Baseball: mayor bloomberg says no money for new yankees stadium

Bloomberg Swats New Stadium for Yankees

Fri Jul 30, 6:54 PM ET


NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg agrees: The New York Yankees (news) could use a new stadium. So could the Mets. And the Knicks and Rangers could use a new home, too.


Reuters Photo



But given the city's precarious financial status, the teams should not expect New York to kick in a lot of cash toward any of the projects, Bloomberg said Friday.


"It's got to be done with private money," Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show. "We need a new Yankee Stadium. We need a new Shea Stadium. In fact, we need a new Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately, the city doesn't have a lot of money."


Bloomberg's comments came a day after Crain's New York Business reported that the Yankees wanted to build a new, $750 million stadium across the street from the existing Yankee Stadium.


The team was seeking $450 million in public money to build a a hotel and conference center, improve and increase public transportation to the area, and build three new parks elsewhere in the Bronx, according to the Crain's report.


Under state law, the team must replace the parkland it uses.


Yankees manager Joe Torre speculated it would be hard to match the charm of the original ballpark, which he said is like "walking into a museum."


"When you think of old ballparks like Wrigley and Fenway, they're still standing," Torre said Friday before the start of the Yankees-Orioles game. "I think they've done great things with new ballparks and giving them personality, but this place especially, with all the championships and players who have come through here, you know it would lose some of the mystique that this is where it all happened."


The report, citing anonymous sources, said the Yankees planned an announcement about the proposed new stadium in the next two weeks — although the team said that was not true.


"There is no date scheduled for any announcement," team president Randy Levine said Thursday. "When we conclude consulting with the mayor, the governor, the Bronx borough president and other elected and community officials — and when our plans are finalized — we will have something to say."


The team will likely seek to finance the facility by issuing tax-exempt Industrial Development Authority bonds, with revenue from the new stadium easily paying off the bonds, according to Crain's.


The Yankees are looking at a design with about 50 skyboxes, Crain's reported.


A tentative agreement to build new stadiums for the Yankees and the New York Mets (news) was announced just before Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites) left office at the end of 2001. That nonbinding deal, which called for the city and the teams to split the $1.6 billion cost of the stadiums, was shelved by Bloomberg

The only way that public moneyshould go into the projects areif the Olympics are going to come to town.

I hope they don't tear down Yankee Stadium. It's one of the oldest ballparks, and it is like a piece of history. Thats why I was glad when they left MLG when the ACC went up.

Nice to hear they left the Garden up, the Spectrum is still standing here in Philly as well.


Steinbrenner has more money than he knows what do with, let him finance a new stadium. :yawn:

Originally posted by ProudAmerican
Steinbrenner has more money than he knows what do with, let him finance a new stadium. :yawn:

amen. That's one thing I loved about Jack Kent Cook, he built what is now Fed Ex Field with his own cash, no government dollars. I beleive he did the same when he bult the Great Western Forum, many, many years ago...

And he can start with all that money he put aside for the Unit that he wont need now.

The Yankees want help paying for a new stadium!!! How about not overpaying players for five minutes and paying for their own stadium.


P.S. They're probably going to make Maple Leaf Gardens into a grocery store. IMO better off dead.

Just a hunch but wouldnt it be better if they used yankee stadium, the new one for all sorts of events that could happen there. Because one of the main reasons the mayor Bloom wont put up money is because it will be used just for baseball and nothing else.

here is an interesting take on who might end up paying for a new stadium for the yankees

baseballprospectus.com...

Originally posted by sniper474
I hope they don't tear down Yankee Stadium. It's one of the oldest ballparks, and it is like a piece of history. Thats why I was glad when they left MLG when the ACC went up.

You live in Petersburgh, what would you care. lol FYI MLG is going to be turned into a loblaws.

Originally posted by websurfer
lol FYI MLG is going to be turned into a loblaws.

Man, the Gardens would never sink that low. They are gonna be a Sobeys, not loblaws.

Originally posted by sniper474

Originally posted by websurfer
lol FYI MLG is going to be turned into a loblaws.

Man, the Gardens would never sink that low. They are gonna be a Sobeys, not loblaws.

LOL. The Leafs are alot like Sobeys, everything is just to darn expensive.