MLB FACILITY NOTES: NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani said that
there "is no deadline" for Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner
to make a decision on a location for a new ballpark. He
added that the city "would be agreeable" to a lease
extension if the Yankees needed more time to make their
decision (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 3/31)....The Devil Rays have
teamed with Tulsa-based Williams ChoiceSeat to provide
nearly 200 ChoiceSeat units to be installed at Tropicana
Field. One-hundred of the units will be located in seats
behind home plate, with others placed in the stadium's
300,000 square foot mall-like addition known as Center Field
Street (Williams ChoiceSeat)....The Richard E. Jacobs Group
plans to build a 14-story, $29M Courtyard by Marriott next
to Jacobs Field. The Indians and the Cavs paid $2.5M to
Gateway for the parcel (CRAIN'S CLEVELAND, 3/23 issue).
HOME OF THE WILD: MN state and city officials are
"considering" a plan which would reduce the cost to the
state of a St. Paul hockey arena for the Wild and increase
it for the city. Under the latest plan, St. Paul would
cover up to $95M of the arena cost (Minneapolis STAR
TRIBUNE, 3/31). Meanwhile, public records show that MN's
Human Rights Dept. "tried for a year" to get M.A. Mortenson,
which is overseeing construction of the new arena, to make a
"'good faith effort' to hire disadvantaged workers."
Mortenson's President Thomas McCune has denied that the
company "discriminated against anyone and said its failure
to meet the city's goals for unskilled minorities and female
workers was an anomaly (PIONEER PRESS, 3/31).
