Giants, Jets Planning To Borrow $650M Each For New Stadium

Manning Under Contract With Giants Through 2012

The Giants and Jets “plan to borrow $650[M] each to build their shared stadium,” according to Daniel Kaplan of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Two months ago, the teams said that the stadium would cost $1.4B, but the “total value is at least $200[M] higher” and sources said that the teams will seek NFL approval to “significantly exceed the league’s debt limits.” Kaplan notes the NFL caps team debt at $150M, but the Giants and Jets are “expected to win approval from owners next week at the owners’ annual meeting, even as some within the sport are said by one team source to be ‘gagging’ at the size of the request.” A finance source said, “I know everyone is freaked about the absolute dollar figure, [but for] a two-team stadium in New York, this is what a project like this is going to cost” (SBJ, 3/19 issue).

GIANT UNDERTAKINGS: In N.Y., Ralph Vacchiano noted despite being one of just a handful of teams who have not signed any free agents yet this offseason, the Giants have “raised ticket prices for the fifth straight season and the sixth time in the last seven years.” All tickets, except those in the upper deck in the end zones and corners, will be raised either $5 or $10 and prices will now range from $75-95, with an average of $83.50. That “puts them in the top 10 for most expensive tickets in the NFL” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 3/17). On Long Island, Staple & Glauber report the Giants exercised a “buy-back” of QB Eli Manning’s contract earlier this month, a move that keeps him under contract through the 2012 season. League sources said that the Giants gave Manning a “$5[M] buy-back bonus as well as a $3[M] roster bonus.” A team source said that the money allocated to Manning has “not been a factor in the team’s reluctance to spend big on free agents” (NEWSDAY, 3/19).