http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...l_allows_giants_jets_to_borrow_15b_for-1.html NFL allows Giants, Jets to borrow $1.5B for stadium The New York Giants and Jets won approval to exceed the National Football League's team debt ceiling and borrow as much as $750 million each to help fund a shared stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. NFL owners, meeting in Phoenix, voted to allow the teams to borrow five times the $150 million a franchise typically permitted under the league's rules because of the high cost of building a stadium in the New York market, said Jets President Jay Cross. "I think we're looking at 40-year money," Cross said. "It'll be bonds, some combination of floating and fixed. I don't think that's been decided yet." Cross said Citigroup Inc. is handling the Jets' financing, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. are working with the Giants. The teams plan to break ground in May on the stadium, Cross said. The project, estimated to cost at least $1.4 billion, will be built near their current home, Giants Stadium, and is scheduled to open in 2010. Building the new stadium has already required the league to waive some of its financial rules. NFL owners voted 30-2 in December to grant the teams a combined $300 million for the stadium, twice the previous high, from a league fund that provides money for construction. Naming Rights Steven Tisch, co-owner of the Giants, said the teams would increase efforts to identify naming rights sponsors and sell luxury suites for the new stadium. "It's now going to be a function of staying on budget in terms of construction, and selling our premium seating for as much money as we can get," he said. Cross said the teams would next begin making presentations to bond-rating services and may complete the financing in April or May. The teams' plans call for building an 84,000-seat stadium, according to a document submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Meadowlands Commission. The Giants plan to build a 20-acre training complex in the southwest corner of the development, along with parking areas and tailgating zones. Broadcast facilities, sports medicine clinics, stores, restaurants and a New Jersey Transit rail spur also are part of the project.
$750,000,000 at 6% interest roughly $45 million per year, appx 800,000 tickets in a season $56.25 per ticket just to cover it. (hypothetical, of course)
I agree. I'm also pleasantly surprised at the fact that the seating capacity seems to be creeping up. When first announced, seating was something in the 80,000 range. Then I read somewhere a figure of about 82,000. Now we're talking 84,000. This could help hold PSL's down because, obviously, the more seats you sell, the more the cost is spread out. Also, if they can sell luxury boxes to corporations at high prices, that might help hold down the possiblity of PSL's. I've also considered the possibilty that they may consider the Mezzanine Section as "premium seating" (because this is the way my prices seem to be continuing to go) and as such, they might come after me and everyone else in the 200's for a PSL. If they do this, I'd have to beg off my seats but I'd probably bitch like hell and demand to be moved to some really good 50-yard line seats in another section. At any rate, this is terrific news and with the funding in place now, this opens doors for a project like you wouldn't believe. All of a sudden, it's balls to the wall on starting contruction and the bankers will be tripping over themselves to be writing out the checks. We're only talking 3 years from August! I can't wait!
Yeah, I can't wait to try and squeeze my fat a$$ into the new 15 inch wide seats designed to allow for the increased capacity!
Stop eating those $5 hot dogs and drinking those $7 beers! Hey, you've got 3 whole years to lose that fat @ss of yours!
