Jets, Giants work out naming rights By THE JOURNAL NEWS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Giants and Jets will be allowed to collect money for naming rights to their proposed new stadium and most of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, under an agreement with the state signed yesterday. The board of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority also said the state won't pay $30 million for improvements to the site as it approved amendments to an agreement between the state and the teams concerning the $1 billion football stadium. The teams won't be able to collect money for naming rights to Continental Airlines Arena and Xanadu, a new entertainment and retail development being built there. Gov. Jon S. Corzine had asked for a review of the stadium deal, initially brokered by his predecessor, because he was concerned about its financial terms. The borough of East Rutherford and the state continue to negotiate over the amount of property taxes that can be collected on retail development around the stadium. The teams are jointly financing the 81,000-seat stadium, expected to open for the 2010 season. The complex will sit on 55 acres, in addition to a new 20-acre practice site for the Giants. The NJSEA board also created a subcommittee to oversee the approval process. The stadium plan will be reviewed by authority's staff, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Meadowlands Commission. Public hearings are to be held this summer. If approved, construction would start in March 2007. Representatives from the New Meadowlands Stadium Corp., a company that represents the team owners, also presented a few more details about the complex, such as special tailgate zones. The new stadium would contain about 27,000 parking spaces, some 1,000 fewer than today, and the parking areas would be configured to avoid traffic jams. Fans are expected to ride a new train line now under construction, which is expected to take 3,000 to 4,000 cars off the road. The NJ Transit station would connect through the Secaucus Transfer Station and would be ready for the 2008 season. This is very good news. The NJSEA board also approved a letter of intent between the Jets and the borough of Florham Park for the team's new practice facility and corporate headquarters. The team is expected to move from Hempstead in the summer of 2007. Giants, Jets unveil stadium layout Friday, April 28, 2006 BY MATTHEW FUTTERMAN Star-Ledger Staff Plans to remake the Meadowlands took two major steps forward yesterday as the Giants and Jets unveiled the layout for their shared football complex and the state committed up to $25 million for the Jets' new headquarters and practice facility. In a move described as the start of the approval process for the football teams' $1 billion stadium, teams of planners from the Giants and Jets showed the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority's board images of a redesigned sports complex they say will be easier to access and more exciting to attend. The stadium, which will be built a few hundred yards northeast of the current building, will be surrounded by a wide pedestrian plaza, a Hall of Fame for each team, team stores, restaurants and other game-day entertainment. "We want to combine the grittiness and toughness of the teams with the modern amenities offered in the new stadiums," said Mary Musco, a Giants executive who has worked with the Tisch family, which co-owns the team, on sports development projects for several years. The concourses will be 40-feet wide instead of the 22 feet in the current stadium. There will be dozens more restrooms and a seemingly endless stream of concession stands. Outside, the parking lot will include specific tailgating areas and pedestrian walkways leading from them directly to the stadium. Also roadways will be redesigned in a way that will prohibit cars from driving from one side of the sports complex to another to meet friends in a specific lot for tailgating. Greg Del Rio, a transportation expert working on the project, said the clogged roads inside the sports complex contribute to the backups on the roads leading to the Meadowlands on game days. Now fans will have to know ahead of time which parking lot they want to end up at and choose an approach to the sports complex that will allow them to get there. "It's an approach that has worked elsewhere, and we think it will work here," Del Rio said. Carl Goldberg, chairman of the sports authority, which manages the sports complex, said the agency will hold a series of planning and environmental hearings during the next few months, and if all goes well the teams should break ground in March. The Giants and Jets are paying 100 percent of the stadium's construction costs, but the state is hardly getting a free ride on the project. New Jersey will have to refinance about $80 million in tax-free debt because the new stadium will be privately controlled, and it will have to pay off about $90 million in existing debt on the current stadium without revenue from the building to cover it. In addition, the state officially committed up to $25 million to buy 20 acres in Florham Park, where the Jets plan to build their practice facility and headquarters. While the sports authority will actually acquire the land, the state will finance the project using state contract bonds that will be paid off through the state treasury rather than revenues from the sports authority. Goldberg said the administration of Gov. Jon Corzine decided to use the state contract bonds because the state treasury is expected to receive an extra $10 million to $15 million each year in income tax from the team's payroll once the Jets move their operations from Long Island to New Jersey in roughly two years. Finally, during a closed session of the sports authority's board, the commissioners discussed the framework of a deal to build a $20 million minor-league ballpark as part of the sports complex. According to two executives involved with the discussions, the deal would include a loan from the state of up to $10 million to build the ballpark and a $3 million cash contribution from the state. The Mills Corp., developers of the Xanadu retail and entertainment complex at the site, would contribute $6 million and Steve Kalafer, owner of the team that would play in the ballpark, would be asked to contribute up to $1 million cash to the project and pay $1.15 million in annual rent for the stadium. State OKs $20M Jets practice field Friday, April 28, 2006 By JOHN BRENNAN STAFF WRITER EAST RUTHERFORD -- The acquisition of a 20-acre site in Florham Park that will serve as the practice home for the New York Jets will cost the state $20 million, New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority officials said Thursday. The deal, unanimously approved by the sports authority board, was one of a series of resolutions that were passed relating to the plans of the Jets and the New York Giants to share a new $1 billion Meadowlands football stadium that would open in 2010. The Jets will contribute $200,000 annually as a payment in lieu of taxes for the practice site. Sports authority Chairman Carl Goldberg said the state could expect to recoup its $20 million investment within two years, based on added annual revenues from state income taxes from the Jets' move from Long Island to Morris County.The board also approved an amended preliminary agreement that was reached between the teams and Governor Corzine four weeks ago. That deal relieves the state of responsibility for $30 million in stadium infrastructure costs. The board votes came shortly after a 30-minute presentation by stadium designers, who touted restrooms and shopping opportunities at four "tailgate zones," as well as landscaped walkways just outside the entrance. Getting there will be different, too. Many fans are likely to wind up searching for new routes to the stadium because their access to specific parking areas will depend on which entrances they use. Drivers using any given entrance will be directed to the lots nearest that point, said Greg Del Rio of traffic consulting firm Vollmer Associates. That would affect fans who traditionally meet friends for pregame tailgating. "You'll still be able to park where you want, but you'll just have to make that decision outside the stadium complex," Del Rio said, referring to the need for fans to choose a route that will align them with their desired lot. The presentation included a promise by 360 Architecture executive Bill Johnson that the new stadium will be "loud, tough, intense and gritty," with minimal gaps in seating to create a "wall of fans." But with the final design of the bowl being left to the latter stages of the master plan, Thursday's discussion focused more on what presenters called "the fan experience." A festival plaza, for instance, would include street performers, a children's section, team halls of fame, and more food and drink options. Stadium concourses, which currently are 22 feet wide, would be nearly doubled to 35 or 40 feet in the new facility. New technology, meanwhile, promises to transform the exterior dramatically depending on whether a Jets or Giants game is upcoming, Johnson said. "You actually could see a green-featured stadium move to a blue-featured stadium in a very short time," Johnson said, referring to the light-emitting diodes, video boards and electronic signs that can quickly be adjusted to reflect that day's home team. A series of public hearings assessing the environmental impact of the new stadium will be held this summer, Goldberg said, with groundbreaking scheduled for March 2007.
