Like I said, do you need a subway Metro station to play baseball? It seems like the city and state decided they wanted a subway station there and that's fine. I don't see why if there is no subway station, why they couldn't play ball there.

 

They are building a stadium here and some other stuff over there. In the Marlins case they are building a stadium and parking garage on the same plop of land. The Marlins however are not paying for their stadium or parking garages.

 

It sounds what the Yankees are doing is building an area like Wayne is going to build around the Fin.

Like I said, do you need a subway Metro station to play baseball? It seems like the city and state decided they wanted a subway station there and that's fine. I don't see why if there is no subway station, why they couldn't play ball there.

 

They are building a stadium here and some other stuff over there. In the Marlins case they are building a stadium and parking garage on the same plop of land. The Marlins however are not paying for their stadium or parking garages.

 

It sounds what the Yankees are doing is building an area like Wayne is going to build around the Fin.

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all sports venues, especially in New York where there a lot less people driving than most cities, need to be easily accessable via public transportation...

Of all the teams?? Why would they move?

 

Actually, I do know why, all the money Steinbrenner is paying in luxury tax is (under the new CBA) going to be refunded to him for some odd percentage of what is paid into a new ball-park.? Ah, gotta love how the Yankees can still find a loop hole and screw over a system designed to keep them in check...

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Why? Have you ever seen where the stadium is located? It is right in the middle in one of the roughest neighborhoods in the country.

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Have you checked where the new stadium will be? Right across the street.

 

Read the article. :plain

One of the differences in this is that the City of New York (who currently owns Yankee Stadium) will no longer be responsible for the expensive up-keep and demands of the stadium. The Yankees will own the new stadium.

 

If anyone can't remember, the Yanks sold Yankee Stadium to the city so that they could "remove the burden of facility management." The Marlins will pay for all management and up-keep in the new Dade County-owned ballpark.

Just to clarify, there's already a Subway station there. NYC Subways and Metro-North Commuter Railroads are two separate systems. What is being proposed here is adding a Metro-North stop at the new stadium to benefit the fans coming from upstate NY and Connecticut.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/sports/b...all/14shea.html

 

Air of Subway Series in Race for Ballparks

 

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: June 14, 2005

 

If all proceeds according to schedule, the Mets and the Yankees will play in April 2009 at new ballparks designed by the same architectural firm.

 

That would be an accident of timing. Not one major league stadium or arena has been built in the metropolitan area since 1981, when Continental Arena opened at the Meadowlands. Shea Stadium replaced the Polo Grounds in 1964 and has looked outdated almost ever since. Yankee Stadium began life in 1923 and reopened with a less distinctive look in 1976, after a two-year renovation.

 

Now, the region is awash with the prospect of new stadiums and arenas.

 

The Devils are to move into a Newark arena in 2007. The Nets are expected to be in Brooklyn for the 2008-9 season. In late 2009, after the expected openings of the baseball ballparks, the Giants are to open their new stadium.

 

"There's been a lot of pent-up demand, and, quite frankly, economic times are awfully good, with stable interest rates," said Jeffrey Vanderbeek, the Devils' owner. "The time is right for this. And you can't compete if you're not in there with a new arena, with naming rights and all kinds of new seating and restaurants."

 

The Yankees had appeared to hold a substantial lead over the Mets in planning for a new stadium. They were days from announcing their detailed plans when the city turned to the Mets last week to help salvage its bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had hoped that the Jets would build a $2.2 billion stadium on the Far West Side of Manhattan, with $800 million in subsidies from the state and city, but state officials refused to approve it.

 

The Mets' principal owner, Fred Wilpon, looked confident and a bit relieved at the City Hall news conference Sunday. He announced that he would finance a new ballpark that would expand to Olympic size if the city won its 2012 bid. In quiet talks with the city, he had no reason to expect a resolution so quickly, and certainly not at virtually the same time that the Yankees were to announce their deal.

 

Wilpon offered no designs for the ballpark. The Yankees may show theirs to the news media as early as tomorrow. Both teams will use HOK Sport as their architect.

 

"Part of the difficulty all along was how to take care of both New York teams," said Adolfo Carrion Jr., the Bronx borough president. "The smarter players prevailed on this one. The fans win and the city wins."

 

If the city is selected to be host for the 2012 Olympics, the Mets' new 45,000-seat stadium will be temporarily reconfigured as an 80,000-seat track and field/soccer stadium, and the Mets will play that season at the new Yankee Stadium.

 

A determination would then have to be made on how the Mets would be compensated for a year in the Bronx.

 

The lower deck and dugouts of the old Yankee Stadium are to be converted for Little Leagues and high school play. Other applications are being planned for the rest of the building and the area around it.

 

The new Yankee Stadium is expected to look in some ways like the original 1923 design by Osborne Engineering, from the exterior to the facade along the roof. Wilpon has not said if the Mets will preserve such designs as an entrance rotunda resembling the one at Ebbets Field, which he first suggested in 1998.

 

The ability to make more money at their new ballparks is essential to the Yankees' and Mets' financing plans. Despite the Mets' less-storied history and historically lower attendance, they should not encounter serious problems finding as much as $700 million from banks or other institutions, financial professionals said.

 

"Given their cash flow and profile, it's eminently financeable," said Sal Galatioto, an investment banker who, while he was with Lehman Brothers, arranged the financing for Wilpon to buy out his former partner, Nelson Doubleday. "It's a major project, and Fred will have no shortage of people giving him ideas."

 

Marc Ganis, a sports finance and marketing consultant, said that with their new ballpark, the Mets would add fixed costs of at least $50 million annually to pay for the bonds they would issue to finance the stadium and operate it.

 

"He'll have to raise it and he can," Ganis said of Wilpon.

 

With a new stadium, the Mets would not have to pay the city rent, which came to about $10 million last year, and would be able to deduct their stadium payments from some of their revenue-sharing obligations to Major League Baseball.

 

The Mets would also presumably benefit from higher stadium revenues and a stream of money coming from a television network that they will launch next season.

 

The virtually simultaneous announcements of new stadiums for the Yankees and Mets does not surprise Harvey Robins, a former top aide to Mayors Edward I. Koch and David N. Dinkins. "What's surprising is the hysteria over stadiums when there are so many other infrastructure needs in the city," he said.

 

The Yankees are investing $800 million in the stadium, while the city and state will spend up to $300 million for infrastructure projects, the largest element being new garages to be financed by the state, which will get all the parking revenues. The city and state are to spend $180 million on infrastructure for the Mets' project.

The extra $300 million is for a train station, which is a public works which is always paid for by the city. Steinbrenner is paying for the stadium totally by himself.