"New stadium report: Thee Yankees win!" NY Daily News 02/08/06

New stadium report: Thee Yankees win!

BY PAUL D. COLFORD
NY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER February 8, 2006

It's the Yankees' version of the hidden-ball trick: Get a new stadium and quietly pass the costs on to taxpayers.

That's the conclusion of a report issued yesterday by Good Jobs New York, which found that, even if the team picks up the stadium's construction costs, the public will face other expenses and lost revenue totaling nearly half a billion dollars.

Meanwhile, the total fiscal benefits - such as increased tax revenue and lease payments from the operation of new garages - were put at $290.3 million.

So, surprise, surprise: The Yankees win.

The report, released amid city and state support for the stadium as a boon to the South Bronx, was significant because its tally includes new calculations of the city's own consultant.

The city and the Yankees - which hope to start building the $800 million stadium, a block north of where it now plays, by May 1 - fired back.

Yankees president Randy Levine said Good Jobs New York should change its name to No Jobs for New York, calling the report "completely false and misleading."

He added, "The undisputed fact is that this project ... will be the largest private investment in any sports venue in the United States and the largest private investment in the history of the Bronx."

Yankees sources said the report failed to note that the city will no longer be responsible for structural and capital costs, which the team will now take on.

These costs were projected to run as high as $350 million over 30 years at the current stadium if it were not replaced, according to team sources and the city's Economic Development Corp.

Originally published on February 8, 2006