Comments

I think MSG is bidding $600M-$923 for this. ... and they just may get it-- if NYC2012 Olympic Committe ratifies it as the 'centerpeice' !!

Posted by /pd at February 16, 2005 10:26 AM

NYC can do anything and everything. Interesting how most would think there is no room left on the mid-West side of Manhattan for a football stadium.

Soon the old Polo grounds area near Harlem will be up for the Yankees perhaps?

Posted by John at February 16, 2005 10:41 AM

EVERYBODY WANTS TO GO TO HEAVEN, NOBEDY WANTS TO DIE...

One of the quotes gets us back to the issue from yesterday about the need to innovate products or merely innovate non-production methods. Tragedy of the Commons. If you do invest in technical innovation, others who don't make the investment copy your work for almost-free, putting you at a comparitive disadvantage. If no-one innovates product, the system collapses. Commons-ism, corporate style.

The quote that gets us back there is:
"Bloomberg, like ex-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, says a new stadium is needed to win back the convention business the city now loses to areas with bigger meeting halls."

A recent Brookings study indicates a 50%+ overcapacity in convention/meeting room nationally and aggressive build-up going on at the same time. Cities are addicted to these make-work projects which have an immediate benefit (middle-class employment and local spending, ergo, local economy stimulation) and a long-term sinkhole for most. (Not for NYC. They'll just be cannibalizing their own capacity. Let's face it, no self-respecting convention is going choose North Platte or Watertown or Tulsa or even Seattle if they can be in NYC or SF).

It's a losing proposition but one you can't refuse. City/regional govt.s with shrinking middle-class payrolls chase these convention/sports complexes to chase limited dollars. If they play, they (likely) lose because overcapacity guarantees difficult imbalance of supply to demand. If they don't play, they're guaranteed to not-win.

So, Halley, I suspect only way to put some graphite rods into this steaming uranium pile is to structure the deal so city takes bids to assess price, and takes half the price in cash and the rest as an equity position. Shared fate. Still a Commons, but the net-loss is lower over time. ¿What say YOU?

Posted by jeff angus at February 16, 2005 11:48 AM

You say it's a WOW project, I say who cares. I stopped being a fan of professional sports a long time ago. It's all about money, ego, self-interest, lack of integrity(refusal or leniency beyond reason regarding drug use policies)multitude of very poor to non-existent role models for children(even though they may not think they are or want to be role models). I say, show me again, what's in it for me(WIIFM)? Nothing that makes it worth spending my time on for sure. Maybe they will wake up and realize someday just how many people are turned off by all the hype and celebrity fixation. There are real problems in the world today which could use our attention as a nation, this is not one of them.
Steve

Posted by Steve at February 16, 2005 12:59 PM

This reminds me of the toe-mae-toe vs toe-mah-toe song. Some are calling this WOW! while others, specifically many residents and business owners in that area, are shouting "OW!" at the mere thought of such a structure and all of its unpleasant side effects including congested streets, pollution, etc.
Perhaps it is that I spent today touring a Fenway Redevelopment Project with the Fenway Community Development team, who took a significant role in working with the owners of our beloved Fenway Park to keep it Fenway Park.

The Fenway Community Development group engaged a village to build a village. I was WOW-ed by the structures and drawings completed by a genuinely innovative team of Wentworth undergrad engineers, who Fenway Community Development enlisted to design an "urban village" for the Fenway area. To me, that was innovation, well-considered growth, genuine teaming, and all-time design WOW! I am seeing the New York structure as more OW than WOW! Toe-mae-toe, toe-mah-toe, WOW! or OW--WOW, just like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder.

Posted by Pam Brill at February 16, 2005 6:32 PM

Peering out my window and looking a few miles to the south across the Hudson River, I can see the area where the proposed stadium is intended to be built. Needless to say, there is tons of uproar in these-here-parts about whether the stadium is a plus or a minus for the NYC metropolitan area. So, at this point, it seems more of "Whoever WINS THE NEXT ROUND OF this project really deserves a big 'WOW!'" than "Whoever completes this project really deserves a big 'WOW!'"

Some good ideas about "how to pull off a very complicated, high visibility, many players, big money, project like this": build those political connections (i.e. Mayor Mike, Rudy), disregard probable traffic snarls, market enough to make EVERYONE believe getting this thing built truly is in the public's best interests...

Posted by Lee H. Igel at February 16, 2005 7:58 PM