Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner and Mets co-Owner
Fred Wilpon have a "gentleman's agreement" to share a new
ballpark "should the city offer" up a West Side baseball
facility, according to Richard Wilner of the N.Y. POST, who
cited a source saying the owners "made the deal this spring,
through intermediaries, soon after Woody Johnson bought the
Jets." Wilner cited a source as saying that Steinbrenner
and Wilpon believe sharing a facility on the West Side
"would be just as advantageous as playing in separate
stadiums -- with the added glow of a prime-time location."
The source added that Steinbrenner and Wilpon "are confident
that through technological advances and by design, the
stadium interior and exterior, even its playing-field
dimensions, could be changed to have unique characteristics
for each team." With a price tag of at least $1B for the
park, it would "likely be a less expensive proposition for
City Hall than financing two new ballparks in the corporate
bushes of The Bronx and Queens" (N.Y. POST, 12/17).
FOLLOW THE LEADER, ER STADIUM: Meanwhile, NYC2012
President Daniel Doctoroff said that if the Jets "build a
stadium somewhere other than on Manhattan's West Side, the
Olympics will follow." Doctoroff: "We'll go wherever the
Jets, at the end of the day, decide to go." The N.Y. DAILY
NEWS' Michael Blood wrote, "The Jets are considering the
West Side for a new home, but team officials will look
elsewhere if a deal cannot be closed by next fall." Jets
Development President Jay Cross said a Jets stadium on the
West Side "would be complementary to any Olympic bid, but
it's not dependent on it" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 12/16).
N.Y. UPDATE: In N.Y., Charles Bagli wrote that "quiet
negotiations are under way to move" MSG, the Knicks and
Rangers to a "different site in Manhattan, on Ninth Avenue
and 31st Street." Meanwhile, real estate execs said that
investor Harvey Schulweis and developer Jerry Speyer "are in
negotiations" with the NBA to build a one-million-square-
foot office tower that would house the league's film
studios, which are now located in NJ, to Ninth Avenue and
33rd Street. But Bagli wrote, "It is unclear whether the
Olympic proposal, the Jets stadium, a new Garden, the N.B.A.
complex or any other development now in the planning stages
will ever be built" (N.Y. TIMES, 12/16).
