Giants Begin Mapping Plans For New $750M Meadowlands Stadium

Gov. Richard Codey (seated) With Giants And NJSEA Officials

Giants Exec VP & COO John Mara said that “PSLs were not in the plan” for the team’s planned $750M, 80,000-seat stadium at the Meadowlands, according to Steve Zipay of NEWSDAY. Mara: “We’d like to be able to finance the stadium without them. Whether it becomes a part in the future, I can’t say.” Mara said that no construction can begin for “at least a year,” which might delay the stadium opening in time for the ’08 season. Mara said that he “expected a practice and training facility to be attached to the stadium, which would include a [Giants HOF], a team retail store, wider concourses, restaurants and more restrooms” (NEWSDAY, 4/15). Mara added that the team will look to sell naming rights for the stadium or “at the very least sell naming rights for the gates around the stadium.” In N.Y., Paul Schwartz notes there are “no immediate plans to move the team’s training camp from Albany” (N.Y. POST, 4/15). Mara said that the team is “not dropping its request for an injunction to stop” Xanadu construction (N.Y. TIMES, 4/15).

LET’S MAKE A DEAL: Acting New Jersey Gov. Richard Codey said the stadium plan is “the best deal for the taxpayers of any stadium deal in the NFL.” But Smith College sports economist Andrew Zimbalist said Codey was “blatantly incorrect.” Zimbalist noted the Redskins and Patriots play in stadiums “built entirely with their owners’ money” and added that the Patriots are “reimbursing [Massachusetts] for its $71[M] in infrastructure costs.” But he added the Giants’ deal was “very close to the top end of taxpayer advantage, or lack of disadvantage” (N.Y. TIMES, 4/15). In New Jersey, Adrian Wojnarowski writes the Giants “deserve praise for honoring the pledge they made long ago to find a way to finance a new stadium themselves, but Codey held them to it” (Bergen RECORD, 4/15).

ROOMMATE WANTED? Also in N.Y., Ralph Vacchiano reports both Codey and Mara spoke with Jets owner Woody Johnson about staying in New Jersey. NJSEA Chair Carl Goldberg noted that the Giants’ new 40-year lease deal “has provisions for the Jets to sign on as ‘full partners’” if the West Side stadium falls through. But Mara said, “They fully intend on going to [N.Y.] and I expect that’s going to happen. We’re going to proceed as if they’re not coming” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 4/15). Sportscorp President Marc Ganis: SI think the Giants and Jets are doing what is in the team’s best long-term interests. If I was a team owner, I would be going in this direction” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 4/15).