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Arenas/Stadiums

The Bloomberg Administration has been very generous to what we call “sport entertainment corporations” by financing new baseball stadiums for the Yankees, Mets and providing subsidies for the yet to be completed basketball arena for the Nets at Brooklyn Atlantic Yards. A new football stadium for the Jets on Manhattan’s Far West Side did not become a reality, but due to changes in land-use the area it is expected to become a new commercial and residential neighborhood being financed with numerous tax breaks. Not to be left out, Madison Square Garden is the beneficiary of a property tax break thanks to an arrangement made by former Mayor Koch.

Yankee Stadium and Mets' Citifield

April, 2011

The Bloomberg Administration has awarded substantial subsidies and land use variances to both of New York’s major league baseball teams. The majority of our research is below is on the $1.2 billion in subsidies for the development of a new Yankee Stadium that is also having a negative impact on residents mostly due to the removal of over 24 arcres of park land for the new stadium and accompanying parking garages. The replacement of Shea Stadium with Citifield like Yankee Stadium, was heavily subsidized, but the impact on the surrounding neighborhoods was limited in comparison as the Mets chose to build its new stadium in an existing parking lot.

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Jets Stadium and Madison Square Garden

A football stadium for the New York Jets was to be one of Mayor Bloomberg's biggest development projects. After much controversy, in 2005, the stadium proposal was defeated. But the area of Hudson Yards, the area surrounding where the city proposed the stadium to be, is in the midst of a massive commericial and residential development plan. Read a brief by the Fiscal Policy Institute to learn more about the extensive subsidies still planned for this development. 

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Brooklyn Atlantic Yards/Nets Barclay's Arena

Forest City Ratner's plan to bring the New Jersey Nets basketball team to a new stadium in Brooklyn has been hotly contested since its announcement in 2004. The multi-billion project, when first envisioned, included a basketball arena for the New York Nets and several high-rise buildings for residential and commercial use. To win support from some groups, the developer promised a significant number of affordable housing units and local consrtuction jobs. But those promises did little to calm residents angered by New York State's use of eminent domain and the massive scale of the project on the surrounding Prospect Heights neighborhood.

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