Help! Police! That Man Stole $1.3 Billion From Me!

Bob Herbert hits the nail right on the head. The new Jets stadium is utter rot. How dare richy-rich Mike Bloomberg give over a billion dollars of taxpayer money to his richy-rich friend. It is a complete outrage that he would even consider it.

The rail yards on which the stadium would be built are owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the development rights have been valued by the M.T.A.'s own appraisers at $923 million. But the M.T.A. has agreed to sell the rights to this publicly owned property to Mr. Johnson and the Jets for a mere $250 million. That's a subsidy of nearly $700 million for the mayor's fabulously wealthy buddy.

When you add that subsidy to the $600 million in public funds that the mayor and the governor had pledged from the beginning to hand to Mr. Johnson, we're talking about a giveaway of $1.3 billion. The rascals used to do this sort of thing in back rooms, while worrying about headlines, indictments and handcuffs. Now they've figured out how to do it legally.
...

"This proposed sale of a $923,400,000 asset by a New York State public authority for a present value of $210 million [later increased to $250 million] is a disgrace and a violation of the M.T.A.'s duty to act in the best interest of the people of the state of New York and of our public transit system."

That the M.T.A., which is hemorrhaging cash, is ready to give hundreds of millions of dollars to the Jets is beyond absurd. Over the past couple of years it has raised fares, reduced service on subway and bus lines, closed dozens of subway token booths, cut back on maintenance and cleaning, and treated its riders to a long succession of major fires, foul-ups and breakdowns.

That's the first thing you need to know.

The second thing is that hardly any of the ordinary taxpayers and transit riders subsidizing this glittering playground on the Hudson will be able to see the Jets play there. This is not like Yankee Stadium, where you can actually go to a game. Unless you've already got season tickets (or unless you're wealthy and can afford one of the staggeringly expensive luxury suites), you're out of luck.

The Jets' Web site couldn't be clearer about this. Under the heading "Waitlist Policy," it says: "The New York Jets are sold out on a season ticket basis. There are NO individual game tickets available. If you are not a season ticket holder, you may join our Waitlist. There are currently over 10,000 people on our Waitlist."

You have to pay $50 a year just to be on the waiting list. The wait is approximately 10 years.
...

The third thing you need to know about this stadium is that it's part of a proposed Far West Side development scheme that would be in direct competition with the struggling effort to rebuild the downtown area devastated by the Sept. 11 attacks. The implications of this have not been fully analyzed by the stadium zealots.

Yeah, I’d say that just about sums it up. And Mr. Herbert doesn’t even delve into the studies that show that new stadiums do nothing to improve local economic development.

Mayor Bloomberg, have you no shame?