after the Bloomberg administration began an intensive lobbying campaign to sway the group's vote.

Fearing that the group was about to become the first major civic organization in the city to take a stand against the stadium, Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff, the Olympic bid committee and the New York Jets started a remarkable counteroffensive this week. The 75,000-seat stadium is an important element of the city's bid for the 2012 Summer Games and would also be the home for the football team.

So after some hot debate yesterday afternoon, the association's board voted to wait.

Board members said the group was prepared to begin a blistering critique of the heavily subsidized stadium, which the group's study paper suggested would "deter rather than attract the large-scale redevelopment" that the West Side needs. The board did not recommend an alternative site in Queens near Shea Stadium, as some had expected.

"We had a very intense discussion about the merits of West Side plans," said Robert Yaro, the president of the association. "At the request of the deputy mayor, we are submitting a series of outstanding questions about the stadium and the West Side project. We will defer action until, probably, June."

Officials with the Jets and City Hall were exultant.

The delay illuminated a behind-the-scenes effort by city officials and others to stifle opposition in business and civic circles, at least until after May 18, when the International Olympic Committee meets in Switzerland to pare its list of candidates for the 2012 Olympic Games.

"We didn't want this done on the eve of the Olympic decision," said one person active in the Olympic bid.

But some supporters of the city's Olympic effort favor putting the stadium in Queens because they fear that opposition to a West Side stadium and potential lawsuits from West Side community groups, Broadway theater owners and elected officials could scuttle the bid.

"My concern is that we'll lose the Olympics because some crazies will sue over the stadium," said one board member whose organization has endorsed the West Side plans. "I'd rather face the music now and go to Queens."

But Mr. Doctoroff and others are also anxious to head off any momentum for the Queens site, which they claim is not feasible. The Jets, which have committed to invest $800 million in the stadium, say they are unwilling to consider anything other than Manhattan.

The city's hotel industry, real estate lobby, convention and visitors bureau and the chamber of commerce have all endorsed the city's effort to bring the Olympic Games to New York, to redevelop the West Side and to expand the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

But privately, leading members of each of the groups say they are reluctant to express their misgivings about the stadium, because they are worried about alienating Mr. Doctoroff, the founder of the city's 2012 bid, who also presides over economic development projects in the city.

Jay Kriegal, executive director of the Olympic bid committee, NYC2012, said that he called members of the plan association to alert them that the organization might take a position in contradicting their support for the Olympics. He said that some members had a host of questions, making him think that the group was making a hasty decision.

Both PricewaterhouseCoopers, a consulting firm, and Merrill Lynch, an investment bank, sent letters to the plan association, objecting to a vote against the stadium.

One board member who got a call from Mr. Doctoroff found it a little intimidating, if unconvincing.

"It didn't change my mind," that board member said. "But whenever somebody like that calls, you have to pay attention because there are serious potential consequences. He makes important business decisions for the city."

Richard Ravitch, a board member and a former state economic development executive, said: "If one's major interest is in the Olympics, why pick a site that rightly or wrongly will be the subject of a great deal of litigation and controversy? It's hard to imagine the International Olympic Committee will base their decision on the location of the stadium."

[CharlieP]

Another rendering of the stadium designed by KPF:

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/01/14/arts/olym.1.583.jpg

Are those twisty things on the roof windmills for generating electricity?

[New Jack City]

Are those twisty things on the roof windmills for generating electricity?

I'm not sure if they're windmills or not, but they seem to be there for environemental purposes, as KPF describes on their website:

The innovative design on Manhattan’s westside will incorporate sustainable design technology through use of solar panels, wind turbines, and hydroelectric technology to not only supply energy to the stadium, but also to the surrounding city grid.

[New Jack City]

Found these...

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/beans/photogallery/images/2004/03/25/4477/8679/Aerial-Looking-North.jpg

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/beans/photogallery/images/2004/03/25/4477/8682/3b.jpg

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/beans/photogallery/images/2004/03/25/4477/8683/4b.jpg

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/beans/photogallery/images/2004/03/25/4477/8685/6b.jpg

The image is of New York City’s Convention Corridor, a historic plan to transform and modernize New York City's convention industry. The Convention Corridor will include the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and the creation of the New York Sports and Convention Center, a new multi-purpose facility that will serve as both a 75,000-seat stadium and a 200,000 square foot exhibit hall - home to the New York Jets, and possibly the 2012 Olympics. The Convention Corridor will generate 42,000 construction jobs and 17,500 new permanent jobs.

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/beans/photogallery/images/2004/03/25/4478/8692/DB7D1799b.jpg

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/beans/photogallery/images/2004/03/25/4478/8693/DB7D1844b.jpg

[New Jack City]

Newsday

Jets release stadium details

May 18, 2004, 2:13 PM EDT

The New York Jets released details Tuesday of their planned West Side stadium, which would feature wind turbines and solar collector tubes to generate much of its own electricity and hot water.

"We envision this as being the greenest building to date," said William Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox, the New York-based architecture firm designing the project.

In addition to housing the Jets, the $1.4 billion stadium would be integral to the city's bid for the 2012 Olympics, which got a boost Tuesday with the news that New York was chosen one of five finalists to host the games.

Pedersen called the Olympic announcement "tremendously exciting" and said, "We feel we have a stadium that sets the right tone for it."

The stadium would be a rectangle bounded by 11th and 12th avenues and 30th and 33rd streets.

Pedersen said its design, which differs from the typical circular or oval stadium, is meant to fit seamlessly into Manhattan's grid.

"It should feel as if it's very much connected into this particular place, and as opposed to a stadium simply looking as if it could be anywhere, like a UFO landing from space," he said.

The south facade of the stadium would contain 25,000 solar collector tubes and the walls would be topped by 34 wind turbines, each 40 feet tall.

Pedersen said the windmills would generate almost all of the energy for the facility when it is being used as a football stadium and about 25 percent when it is being used as a convention and exhibition hall.

The Jets, whose lease at the Meadowlands in New Jersey expires in 2008, have committed to spending $800 million in private funds on the stadium. The city and state would add $300 million each to build a retractable roof and a deck over the existing rail yards.

The project, officially called the New York Sports and Convention Center, would anchor the city's plan to redevelop a large swath of Manhattan's far West Side.

Backers say the stadium would create 7,000 permanent jobs and 18,000 construction jobs and would be a good deal for the city and state. But community groups and many elected officials oppose using tax dollars for a sports facility when schools and city services are facing a budget crunch.

Renderings how the stadium would look during the Olympics:

http://www.westsidestadium.com/content/pictures/olympicsatnight.jpg

http://www.westsidestadium.com/content/pictures/olympicnights2.jpg

http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2004-05/12679280.jpg

[Dash2110]

Yeah, I read about this on Yahoo news earlier today, and I must say, it's looking amazing. It fits extremely well into the whole look of things on Manhattan, and the idea of those windmills supplying nearly all the power during a Jets game is unbelievable! :D

[BigMac]

Newsday
May 26, 2004

Razzle-dazzle on the Hudson

Would Jets stadium revive or ruin the West Side riverfront?

BY JUSTIN DAVIDSON

http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2004-05/12680955.jpg
New York Jets unveil new Olympic Stadium model.

Poll: Should the Jets get a new home on the West Side? (http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/ny-etlede3817944may26,0,946444.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-manhattan&vote12681338=1)

Slide Show: New Jets Stadium (http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/ny-jetsstadium-gallery,0,3222146.photogallery?coll=nyc-manheadlines-manhattan)

To build or not to build - or to build somewhere else? That is the way the question of a West Side stadium for the New York Jets has been framed so far. Depending on which form of grandstanding you subscribe to, the colossal structure would glamorize a tawdry neighborhood and catalyze a decade of development, or it would ruin the waterfront, choke the area in traffic and depress it even more. Some NIMBYs hold that if the Jets must cross the state line from New Jersey, and if Olympic logic requires a new arena in New York City, at least the thing should be moved off this crowded isle: Queens can always absorb another toxic structure, so why not stick it there?

Until now, the fights have mostly been waged over the abstract concept of a stadium, not the specific building designed two years ago by Kohn Pedersen Fox and now significantly refined. That structure looks like a $1.4 billion shoebox: a shiny come-on, glamorous, luxurious, but still, in the end, a box. Granted, this is a very New York shape. Here, the city's street grid extends onto the gridiron, turns skyward and continues 300 feet into the air. Squint a little, and the stadium could be the base of an enormous imaginary skyscraper.

But this building will never soar, and it will never be graceful. No matter how clear the glass, how delicate the beams or animated the signs, it will remain a huge, earthbound block. The renderings made to sell the building to clients, politicians and the public show the stadium from above or at a distance, miniaturizing the colossus and setting it in a landscape bathed in a spiritual light. To counteract the digital romanticism of the renderings, we should try to visualize the way the megalith will loom above the waterfront on a gray February afternoon.

Emphasis on design

And yet, this is a building that may actually be more likable the closer you get. The Jets' president, Jay Cross, has made a lot of admirable decisions. Rather than hire a specialized stadium-builder, he turned to a firm full of architects who may have limited experience with football but have a track record of fine design. Second, he supported the ambition to make the stadium environmentally virtuous, equipping it with wind turbines, solar panels and rainwater- collection systems. Third, he understood that for Manhattanites to welcome the Jets, the stadium would have to adorn the city and be stitched to it rather than hunker, isolated and fortresslike, at the borough's bleak edge.

The result is a building that tries hard to be a good neighbor. One side will shelter a flea market, the other will open onto a gracious pedestrian boulevard connecting the city to the water. The building's backyard faces the Hudson River and a bridge of greensward will reach over 12th Avenue to connect with the waterfront strip of park. The south wall will provide an end point for the High Line, the elevated industrial train tracks that will one day be transformed from a relic into a park. In archi-speak, this is called "animating the edges": necklacing the building with ancillary activities to woo people who don't watch football.

Round-the-clock glamour

With facades clad in glossy metal panels and glass curtain- walls bedecked with two-story lettering and digital displays, the stadium will look glamorous even on quiet nights. It aspires to be a destination, not just a facility, a riverfront outpost of Times Square. Gaudy stores will line the sidewalk on 11th Avenue, and expensive restaurants as well will attempt to lure even those without tickets inside the building and up the escalators rolling along its great glass walls. Views to the east will star the Empire State Building; to the west, the Hudson.

If Mayor Michael Bloomberg likes the whole idea, it is partly because he sees the stadium as a salutary example for a design- challenged part of the city. The stadium has been designed to twinkle and gleam, the better to shame the neighborhood's grim, shabby hulks and the Javits Center's sad pile of black glass cubes into making something of themselves someday. The city's master plan for the far West Side rests on the belief that good design will be contagious, and that development will breed more development. The Guggenheim Museum is even contemplating a Frank Gehry extravaganza right across the street. If the architecture is good enough, the theory goes, art and football can live side by side.

Deluxe touches

The stadium's shed-and-truss design is inspired by the infrastructure of the old New York docks: the gantries, cranes and piers that once lined the Hudson here. But despite the blue-collar references, we can count on deluxe details. The metal slats on the facade, for instance, are not flat, but twist up toward the edges, revealing a tantalizing glimpse of colored undercoat - streaks of honeyed gold, lit from inside. The design has a certain imperial grandeur. The 34 great vertical wind-turbines arrayed across the top could be abstractions of the Bernini statues that stand vigil above the colonnade of St. Peter's in the Vatican.

In the international capital of multitasking, even a football stadium has to adapt. When the Jets are at rest or out of town, a retractable roof can slide into place and the synthetic turf can be stowed away to make room for conventioneers spilling over from the Javits Center next door. If New York were to get the 2012 Olympics, which would require more seats and a bigger field inside, the architects have come up with a nifty temporary extension that would lean, wave-like, toward the Hudson and be taken apart once everyone has gone home.

So what's not to like (besides the price tag, the potential traffic and the thought that all those resources might be better spent elsewhere)? Only the prospect that none of these gorgeous attributes will matter, that the far West Side will not bloom on schedule, and that, in the end, the stadium will be a well-dressed giant crouching in a cabbage patch.

Copyright 2004 Newsday, Inc.

[BigMac]

New York Times
June 20, 2004

Big Claims and Questions Surround Plan for a Stadium

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

According to the New York Jets, the stadium the team wants to build on the West Side of Manhattan will be an economic whirlwind, attracting 60 football games, soccer matches, concerts, trade shows and conventions a year. An Ernst & Young report commissioned by the team estimates the stadium will generate $72.5 million in annual tax revenue.

But a close reading of the report and an examination of the track records of other combined stadium-exhibition halls suggest that the Jets' projections may be too optimistic. No other similar stadium has attracted anywhere near as many events as the Jets are predicting. The most successful convertible stadium, in St. Louis, drew 32 events last year, only eight of which did not involve sports.

There are also unresolved questions about how the stadium would avoid competing for bookings with the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center next door, and how the team would juggle the demands of trade shows with a National Football League schedule.

Any shortfall in the number of bookings would throw into question the projected number of jobs that would be created and hotel rooms that would be reserved in connection with the stadium, as well as the revenue it would collect. All of those estimates have formed the economic and political rationale for the proposed $600 million investment by the city and the state in the hotly contested $1.4 billion project.

"It'd be the most expensive N.F.L. stadium ever built," said Mark S. Rosentraub, a sports economist and the dean of the College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. "To justify the public investment, you'd have to have a range of economic and intangible benefits that no community has ever been able to realize."

The Jets have said they will invest $800 million in the structure, which would stand as tall as a 30-story building and feature electronic displays embedded in the glass walls, twirling wind turbines that would not only generate power but also glow at night and expensive restaurants on the club level.

Its glass and steel exoskeleton, mimicking the George Washington Bridge, would embrace a football field that could be converted to a 210,000-square-foot exhibition hall.

The Ernst & Young study, which has been adopted by the Bloomberg administration without an independent analysis, identifies the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis as a comparable facility, home to what it says are "40 to 50 expositions/conventions" in 2002. The Dome is clearly the most successful of the three stadium-exhibition halls in the country, but a spokeswoman for the complex, Marie E. Portel, said it held only 34 events in 2002, including 18 sports-related contests and seven consumer shows.

Last year, the Dome held 32 events, including 10 football games, she said. There were only eight nonsporting events, or one-fifth of the 38 trade shows, conventions and consumer shows that the Jets predict they will book into the stadium every year. And most of the nonsporting events in St. Louis - car and boat shows - are what economists call consumer shows, low-impact events that draw people from the surrounding area but do not usually generate hotel and restaurant bookings.

The difference between trade and consumer shows is an important one. Industry analysts estimate that people who go to a car show spend about $75 a day, compared with the $362 a day spent by convention and trade show attendees over three days, according to the Ernst & Young report. Economists use those numbers to estimate the indirect impact of a stadium when attendees use nearby restaurants and hotels, which then hire additional employees.

Officials for the city and the Jets dismiss any comparison to St. Louis, noting that the Javits Convention Center has to turn away hundreds of millions of dollars in business each year because it is too small. (The center has 720,000 square feet of exhibition space; a planned expansion would increase that to 1.1 million square feet.)

"In terms of the ability to attract conventions and events, you simply can't compare New York and St. Louis," said Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff. "We have 10 times the number of hotel rooms and 10 times as many people in the metropolitan area. That's why, even with a too-small Javits, we attract seven times as many events and conventions."

The Jets report contends that the team will be able to book 17 "stadium events," including the team's 10 football games, as well as 38 trade shows or conventions and only two consumer shows, in contrast with St. Louis.

"We cite St. Louis to prove the point that these kind of facilities work," said Thad Sheely, the Jets' vice president for development. "New York is significantly underserved with exhibition space. You only need to look at the Javits, the show piers and the Park Avenue Armory to understand that New York needs this kind of space."

According to the Ernst & Young report, the stadium would generate more than $72 million in annual tax revenues, a great deal more than the estimated $42 million a year it would cost the city and the state to pay for $600 million in bonds.

To back up their claims, the Jets brandish letters from top trade show producers like Reed Exhibitions, stating that there are 15 to 20 shows that it cannot bring to New York because of a lack of adequate exhibit space. Earlier this month, the team also announced that it had created and booked the Big Apple Bowl, a college championship for the Big East Conference that would be played at the stadium if it is built.

Critics do not doubt that the Jets would be able to attract trade shows or consumer shows to the stadium, but they do question whether the team would be able to generate as much business as it claims. The convention business has been plagued in recent years by a nationwide abundance of exhibition space, a decline in demand and fierce competition among cities.

And the rather dismal performance of the newly built $850 million Boston Convention and Exhibition Center illustrates the gap that can emerge between projections and reality. A 1997 feasibility study estimated that the Boston center would book 34 large-scale events in its first full year of operation. But with the complex scheduled to open next month, it has only 43 confirmed bookings through 2010.

"The question is, How much will it cost and what is the price for getting what will likely be a modest increment in activity?" asked Heywood T. Sanders, a professor of public administration at the University of Texas and a leading researcher on the economics of convention centers. "In the current environment, where convention centers are discounting rates, providing incentives or literally giving space away for free, expressing an interest in coming and actually turning up are two very different things."

One leading trade show producer in New York - who takes a more optimistic view of the city's convention business - said he favored the planned $1.4 billion expansion of the Javits convention center. But he expected that he would book no more than three shows a year into the Jets complex.

"Nobody thinks the Jets stadium makes sense as a convention hall," he said. "It is true we need more exhibition space, I just don't know how well it's going to work. We'd be far better off with an expanded Javits."

The producer requested anonymity because he did not want to offend the Bloomberg administration. "It was explained to me," he said, "if you want the Javits expansion, you have to get on board. It's a loser for me to make noise."

The producer as well as many critics wonder whether the Jets will cooperate or compete with the Javits. Mr. Sheely, the Jets' vice president for development, said the "untapped market is really in conventions and trade shows, because the Javits has locked up the consumer market."

But the Javits has been moving away from consumer shows and increasing the number of trade shows and conventions. Javits executives and members of the hotel industry have said that the center would be better able to attract conventions after expanding both its exhibit space and the number of meeting rooms.

Jets officials are meeting with Javits center representatives to discuss management issues, but it is also clear that the Jets space will be more expensive, given the costs of converting from a football configuration and the expense of air-conditioning a stadium.

Paul Sajovec, senior vice president of HVS, a convention and sports consulting firm, conducted a study of St. Louis, Atlanta and Indianapolis - the three places where there are stadium-convention centers - for Madison Square Garden. The garden vigorously opposes the Jets stadium for competitive reasons. Mr. Sajovec said that each of the three facilities averaged 11.3 nonsporting events per year.

"They've greatly overshot the number of convention and trade shows that they'd be able to attract and accommodate at an enclosed football stadium," he said. "Stadiums are occasionally used for overflow or auxiliary space for a car show and boat show. But the number of stand-alone events is almost nonexistent."

Although the Ernst & Young report does not consider the economic impact of a Super Bowl, it does predict that the Jets stadium will be home to the football championship every five years. But the Super Bowl has been awarded to 12 cities, and the number is growing.

L. Jay Cross, president of the Jets, dismissed doubts about the Super Bowl, saying that New York would be in a regular rotation with Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix and possibly Los Angeles. However, he conceded in an interview that contrary to the Ernst & Young report, there was no hope of attracting professional basketball or hockey all-star games.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[hella good]

I wanna know about those inspiring towers.especially the curved and crystalline one.

[Ellatur]

the plan is perfect.. except for that ugly green roofing over the convention center

[New Jack City]

Great link providing various images, information, renderings, details by the architects, KPF:

http://www.kpf.com/NYSCC/nyscc.html

[Dash2110]

Wow, thanks for the link savethewtc, it's very detailed about the new stadium's features. It looks great, and I can't wait for it to start going up.

Also, when I went back home on leave a few months ago, I saw quite a bit of commercials by a group that's protesting the construction of the stadium. They argued the funds should be spent elsewhere, such as education. What's the general consensus among New Yorkers for this stadium? And is there still strong opposition against it, or is this just one little group whining as always? Thanks.

[New Jack City]

Wow, thanks for the link savethewtc, it's very detailed about the new stadium's features. It looks great, and I can't wait for it to start going up.

Also, when I went back home on leave a few months ago, I saw quite a bit of commercials by a group that's protesting the construction of the stadium. They argued the funds should be spent elsewhere, such as education. What's the general consensus among New Yorkers for this stadium? And is there still strong opposition against it, or is this just one little group whining as always? Thanks.

I'd say that it's just about evenly split. If it's going to involve large amounts of public funding, then it's bound to have opposition.

Those commercials were run by Dolan, the owner of MSG who opposes the stadium since he would lose more than benefit if the stadium was ever made.

[Ellatur]

Great link providing various images, information, renderings, details by the architects, KPF:

http://www.kpf.com/NYSCC/nyscc.html

what an UBERAWESOME SITE!

[New Jack City]

Good angle:

http://www.amdrendering.com/new/projects/kpf/jets/jets2b.jpg

[bagel]

NYTimes.com, November 1, 2004

By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF

You can't help feeling sorry for the Jets. Their only moment of glory was the Joe Namath era. And for decades, they have suffered the indignity of having to play in a stadium named after their cross-swamp rivals, the Giants. Now the Jets management, with the support of the city, is threatening to create a new stadium on the far West Side of Manhattan that is so crassly commercial it makes the head spin. It may provide the Jets with a home, but it will extinguish any hope of injecting some humanity into the area.


Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, the 75,000-seat stadium is shaped like an enormous shoe box and would cover the three blocks from 30th to 33rd Streets on a railyard site overlooking the Hudson River. A retractable roof would allow it to function both as an open-air stadium for the Jets and as an extension of the Jacob J. Javits Convention Center just to the north. The project would have around 50,000 square feet of retail space and a waterfront park.


Until now much of the opposition to the stadium has centered on who would foot the bill for the project. But even if it were a gift to the city, the result would be depressing. As if to mask its colossal scale, the stadium is dressed up in a blinding assortment of L.E.D. screens, advertising, shops and restaurants: a mind-numbing spectacle that would echo through the surrounding neighborhoods. The park spaces, supposedly conceived as an act of civic generosity, are nothing more than banal front lawns for retail outlets. The result looks like a parody of late capitalist consumerism.


Stripped of its excesses, the stadium itself is not all bad. The structure is supported on the north and south sides by a massive steel frame topped by rows of wind turbines that will generate energy for the building. A series of tapered steel trusses spanning its interior evoke the skeletal steel frames of the old waterfront warehouses that once lined the city's piers. The roof slides open to frame a rectangular patch of sky. (The stadium is also designed so that an additional 10,000 seats could be tacked on to the side facing the river if New York wins its bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.)


I've seen uglier stadium designs. Even so, the forms are crude when compared with the sloping concrete planes of Eduardo Souto de Moura's recent soccer stadium in Braga, Portugal, which fold like an origami sculpture to frame views of a valley, or with the soaring tubular arches of Santiago Calatrava's Olympic Stadium in Athens.


Kohn Pedersen Fox tries to cloak the deficiencies behind a veil of high-tech graphics. A narrow band of L.E.D. screens projecting scores and advertising messages would run along the stadium's intermediate level, just in front of the corporate boxes. The four corners of the main concourse level, conceived as "sponsors' rooms," are to be emblazoned with corporate logos and colors.


On the exterior, a series of programmable screens would flash images across the surrounding neighborhood. The largest, a 55,000-square-foot low-resolution L.E.D. screen, would loom over 11th Avenue, projecting soft-focus images of Jets games or convention events. An arrangement of narrower horizontal screens would create a more abstract pattern of moving images across the north and south facades. On game days, beams of colored light would shoot up into the sky from the top of the turbines.


The visual noise would be overwhelming. But what's more unnerving is that some are promoting the stadium design as a model for thoughtful urban development. The proposal is the keystone of a vast development area extending several blocks from Madison Square Garden to the river, with another swath between 10th and 11th Avenues stretching north to 42nd Street. It includes an expanded Pennsylvania Station at the neo-Classical James A. Farley post office building to the east, a corridor of office blocks along 11th Avenue and a smattering of park spaces.


To connect the stadium to that context, the architects have proposed a blocklong park flanking the stadium's north side. The park was conceived as a public promenade, linking 11th Avenue to the river. Yet most of the space for it is swallowed up by a proposed one-story retail complex enclosed by an undulating glass wall at the stadium's base. The complex will house shops, a sports museum and an undetermined cultural venue that was no doubt added to help sell the project to the public. It's a generic urban mall for West Siders, tourists and football fans that would efface the neighborhood's gritty but powerful mix of railyards and industrial buildings. It sends a message that the desires of developers once again trump public welfare.


Worse still is a plan to connect the stadium to the High Line, a 20-block-long strip of abandoned elevated freight tracks that extends south from the stadium site through Chelsea to the meat-packing district. The nonprofit group Friends of the High Line wants to transform the tracks into an elevated public garden that would thread its way through the streetscape and link a number of West Side neighborhoods. But under Kohn Pedersen Fox's design, this park would plug directly into the stadium, serving as an entry point for football games and convention events. An additional pedestrian walkway would connect the stadium to the new Pennsylvania Station in the Farley building.


The contrast between the High Line and the stadium projects could not be more stark. Designed by Field Operations and Diller, Scofidio & Renfro, the High Line plan is conceived as a string of discrete urban moments, ranging from contemplative gardens to an outdoor theater and distant views of the river. The idea is to savor the nuances of everyday urban life, to heighten the contrast between vast scale and intimate spaces that give the city texture.


The stadium plan, by comparison, would transform the High Line into a mundane people-moving machine - a conveyor belt funneling visitors between Pennsylvania Station, the stadium-retail complex and the meat-packing district's bars. It mistakenly assumes that all urban density is good, regardless of its quality. It is a blunt expression of what was once innocently called the culture of consumption.


There is nothing new about this strategy. It is rooted in the tired New Urbanist formulas that sprang up in reaction to the Brutalist aesthetic of 1960's and 70's architecture. But at least those modernist visions were imbued with a spirit of social optimism, even when they failed.


The stadium plan will enrich developers, while adding nothing of value to the public realm. If this is our vision of humane urban planning, we should fear for the future.

[SJM]

Good angle:

http://www.amdrendering.com/new/projects/kpf/jets/jets2b.jpg

Awesome rendering! Although im not really liking the design of stadium.

[New Jack City]

NY1

State Authority Approves West Side Football Stadium

NOVEMBER 04TH, 2004

The state took its first concrete step toward a West Side Stadium and convention center on Thursday, when the state's Economic Development Authority approved the $1.4 billion plan.

The Empire State Development Corporation's board gave the green light for the city and state to issue a billion dollars in bonds in a 4-0 vote Thursday.

"We want this project to move forward, the city wants the project, the state wants the project, the mayor and governor want this project to move forward," said Charles Gargano of the Empire State Development Corporation.

The stadium would be the new home for the New York Jets, and it could serve as an Olympic stadium if the city wins the 2012 Summer Games.

“I think the development of the west side is arguably the biggest economic development project for the future of this city,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

With the approval of the Empire State Development Corporation, the city and state can begin to issue $600 million in bonds to pay for the stadium, and the city could issue another $400 million in tax-exempt bonds for the Jets, who would later repay the city.

The New York Times reports the team is considering raising money by selling personal seat licenses. That means the Jets' 20,000 season ticket-holders would have to pay a one-time fee (anywhere from $250 to $10,000) just for the guaranteed right to buy seats in the new stadium.

When the numbers were originally floated, the Jets were paying the full $800 million. The head of the authority defended its decision to offer tax-exempt bonds to the team.

"We justify it by the fact that we're not giving it away to help a private developer, we're building public amenities here on the project," said Gargano.

The mayor says New York lacks a venue to host large events.

“Think about it; we have a city of eight million people, the world's second home, people come from around the world and we can't stage an event with more than 30,000 people? You can't grow doing that.”

The mayor says the stadium and convention center will generate $1 billion in tax revenue.

But even with the strong support of the mayor and Governor George Pataki, the West Side stadium project is no slam-dunk.

“No stadium has ever been an economic development project for a city,” said Manhattan Assemblyman Richard Gottfried. ”They're always sold with promises they'll be great for the economy, and they always turn out to be dead weight.”

The project's convention center must be approved by the state Legislature, and there's no clear consensus in Albany. In addition, the city's Planning Commission is expected to release its environmental impact study for the area next week.

And then there's the big debate between the city and state transit officials, who control the air rights where the new stadium would be built.

“Any intelligent person who owned three square blocks of Manhattan prime waterfront real estate, with unobstructed views in four directions, would never dream of using it for a stadium that would produce piddling income for the MTA,” said Gottfried.

The overall plan is expected to go before the City Council next month, and a final vote is scheduled for January.

[Agglomeration]

What I'm hearing is a nice touch, but I don't like the way Bloomberg has tied the construction of West Side Stadium with the expansion of the 7 subway line and the Javits Center (but then again I don't like Bloomberg anyway). IMO these projects should be separate projects under separate plans of design.

[New Jack City]

Here we go...

NY Times

2 Groups Sue to Halt Action on Jets Stadium

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

Published: December 23, 2004

The battle over a proposed $1.4 billion football stadium on the West Side of Manhattan entered the courtroom yesterday when Cablevision, community groups and transportation advocates filed two lawsuits that could tie up the project.

The lawsuits, which challenge the stadium on environmental grounds, could succeed in thwarting the plan even if they are thrown out of court, if they manage to delay construction for a significant period. Stadium opponents said they hoped that the litigation would push back the beginning of construction until July 6, when they expect the International Olympic Committee to skip over New York and pick Paris for the 2012 Olympic Games. Opponents predict that the stadium effort will then lose momentum and die.

One suit was filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan yesterday by West Side residents, a small-business owner and Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden and views the stadium as competition. It challenges the city's recently completed environmental review, saying it was a process "characterized by manipulated data, baseless assumptions, incomplete disclosure and a distortion of the project's significant environmental impacts." The other suit more narrowly focuses on the city's finding that more than two-thirds of fans will take public transit or walk to Jets games.

In a statement, City Hall dismissed the broader lawsuit as the work of "lying monopolists," referring to members of the Dolan family, which controls Cablevision. The statement called the suit an "ill-disguised and frivolous attempt" to rehash earlier allegations.

The Jets and their supporters say they are confident of winning in court, whether victory comes before or after the International Olympic Committee meeting in July. If the suits are thrown out, the Jets can immediately start work on the project, because they expect to have obtained all the necessary political approvals by that time. Under the terms of their deal, the Jets would invest $800 million in the project, while the city and the state would contribute $300 million each.

In any event, the broader lawsuit contends that the city underestimated the volume of cars and taxis that would flow to and from the stadium on game days because it relied on a flawed survey of 600 Jets season ticket holders. The survey found that about 70 percent of the fans arriving at the 75,000-seat stadium would arrive by public transit or on foot.

Quoting a phrase used in an e-mail message between a Jets executive and consultants for the city, the lawsuit said the survey contained "push questions" intended to elicit responses that would suggest a more limited effect on traffic.

City officials insisted that the survey was a legitimate effort and said they ultimately used a more conservative number in the environmental review: 68 percent of the fans would arrive by public transportation. Yesterday, they released a Department of City Planning memo from June 9 showing that in an initial response, 69.3 percent of those surveyed said they would use mass transit. In response to a push question, the number rose to 76.7 percent.

The results of the survey, the lawsuit said, distorted the assessments of traffic, noise and air pollution. Even so, the review acknowledges that the project would barely meet clean air standards, the suit said.

"Government decision makers cannot make rational decisions about one of the largest and costliest projects in city history when the information on which they are relying is inaccurate, misleading and unreliable," said Randy Mastro, a lawyer for the groups. "This intentional manipulation of traffic data undermines the entire environmental review process here."

In a conference call with reporters, Mr. Mastro said the groups were seeking a new environmental review, which could take months to complete, and an injunction against the construction of the stadium.

The other suit, by two advocacy groups - the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the Straphangers Campaign - was also filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. It says the city "underestimates the traffic and related impacts of the proposed stadium," because it relies on a survey whose methodology is "notoriously inaccurate," according to the Tri-State group.

The two groups wanted to separate themselves from Cablevision and the ongoing feud with Mayor Bloomberg to focus on the issues in a nonpartisan manner, one person involved in the suit said.

The plaintiffs say they do not oppose a $1.4 billion plan to expand the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, a separate but related element in the city's plans for the West Side.

The city's environmental review was undertaken by the Department of City Planning and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in connection with a proposal to rezone a 59-block area and to extend the No. 7 subway line from Times Square to 11th Avenue and 34th Street.

[Dash2110]

This is just sad...there's an attempt to bring a NEW YORK team into the boundries of NEW YORK state, and the owner of a venue which hosts other NEW YORK teams sues. Am I missing something here? :|

[Vlad the Great]

How long would this lawsuit take? Wow they can construct as soon as this is over..

We're so close! Yet so far away.

[The Mad Hatter!!]

Good Job To New York For Getting A Stadium,but Doesn't It Look Like A Shoebox

[New Jack City]

Looks like February 16 is the big day...

NY POST

PLANNERS PREPARE FOR FINAL DRIVE IN JETS STADIUM PUSH

By TOM TOPOUSIS

January 18, 2005 -- The Jets' Super Bowl dream has come crashing down, but the team's hope for a new stadium on the far West Side is still alive and making a push toward the goal line.

Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, the project's top booster, will lead the charge for the $1.4 billion project to Albany at a Feb. 16 meeting of the Public Authorities Control Board, made up of the state's three top elected officials.

But Doctoroff will have to go to Albany with a detailed playbook on how the city plans to finance its $300 million share of the project and exactly what the cash-strapped MTA will be paid for development rights on its rail yard.

"By that time, we will flesh out specifically where the city's source of the funding will come from," Doctoroff said. "The final step is getting the PACB approval, and we are hoping to get that in February."

Sources involved in the talks between the city and state lawmakers told The Post the city is considering tapping a $45 million annual stream of revenues collected by the Economic Development Corp. to raise the $300 million.

The Public Authorities Control Board is made up of Gov. Pataki's appointee, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. So far, only Pataki has signed on to the stadium plan.

[Qba73]

It will be built mark my words.

[FerrariEnzo]

Me hopes.

[New Jack City]

New look, I'm liking it...

NY Daily News

Stadium plan slashed
Jets trim size of Hudson behemoth

BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

The Jets have scaled back the design of their proposed West Side stadium, cutting away 120 feet from its highest point, the Daily News has learned.

The new design removes a significant amount of structural steel as well as the large wind turbines that were a conspicuous element of the original plan.

It also introduces a unique "glass veil" that will be suspended around the stadium.

"They're trying to create a much lighter look to the structure, not a massive look," Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corp., told the Daily News.

Some of the other design changes in the plan, which the Jets will release today, include:

# The main entrance has been moved from the north side of the building to 32nd St., offering a long vista from the stadium eastward into the surrounding neighborhood.

# The lowest level of the stadium is being moved back 15 feet, doubling the sidewalk width along 11th Ave. to 30 feet from 15 feet. That will create a large public plaza that will serve as a 35,000-square-foot retail and entertainment corridor.

The change in height will be dramatic, Gargano said.

"There was some concern about anyone from the east looking toward ... the Hudson River had this gigantic structure blocking their view," he said.

Jets officials, who have been working for weeks with the Municipal Arts Society and City Planning Commission Chairwoman Amanda Burden, declined to comment yesterday.

The city and the state have pledged $600 million to the project, which would be built between 30th and 33rd Sts., between 11th and 12th Aves. The Jets have agreed to contribute $800 million, but Jets President Jay Cross said he now estimates the team will spend about $1 billion because of the rising construction costs.

The higher price tag has nothing to do with the design changes, sources said.

The Empire State Development Corp., which is run by Gargano and controlled by Gov. Pataki, is expected to approve the project in the coming weeks. No date has yet been set for the vote, Gargano said.

The project also needs approval from the state Public Authorities Control Board, and that may prove difficult because Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) sits on that board and he remains undecided. The stadium also faces two lawsuits.

Gargano said one of the "most striking elements" of the new design is the glass veil, which he said was a "semiopaque glass structure that will hover around the internal building."

"So, if you are standing underneath the building, one can see that the veil is actually a glass curtain ... above the main structure, supported by thin steel beams."

"It gives it a great look," Gargano added. "It looks like it's just floating there."

http://www.nydailynews.com/static/images/graphics/stadium.jpg

Originally published on February 1, 2005

Renderings of new look:

http://nyscc.newyorkjets.com/images/new-photo3.jpg

http://nyscc.newyorkjets.com/images/new-photo2.jpg

http://nyscc.newyorkjets.com/images/new-photo1.jpg

[FerrariEnzo]

AMAZING AS I SAID OVER AT SSP. My grievences about boxy and steel skeleton have ALL been met, this better be built...

[FerrariEnzo]

And the rendering with all the new towers really frames the stadium nicely. mmm mmmmmm

[FerrariEnzo]

Can some one post the picture links of the above images, of course without the [IMG] stuff, thanks.

[New Jack City]

Can some one post the picture links of the above images, of course without the [IMG] stuff, thanks.

No problem. Here you go:

http://nyscc.newyorkjets.com/images/new-photo3.jpg

http://nyscc.newyorkjets.com/images/new-photo2.jpg

http://nyscc.newyorkjets.com/images/new-photo1.jpg

[Ellatur]

so do you think it will get approved?

[bagel]

Another wrench in the works...
---------------
New York Times
February 5, 2005

Owner of Garden Outbids Jets For Stadium Site
By CHARLES V. BAGLI

The owner of Madison Square Garden, after spending many months and millions of dollars trying to prevent the Jets and the city from building a football stadium on the West Side, played its boldest card yet yesterday, offering to pay far more for the land than the Jets have proposed.

Cablevision, which owns the Garden, said it would pay $600 million to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the right to build office buildings and housing at the 13-acre West Side railyards. The offer includes the price of a $250 million deck over the yards for the development.

The Jets, on the other hand, have offered the M.T.A. $100 million for the land, with the city and state splitting the cost of the deck. The authority has asked the Jets to pay $300 million for the parcel.With the Jets and the authority heading toward arbitration in the matter, the Cablevision offer throws a deliberate wrench into the politically charged negotiation between the parties. The authority has been assailed by stadium opponents and transit advocates who have said that it is not seeking enough money from the Jets for the land, and that it could make more money for the transit system if it considered another proposal.

Whether Cablevision is serious about becoming a real estate developer or whether it is simply trying to embarrass the Jets and the M.T.A., its offer demonstrates the enormous sums and political forces at stake in the stadium battle. It could succeed at driving up the price of the land beyond the point at which the Jets would be able to afford a stadium - ending what the Dolan family, which owns Cablevision, has always said would be a threat to its sports arena over Pennsylvania Station.

And the move comes just two weeks before the International Olympic Committee is due in New York to assess the city's bid for the 2012 Olympic games, which hinges on the use of the stadium for Olympic events. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has hoped to demonstrate to the committee that the stadium is a virtual certainty.

The Bloomberg administration and the Jets took a harsh view of the latest tactic from a company that has paid for television ads denouncing the stadium proposal and Mayor Bloomberg. City officials said the Cablevision plan would take longer to evolve than the stadium, depriving the city of years of revenue.

"This is a desperate, last minute attempt to derail a project that will create thousands of jobs, more than $1 billion in tax revenue, and allow New York to realize its Olympic dreams by building a world class sports and convention center," said Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff in a statement released yesterday. "A Friday afternoon press release doesn't replace years of planning, design, negotiation and public review from which this project has benefited."

City officials also said Cablevision had not explained how it would pay for the project, although the city has never fully described its financial plan for a share of the stadium costs.

The Jets, who recently redesigned plans for the stadium in an attempt to mollify critics, also blasted Cablevision.

"This is a desperate ploy and a cynical P.R. gimmick by a company that has already demonstrated that it will do anything to protect its monopoly," said Marissa Shorenstein, a Jets spokeswoman.

Cablevision's $600 million offer came in the form of a letter to Peter S. Kalikow, chairman of the M.T.A., from the Garden's vice chairman, Hank Ratner. He said the Garden would develop a "dynamic mixed-use community," including a hotel, housing, recreation, entertainment and office space that would serve as "a beautiful, dramatic and vital neighbor to the newly expanded Javits Convention Center."

Mr. Ratner estimated that it would cost $250 million to build a deck and expressed a willingness to share the cost of any overruns. Although the Garden is not known for building skyscrapers, real estate executives say the company would have little trouble finding an experienced development partner.

The offer came as a surprise to the M.T.A. and stunned City Hall, which had been hoping that the M.T.A. board would agree next week to send its dispute with the Jets to arbitration.

"This is the first indication we have received from the Garden after months of public discussion that they are interested in our property," said Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the authority. "We are reviewing the proposal."

The M.T.A., which is facing service cuts and multibillion-dollar gaps in its capital budget, will not reject the offer out of hand. Mr. Kelly said that Mr. Kalikow's main concern is obtaining the best financial deal he can for the M.T.A. and its customers. But the authority does want to conclude a deal quickly and, executives involved in West Side development say, the authority could ask for final offers for the site before the M.T.A. board meets on Feb. 24.

Gov. George E. Pataki has publicly supported the Bloomberg administration's effort to build the $1.4 billion stadium and the state's development arm would oversee the project, which would be on state-controlled land. But despite pledging $300 million for the stadium, the governor has often left it to Mr. Bloomberg to do the heavy lifting.

Many real estate executives say privately that land on the once dormant West Side has recently become a hot commodity.

"This underscores what we've said all along," said Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, which opposes the stadium. "This is a valuable site and the M.T.A. has a responsibility to get the highest dollar amount."

State Senator Thomas K. Duane, a Democrat who represents the West Side and opposes the stadium, embraced Cablevision's offer. "We always wanted competition, to see what's best for the site, for the M.T.A., the West Side and for the city. I think this is a genuine attempt to provide other options for the use of this site."

Cablevision's stock closed yesterday at $27.32, down 10 cents.

[TritaniumZ3]

Kinda of topic but... are those buildings that you can see in this pic going to be built or proposed or something?

http://nyscc.newyorkjets.com/images/new-photo3.jpg

[Ellatur]

Another wrench in the works...
---------------
New York Times
February 5, 2005

Owner of Garden Outbids Jets For Stadium Site
By CHARLES V. BAGLI

The owner of Madison Square Garden, after spending many months and millions of dollars trying to prevent the Jets and the city from building a football stadium on the West Side, played its boldest card yet yesterday, offering to pay far more for the land than the Jets have proposed.

Cablevision, which owns the Garden, said it would pay $600 million to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the right to build office buildings and housing at the 13-acre West Side railyards. The offer includes the price of a $250 million deck over the yards for the development.

The Jets, on the other hand, have offered the M.T.A. $100 million for the land, with the city and state splitting the cost of the deck. The authority has asked the Jets to pay $300 million for the parcel.With the Jets and the authority heading toward arbitration in the matter, the Cablevision offer throws a deliberate wrench into the politically charged negotiation between the parties. The authority has been assailed by stadium opponents and transit advocates who have said that it is not seeking enough money from the Jets for the land, and that it could make more money for the transit system if it considered another proposal.

Whether Cablevision is serious about becoming a real estate developer or whether it is simply trying to embarrass the Jets and the M.T.A., its offer demonstrates the enormous sums and political forces at stake in the stadium battle. It could succeed at driving up the price of the land beyond the point at which the Jets would be able to afford a stadium - ending what the Dolan family, which owns Cablevision, has always said would be a threat to its sports arena over Pennsylvania Station.

And the move comes just two weeks before the International Olympic Committee is due in New York to assess the city's bid for the 2012 Olympic games, which hinges on the use of the stadium for Olympic events. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has hoped to demonstrate to the committee that the stadium is a virtual certainty.

The Bloomberg administration and the Jets took a harsh view of the latest tactic from a company that has paid for television ads denouncing the stadium proposal and Mayor Bloomberg. City officials said the Cablevision plan would take longer to evolve than the stadium, depriving the city of years of revenue.

"This is a desperate, last minute attempt to derail a project that will create thousands of jobs, more than $1 billion in tax revenue, and allow New York to realize its Olympic dreams by building a world class sports and convention center," said Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff in a statement released yesterday. "A Friday afternoon press release doesn't replace years of planning, design, negotiation and public review from which this project has benefited."

City officials also said Cablevision had not explained how it would pay for the project, although the city has never fully described its financial plan for a share of the stadium costs.

The Jets, who recently redesigned plans for the stadium in an attempt to mollify critics, also blasted Cablevision.

"This is a desperate ploy and a cynical P.R. gimmick by a company that has already demonstrated that it will do anything to protect its monopoly," said Marissa Shorenstein, a Jets spokeswoman.

Cablevision's $600 million offer came in the form of a letter to Peter S. Kalikow, chairman of the M.T.A., from the Garden's vice chairman, Hank Ratner. He said the Garden would develop a "dynamic mixed-use community," including a hotel, housing, recreation, entertainment and office space that would serve as "a beautiful, dramatic and vital neighbor to the newly expanded Javits Convention Center."

Mr. Ratner estimated that it would cost $250 million to build a deck and expressed a willingness to share the cost of any overruns. Although the Garden is not known for building skyscrapers, real estate executives say the company would have little trouble finding an experienced development partner.

The offer came as a surprise to the M.T.A. and stunned City Hall, which had been hoping that the M.T.A. board would agree next week to send its dispute with the Jets to arbitration.

"This is the first indication we have received from the Garden after months of public discussion that they are interested in our property," said Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the authority. "We are reviewing the proposal."

The M.T.A., which is facing service cuts and multibillion-dollar gaps in its capital budget, will not reject the offer out of hand. Mr. Kelly said that Mr. Kalikow's main concern is obtaining the best financial deal he can for the M.T.A. and its customers. But the authority does want to conclude a deal quickly and, executives involved in West Side development say, the authority could ask for final offers for the site before the M.T.A. board meets on Feb. 24.

Gov. George E. Pataki has publicly supported the Bloomberg administration's effort to build the $1.4 billion stadium and the state's development arm would oversee the project, which would be on state-controlled land. But despite pledging $300 million for the stadium, the governor has often left it to Mr. Bloomberg to do the heavy lifting.

Many real estate executives say privately that land on the once dormant West Side has recently become a hot commodity.

"This underscores what we've said all along," said Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, which opposes the stadium. "This is a valuable site and the M.T.A. has a responsibility to get the highest dollar amount."

State Senator Thomas K. Duane, a Democrat who represents the West Side and opposes the stadium, embraced Cablevision's offer. "We always wanted competition, to see what's best for the site, for the M.T.A., the West Side and for the city. I think this is a genuine attempt to provide other options for the use of this site."

Cablevision's stock closed yesterday at $27.32, down 10 cents.

ugh.. stupid people..

[Dash2110]

Don't know if this will change anything, but this made me smile when I read it. Basically Dolan getting bitchslapped...

NFL to move Draft

Don Banks, SI.com


After years of conducting its nationally televised two-day college draft from Madison Square Garden's Paramount Theater, the NFL will move the event this year due to its ongoing dispute with the Dolan family, which owns MSG and has emerged as the most vocal opponent of a new stadium for the New York Jets on the west side of Manhattan.

Two league sources confirmed to SI.com that the draft will in all likelihood be held April 23-24 at the nearby Jacob Javits Convention Center, which is adjacent to the site on which the Jets hope to occupy the $1.4 billion West Side stadium starting in 2009.

In moving the draft away from the Garden -- its home since 1995 -- the league is playing hardball with the Dolan family, which is opposing the Jets new stadium because it fears the facility could draw premier events away from its historic venue in mid-town Manhattan.

"They're fighting one of our owners (Jets owner Woody Johnson),'' said a league source. "We've got to move it. It's a matter of who do you side with? We're definitely not going back to the Garden.''

Besides the Javits Center, the NFL's special-events department also investigated moving the draft to the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, as well as sites in Boston, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. But the Javits Center emerged as the leading candidate to land the event, largely because NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue expressed a strong desire to keep the draft in New York, where it has been held since 1965.

While the league has yet to sign a contract with the Javits Center for the draft, sources say the first item of business for incoming NFL vice president of special events Frank Supovitz will be to finalize the deal with the venue. Supovitz is replacing longtime the league's longtime head of special events, Jim Steeg, who left the NFL after this year's Super Bowl to become the San Diego Chargers' chief operating officer.

Last week, the fight between the Dolan family and the NFL grew even more contentious when MSG announced that it was offering $600 million for the 2 million square foot tract of Metropolitan Transportation Authority-owned land that the city has targeted for the Jets' new stadium, which is the centerpiece of New York's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

"It's getting ugly,'' said the league source. "The Dolans are trying everything they can to keep the Garden from losing all those big events that would wind up at the new stadium.''

[G_DOG]

yeah im interested in those towers as well ,anybody in the know?

[G_DOG]

the dolans are probably gian