I guess Welch, Ant and me can cover the Gnats and Jets.
yes, but...
The big news that I see is stadium news.
The Giants are very quiet.
Everyone read Herman Edwards -- and I like the guy a lot, for pure standup guts during the 9/11 afterwmath -- has said that he could control Randy Moss. That's not much of a statement about what the Jets really need...aside from a healthy Wayne Chrebet (concussions) and Chad Pennington (shoulder).
Both teams are angling for new stadiums. For the latest on the Giants, see:
Giants Have Their Own Luxury Box Dreams
in todays NY Times at
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/sport ... ecsey.htmlThe Times archives and charges for articles more than one week old, so go quick or pay aout $4.00, which seems silly, but I don't own the Times.
For simplicty, here is the article, written by a clearly sceptical George Vecsy:
February 13, 2005
SPORTS OF THE TIMES
Giants Have Their Own Luxury Box Dreams
By GEORGE VECSEY
THE shrimp are merely a symbol, dipped in figurative cocktail sauce.
Likewise, the white wine is merely a gesture, a token of hospitality. Nevertheless, it is preferably served slightly chilled, at halftime of a football game. Or earlier, if the Giants don't have their offense in gear.
Shrimp and white wine in luxury boxes have become my classic examples of all that is wrong with contemporary sports. But John K. Mara, the executive vice president of the Giants, says it's not just about effete refreshments as he explains why the Giants need a new stadium.
And why should the Giants be any different? Just about every pro team in the New York area is having stadium dreams, arena anxieties, particularly the Jets, who are hustling to get steam shovels chugging in Manhattan before the International Olympic Committee makes its decision about 2012 on July 6.
The Giants' desire for a new stadium is not about the Summer Games but rather about autumnal comfort. Mara said the needs for some wealthy fans were prime parking, private suites, television sets for replays, comfortable bathrooms, a warm haven during a cold game, in addition to easy access to club seats - in case anybody wants to get crazy and actually watch the game.
"For a certain element of the fan base, there is a demand for that product," Mara said. "For a team to survive, you have to move in that direction."
Having qualms about public support for new stadiums, I had asked Mara to explain why the Giants were negotiating with the authorities in New Jersey to build their own stadium, one that would cost $700 million and seat 80,000 not far from the current one in the Meadowlands. I was stunned to be told that Giants Stadium was going on 29 years old, after being upgraded in the past decade.
"It is still a good place to see a game," Mara said. "It has good sightlines. But it lacks the amenities."
This family has been in the football business for 80 years. Decades ago, I watched Mara's father, Wellington, who is still the president of the Giants, jogging around the team's practice field in faded blue sweatsuits, or tossing rudimentary game films, wrapped in old sweat socks, down to the coaches. I'm just guessing his children did not fall too far from that rather modest tree.
"We've been pushing for a new stadium for years," John Mara said in a telephone conversation Thursday. "We are in an old building with an unfavorable lease. We are slipping toward the bottom quartile in the league."
"We need to keep up with the Joneses, the Snyders, the Luries," he added, referring to the owners in Dallas, Washington and Philadelphia. "The three teams in our division are all in the top quartile."
The glory of the National Football League is the socialistic policy that has all 32 teams sharing equally from the large network television pot. But even with the Giants' seating capacity listed at 80,242 since the stadium's expansion, the parity is eroding, Mara said, because of unequal stadium leases and unequal facilities. Leases for luxury boxes bring in millions of dollars while snacks yield pennies.
"We don't want to say, 'We can't afford a signing bonus,' " Mara said, referring to that enticement for a free agent who might upgrade the team. So a new stadium would pay for last season's prize rookie, Eli Manning? "It will pay for his next contract," Mara said.
"Right now we have 112 boxes," Mara added, "but we have a three-way split with the Jets and the sports authority. We would contemplate having 200 boxes. Right now, we really don't have club seats. We would like to have between 6,000 and 12,000 club seats with more amenities."
It all gets back to amenities. Not everybody at Giants Stadium is content to fill up on substantial tailgate brunches, but are "amenities" enough reason for knocking down a perfectly good stadium and building a new one?
"To tell you the truth, if it was me going to a game, I'd prefer a hot dog and a pretzel," John Mara said. But the 50-year-old businessman in him sees it differently: "There is a divide in the market."
To build the stadium, with their money, the Giants may have to accept a double traffic jam from a proposed amusement park next door. Getting to Giants Stadium is brutal now because there is no rail service.
Of course, the wisest thing would be for the Jets to conduct their eight-times-a-year business with a new lease across the river from their proposed $1.7 billion West Side railroad-yards-of-dreams.
The Jets are being gang-tackled by public opposition, by wary politicians from each party and by the Dolans from Madison Square Garden, whose offer to build housing on the West Side just might be pure mischief.
Mara said he was not waiting for the Jets.
He wants a new stadium as soon as 2008. Shrimp and white wine to follow.
Speaking as a very recent New Jersey citizen, and an current New York citizen, it all looks like a Giant rip off of public money at Jet-like speed, money of which we don't have too much in either state.
[Note: I have a terrific migraine today, and the medication makes my sloppy typing even worse than usual. Apologies to all.]
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All this football stadium envy in the NY areas follows the Yankees and Mets deperate attempt to rip off the public for two new stadiums.
Oh, and a slippery attempt to get Nets and Devils stadiums.
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No, not with my tax money, George Steinbrenner and Mara family. If the Yankees want to move to Nashsville to replace the Nashville Sounds (their AA farm team), let them go. Are there any baseball teams, maybe in Tampa, that would like to share NYC with the Mets?
If the Giants want to move to Sacramento, let them. Might another team that wants to move here? Calling the Raiders?
This edges into another topic.
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I remember that Mayor Giuiliani had a bug in his ear on September 10, 2002, about (a) pushcart hotdog vendors (horrors: using a $1.50 hot dog to complete with $20 business lunches...unfair!!), the temptation for real New Yorkers to
jaywalk 5th Avenue near Rockefeller Center, and, the biggey: Mayor Rudy's plan to spend $1 billion (yes, that's a 'b') to build new versions of Yankee Stadium and Shea.
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Yes, the stadium building binge is a separete topic, but that's what I see most in the papers. By the way, there is a link to the new stadiuum in DC, with the difference that the DC deal was done, signed, sealed, and delivered when the City Council tried to renogiate.
By the way, given my choice, RFK is a "good enough" baseball stadium, but the negotiation time is over. Enjoy it this year, Senators (aka Nats) fans. I certainly hope they re-paint the upper-deeck seats when Frank Howard, the immense Hondo, hit his 450 foot (or more) home runs. They used to paint the seats where they landed gold, and hardy anyone but Hondo owned an under-deck seat. But, another topic.
(The migraine medication is begining to make my mide wander...)
[OK, head's better, so I corrected the typing. Stadium issue remains, though.]
