Facility Notes
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Mets Continue To Claim There Are No
Obscured-View Seats At New Citi Field |
In N.Y., Ken Belson reports the Mets "continue to maintain that there are no obscured-view seats in Citi Field, despite what some fans were contending" after Sunday's Georgetown-St. Johns college baseball game at the ballpark. Mets Exec VP/Business Operations Dave Howard admitted that seats in the ballpark's section 533 are "angled in such a way that fans will be unable to see the warning track and some of the field," but he added that the team has "no plans to lower its ticket prices or label the seats in question as having obscured views." Belson notes 1,048 bleacher seats in Sections 201 and 239 of the new Yankee Stadium have "views partly blocked by the walls of the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar," though the team is "mounting five flat-panel screens on each side of the restaurant's outer walls so fans can see on television what they miss live" (N.Y. TIMES, 4/1).
ALTERNATIVE PLAN: On Long Island, Eden Laikin reports Hempstead (NY) Town Supervisor Kate Murray and Council member Dorothy Goosby have "started a petition urging" Nassau County Exec Thomas Suozzi to "seek federal stimulus funds to renovate the aging" Nassau Coliseum. A town mailing to 240,000 homes "asks residents to help refurbish the New York Islanders home and bring more jobs to Long Island." Murray said of the proposed Lighthouse Project, "Long Islanders should not be held hostage and our beloved hockey team should not be used as a pawn in a high-stakes game of profit-driven development" (NEWSDAY, 4/1).
CITY-OWNED: In Dallas, Brandon Formby reports the Cowboys yesterday turned control of Texas Stadium "over to Irving city officials." One of Irving's first tasks will be to "inventory everything left in the stadium." Most of the stadium's furniture "will be donated to the Salvation Army," and whatever items the city "can't use -- including several thousand unsold stadium seats -- will then be auctioned off." The items, including the seats, will be "sold in bulk on the wholesale market" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 4/1).
SECRET DEAL: In Philadelphia, Chris Brennan reports the Eagles, who are "mired in a legal battle with the city over an $8[M] debt," now claim that former Philadelphia Mayor John Street "agreed to settle the dispute quietly for less than $1[M] as part of the deal to build Lincoln Financial Field." But Mayor Michael Nutter's staff, which "learned of the secret deal in October," said that Street "didn't have the authority to approve it without a review by the city Law Department." Brennan notes the Eagles and the city "have been fighting for eight years," as the city "wanted $8[M] for Eagles skybox revenue from the 2000 and 2001 seasons at Veterans Stadium" (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 4/1).
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