Giants, state seal stadium deal

[David Puddy]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=e...3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg==

Giants, state seal stadium deal

Thursday, April 14, 2005

By JOHN BRENNAN

STAFF WRITERS

The Giants have reached an agreement with the state for a $750 million new stadium in the Meadowlands - an 80,000-seat facility that will feature state-of-the-art luxury suites, thousands of premium seats, dramatically roomier concourses and high-end food and retail offerings.

The final details in a memorandum of understanding, to be signed today at a press conference at the Meadowlands Sports Complex, came after more than four hours of face-to-face negotiations lasting into Wednesday evening.

According to the deal to replace the 29-year-old Giants Stadium, the Giants will pay the entire cost of construction, manage the building and keep the profits. In addition, they'll pay the state $6.3 million a year in rent and pay to demolish the old stadium, acting Governor Codey said Wednesday.

By the time the Giants play their first game in their new stadium in 2009, the rest of the sports complex's franchises may be gone - the New York Jets to Manhattan, the New Jersey Devils to Newark, the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn and the New York/New Jersey MetroStars to Harrison.

"It's a good thing that we're finally going to keep a team in the Meadowlands," Codey said at a press conference in Oakland on Wednesday afternoon. "If you think about what's happened in the past few years, we've essentially lost all our sports teams. When those teams came in, especially the Giants, just think about the economy that was created in Bergen County - the retail, the commercial, the hotels, and so forth, all as a result of those sports franchises.

"The fact that we will eventually lose [teams], there's people that are going to lose jobs. There's going to be less sales tax revenue, and there's a ripple effect in terms of the commercial buildings and the retail as well," he said. "So I'm happy that we're going to be able to retain the Giants in a brand new football stadium that they will pay for."

After an impasse between the state and the Giants that lasted several weeks, informal stadium talks resumed on Friday. By early Tuesday afternoon, New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority President George Zoffinger - the chief opponent of the deal that was on the table - had reluctantly agreed to recommend the plan to the sports authority board later this month.

Sports authority Chairman Carl Goldberg and Paul Fader, Codey's chief counsel, met with Giants Vice President John Mara at the sports authority offices in East Rutherford on Wednesday. Goldberg was not available for comment, and Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon said the team would not speak about the deal until today's press conference.

Zoffinger has expressed concern that the $6.3 million in annual rent paid by the Giants would not be enough to allow the sports authority to pay off the more than $100 million in debt allocated to the site. But Codey said that the additional sales tax revenues from a more lucrative stadium would alleviate that problem.

"Two independent investment firms have said to us that this deal is either equivalent to, or slightly better than, the deal we have right now in terms of paying off the debt," Codey said. "So financially, we'll be fine."

Giants Stadium opened in 1976, with the New York Jets joining the Giants as tenants in 1984. Only eight NFL teams play in older stadiums, and, of those, the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals have deals in place for new ones. Five of the other teams are seeking new facilities, while the Buffalo Bills have repeatedly renovated their 32-year-old building.

The Giants expect to spend the rest of the year on site preparation, then begin construction by early 2007. They are considering two sites at the sports complex.

Attorneys for the sports authority and the Giants each had filed lawsuits within the past six weeks in an attempt to bolster each side's case regarding the "state of the art" clause in the team's lease. The clause, added in 1995 when the Giants agreed to extend their stay at the Meadowlands until 2026, was designed to ensure the team would not wind up playing in an antiquated facility.

To remain in their stadium, the Giants have contended that the sports authority would have to spend at least $300 million in upgrades such as widened concourses, premium seats and upscale restaurants. Zoffinger, however, said the upgrades might cost less than $100 million.

The Giants' suit, filed last week in Superior Court in Hackensack, also sought an injunction against the start of the $1.3 billion Xanadu project at the Continental Arena site. The team contended that the sports authority had no right to authorize last month's start of construction without the approval of the Giants, whose fans use the arena parking spots.

Potential traffic and parking problems stemming from Xanadu also worry the Giants, who will soon meet with executives of Mills Corp. and Mack-Cali to try to find a compromise on Sunday opening hours for Xanadu. The retail portion of Xanadu presumably would be closed due to Bergen County's Sunday blue laws, but a majority of the 2.2 million square feet from Phase One of the project will be entertainment-related.

E-mail: brennan@northjersey.com

[LizDevil30]

So they changing their name to NJ Giants?