http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/116547005767970.xml&coll=1 Giants, Jets: Tackle NFL owners today for funding Thursday, December 07, 2006 BY MATTHEW FUTTERMAN Star-Ledger Staff Owners of the Giants and Jets are in Dallas today with one mission: to convince 30 other National Football League owners, there for the NFL meetings, to kick in a crucial $300 million the two teams say they need to build their shared stadium in the Meadowlands. The owners are expected to vote on the proposal, and if the necessary three-quarters approval is not obtained, the teams will have to decide whether they can still afford to build the stadium. The quest for the NFL money, known as "G-3 financing," has unified the rival ownership groups of late as they continue to work through their uneasy partnership. In recent months, owners of the two teams have had disputes large and small, substantial and petty, involving everything from money, to operations at the current stadium, to plans for the new building and its surrounding development, according to four people involved with the project. The discussions include: An argument over the massive Jets banner that hangs outside the current stadium when the Jets have a home game. Last month the Jets had home games on consecutive weekends, so Jets chief executive Jay Cross asked Giants management if the team could leave the banner up rather than spend the $10,000 to take it down and rehang it six days later. The Giants told the Jets to abide by their current agreement and take the banner down. A dispute over a $15 million payment the Giants are scheduled to receive from developers of the Xanadu project in exchange for the team's permission for Xanadu to go forward. The Giants cut the deal with Xanadu's developers last year, while the Jets were still pursuing a Manhattan stadium. Once the Jets became partners with the Giants, they requested sharing the payment. The Giants turned them down. Continuing differences in how to pursue the planned retail development that will surround the shared stadium, or whether to press for their retail development to be open on Sunday game days despite blue laws in Bergen County that prohibit most retail activity on Sundays. The stadium has been exempt from those laws for 30 years, but it is unclear how much of the teams' development around the new stadium would be exempt. Alice McGillion, a spokeswoman for the Jets-Giants partnership, declined to discuss any recent discussions between the teams or their attempt to get the financial support from the NFL that Giants co-owner John Mara has said the project cannot be built without. Carl Goldberg, chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, said any rifts between the teams would not stand in the way of their coming up with the money for the 81,000-seat stadium scheduled to open in 2010. "I have complete confidence they will put together a financing package to build this project as contemplated," Goldberg said. Marc Ganis, a financial consultant to several NFL owners, said the Jets and Giants have likely benefited from having to band together to get the money from the NFL. "Any time you pursue something that is a shared goal, you find that you have a lot more in common with a partner," Ganis said. Securing the NFL's portion of the stadium financing has required all the persuasive powers the teams and commissioner Roger Goodell have. Under the G-3 financing program, NFL owners give up the visiting team's one-third share of their opponents' club seat sales, which are usually the most expensive seats in the stadium. The money is then used to pay back the NFL's contribution to construction or renovation costs. Because the Jets and Giants will share the stadium, the teams have each requested the maximum $150 million, or a total of $300 million, in league financing for the project. Some owners have objected to financing the new stadium because, according to the compensation rules of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association, all the revenue from the lucrative new stadium will dramatically drive up the amount of money the teams have to pay the players. So while only the Jets and the Giants will gain substantially from the new building, 30 other teams will have to deal with the results of its success. Goodell has spent the past two months working out a deal with NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw that would limit the salary increase resulting from the new stadium to about $2 million for each team. Whether that is enough to make the G-3 loan more palatable to owners of small-market teams, such as Buffalo, or Kansas City or Tennessee, remains to be seen. "The commissioner wants to get this into a position to make this work," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "But everybody is going to have to step up and do their part." Ganis said NFL owners have moved beyond the acrimony surrounding last year's debate over revenue sharing but are still debating the future of stadium financing. "There are answers to questions that are being asked that are tough," he said. "The concessions from the players association may not be enough."
Not the owners but nice job from the union http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=a.Ug7VTd4Y0k NFL Union Will Cut Salary to Help Build Giants-Jets Stadium By Aaron Kuriloff Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The National Football League players union is willing to cut its salary ceiling by $800 million over 15 years to help win approval for a new stadium for New York's Giants and Jets, a top union official said. Richard Berthelsen, general counsel for the NFL Player's Association, said the proposed $1.2 billion East Rutherford, New Jersey, stadium would generate at least $2 million each year in additional player salaries, offsetting any losses from the reduced payroll limit. This season's limit is $102 million per team. ``It's like spending 50 cents to make a dollar,'' Berthelsen said in a telephone interview. ``The stadium is going to bring in additional revenue that wasn't there before.'' NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league had discussed the issue with the union, declining further comment. NFL owners are scheduled to meet Dec. 7 in Frisco, Texas, to vote on a request by the Giants and Jets for $300 million in loans from a league stadium-financing program. The stadium would raise labor costs for teams around the league because players receive a share of stadium revenue, even though teams don't share that money with each other. Berthelsen said offering to give up $800 million might help reduce those costs and convince owners to vote for the loans. ``It's better than spending nothing to make nothing,'' he said.
I'm really surprised the players' union is granting this concession. You'd think they'd want the stadium to have more seating in return, because that would generate more revenue for them. In other words, I'm surprised the proposed 81,000 seats haven't been pushed to, say, 85,000. Both the Jets and the Giants would have no trouble selling out the extra seats to everyone currently on the wait list, and it wouldn't significantly add that much more to the construction cost.
I was hoping they would go up to 90,000 so it would be a louder place. Right around 80 (as it is now) isnt bad either.
TheGiants would need to have a capacity of around 120k to make the same noise as 70K Jets Fans. WHAT?!
Bloomberg is reporting it is a done deal and they got the entire 300 million.... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=a_.Zjg2wrBFY&refer=amsports Giants, Jets Receive $300 Million in NFL Stadium Loan (Update1) By Aaron Kuriloff Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The New York Giants and Jets received approval for $300 million in National Football League loans toward a shared $1.2 billion stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands. Representatives of the league's teams, meeting in Dallas, voted 30-2 to grant each New York franchise $150 million through a program that provides financing for stadium construction, Giants co-owner Steve Tisch said in an interview. No other single project has received more than $150 million since the NFL's program began in 1999. ``With no other obstacles, we're in good position to break ground in the spring,'' Tisch said. The Jets-Giants request risked being the first that the owners rejected. Some owners were concerned that increased revenue from the new stadium, once added to the players' salary pool, would boost payrolls for all teams. Owners of both teams said the privately financed stadium was contingent on the $300 million NFL contribution. The NFL players union said this week it was willing to cut the salary ceiling by $800 million over 15 years to reduce the stadium's impact on other teams. It said a new facility would raise salaries by around $2 million a year. With financing secure, the next step for the stadium project is an environmental-impact hearing Dec. 13-14 before two New Jersey state commissions. Share Stadium The Giants and Jets said they should get twice the usual loan because they are the only NFL teams sharing a facility. They agreed to split the costs of replacing 30-year-old Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, after the Jets were unable to get public funding for a stadium on Manhattan's West Side. The teams' plans call for building an 84,000-seat stadium next door to Giants Stadium, with a footprint of about 630,000 square feet, according to a document submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Meadowlands Commission, which will hold the hearings next week. The Giants plan to build a 20-acre training facility 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. Playing in the U.S.'s largest market, the Giants had annual revenue of $182 million, according to a 2006 listing by Forbes magazine, while the Jets had about $179 million. The Washington Redskins led the league, with $303 million. Revenue A new stadium might help both New York teams generate more money from skyboxes, luxury seating, parking, concessions and naming rights, even after borrowing for construction, said Craig Depken, who teaches sports economics at the University of Texas, Arlington. Depken said the average NFL team gains about $20 million in profit annually from a new stadium. ``I imagine at current rates, the debt will be something like $20-25 million a year, so they'll need to get more than the $20 million league average,'' Depken said. ``I have no doubt they'll get it.'' The teams may make more money, and help pay for the stadium, by selling seat licenses, a one-time fee for a transferable permit to buy tickets, said Max Muhleman, president of Private Sports Consultants in Charlotte, North Carolina, who has worked on stadium projects for the Carolina Panthers and other NFL teams. ``They receive ownership or equity in their seats that can be transferred or sold if they wish,'' Muhleman said. ``This is not a front-burner need, but it could contribute a significant amount of capital, around $90 or $100 million.'' Revenue Restrictions Other teams don't share in local revenue that new stadiums generate, such as money from luxury seats, skyboxes, parking and naming rights. Because the NFL's labor agreement calculates the salary ceiling as a percentage of total league revenue, the new stadium also will raise player salaries for all teams. Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills, was one of two owners to vote against the labor agreement in March 2006. U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, joined Wilson in an Oct. 10 news conference saying the agreement threatened the NFL's competitive balance because it left teams such as Buffalo with income pegged to the local economy and expenses dictated by teams in bigger markets such as New York City, Washington or Dallas. Gene Upshaw, president of the National Football League Player's Association, said this week that the union would accept an $800 million cut over 15 years in the salary limit -- $102 million per team this season -- in order to alleviate concerns about labor costs to other teams. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones also said in an interview in October that owners were working to mitigate revenue differences and called giving the Giants and Jets $300 million a ``reasonable approach.'' ``I think we are working and have worked with the player's association to mitigate that revenue so it can take steps to clear the way for a new stadium,'' Jones said. To contact the reporter in this story: Aaron Kuriloff in New York at akuriloff@bloomberg.net
http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?p=377455#post377455 I also posted that story in the news thread since it is breaking news. The 77,000 was boosted to 84,000 according to this.
WOW.. this is great news guys. I'm starting to think the two teams started out with the 81,000-seat proposal so they could use it as a bargaining chip later, as in... "Well, okay, if you approve it, we'll increase it to 85,000." This should make a lot of people on the Jets waiting list real happy!
So far there is no confirm that the owners agreed to give the NYJs & NYGs 150M loans yet that I could find
http://www.nj.com/newslogs/starledg...njo_ledgerupdate/archives/2006_12.html#213042 NFL owners OK $$$ for new stadium NFL owners this morning have approved the Jets and Giants applications for $300 million in league financing for their proposed shared stadium in the Meadowlands. Carl Goldberg, chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, said Jets chief executive Jay Cross had called him to let him know the outcome of the much-anticipated vote. Some NFL owners from smaller cities, whose financial gains from the new stadium will not be nearly as substantial as the Giants' and Jets' gains, had objected to providing such a large loan to a single facility. In the past, the league has limited loans to $150 million for each stadium, but the NFL will double the outlay in this case because the stadium will be home to two teams. "We are very enthused," Goldberg said. "This was arguably the last major obstacle to the start of construnction and we are anxious to take the next step." Contributed by Matthew Futterman
If they break ground this spring, that gives them 36 months to complete it by the fall of 2010. Should be doable, IMO.
How come the Giants are building practice facilities and restaurants and shit on the complex and we're not? I knew our facility was going to be elswhere but whats up with the other stuff...are we still second class citizens here or are we all on equal ground??
The only thing the Giants get the better end of the deal w/ is the practice facility but they have to build it behind the racetrack and cannot be right next the the Stadium like they are now.
