WASHINGTON — Randy Levine, the president of the Yankees, told a Congressional hearing Friday that if the city had not issued tax-exempt financing for the team’s new stadium, it would have left town.
“It’s been no secret for many years” that the team would move if it could not save tens of millions of dollars on financing with tax-free bonds, Levine told the House subcommittee on domestic policy. He added: “There was no shortage of suitors. We see ourselves as a paradigm in professional sports.”
Levine refused to be specific about the other suitors, but when asked after the hearing if New Jersey has wooed the Yankees in recent years he said, “Absolutely!”
He did not say if the interest had emanated from the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, the landlord of the Meadowlands complex. But Carl Goldberg, a board member since 2002 and chairman since 2003, said by telephone, “I’ve never had conversations with any representatives of the New York Yankees about them relocating to the Meadowlands.”
George Zoffinger, the former president, confirmed the history. Read more..
“I am beginning to think that we were Bamboozled by the Bronx Borough President who gave our parkland to the Yankee Organization.”
The new Yankee Stadium, with a 2009 target date, is being built near the old one in the Bronx.
Building Yankee Stadium But High & Dry On Funds
Several years ago, as the Yankees negotiated to build a new stadium in the South Bronx, the neighborhood faced the realities of a massive construction project in its midst: parks would be closed and moved, traffic would be horrendous, life would be, for a while, a hassle.
So, as one way to make up for these inconveniences, the Yankees and elected officials signed a community benefits agreement. It required that the team would give roughly $1.2 million a year, starting when the work began, to various community groups through a special panel. The deal was similar to agreements in other major projects, like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and Columbia University’s expansion into Harlem.
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