February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The MTA board voted 14-0 to sell the Jets the rights to use its West Side railyards as the site for the stadium. The cost to the football franchise will be about $210 million.
The struggle over the stadium has seen the erosion of traditional political divisions. Unlikely bedfellows like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and civil rights campaigner Rev. Al Sharpton have united in support of the project. The opposition has included everyone from Cablevision, the company that owns Madison Square Garden, to several local residents’ groups.
An Irish-dominated local union is one of the forces most fervently in support of the stadium. Local 608 is the biggest carpenters’ local in the U.S., with about 7,600 members. Although its ethnic makeup has become more diverse in recent years, it retains the strong Irish character that has marked it out throughout its history. Eight of its 10 executive officers bear Irish surnames; its Web site is dominated by three colors: green, white and gold.
The union is in favor of the stadium for one very simple reason — jobs. The huge project would be likely to employ hundreds of the union’s members.
The exact scale of the job creation during the construction phase remains impossible to estimate with any accuracy, according to Thomas McKeon, financial secretary of Local 608, because too many variables remain.
The plan must still be approved by the Empire State Development Corporation and the Public Authorities Control Board. There is also a question mark over the approval of subsidies totaling $600 million for the project. Half of that sum was to come from the city, the other half from New York State, but while Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki are solidly behind the project, the City Council and lawmakers in Albany are much less enthusiastic about parting with the money.
In addition, a legal challenge to the MTA’s decision was launched by Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. The suit was filed against the MTA, the City of New York and the Jets. It alleges that the MTA “violat[ed] its statutory duties and the public trust” in favoring the Jets’ proposal over Madison Square Garden’s “admittedly higher bid for these development rights.”
Prior to the suit being filed, McKeon had estimated that such an action, coupled with the other outstanding issues, could delay the project for at least a year.
A delay would not necessarily be a bad thing for the union’s members, however. The first landmark event that the stadium is due to host is the 2010 Super Bowl. Any delay now could mean that more carpenters and construction workers are required at a later date in order to get the stadium ready in time.
“The longer this process is dragged out, the more compressed the time frame is, and the more manpower will be required,” McKeon said.
Steve McInnis, the political director of the New York City District Council of Carpenters, said that the stadium and its associated projects could led to 150 to 200 full-time jobs being created, primarily through the use of parts of the complex for conventions.
The MTA’s decision aroused particular controversy because the Jets offer for the railyards was lower than a counterbid from Cablevision. Local 608 took a dim view of the Cablevision proposal, however.
“It’s a lot easier to come up with a big figure and throw it out than it is to actually spend the money,” McKeon insisted. “Where were all these other offers before the Jets threw their hat into the ring? That area has stayed vacant for decades. What incentive would Cablevision have had to follow up on their offer, once they had stopped the Jets?”
Cablevision has always contended that its offer was genuine and represented much better value than the Jets’ proposal.
McKeon, however, is scathing of Cablevision’s position. He is especially trenchant in his criticism of the company’s TV advertising campaign, which suggested that the subsidies for the Jets’ stadium were a waste of taxpayers’ money:
“There are so many positives for New York’s future in this that it pisses me off that a guy like Dolan will fight it with these B.S. arguments,” McKeon said.
The union man is equally unimpressed by the position of City Council Speaker Gifford Miller. Miller, a Democrat who is seeking his party’s nomination to run for mayor against Bloomberg later this year, opposed the stadium deal. After the MTA board approved the project, Miller described it as “the worst land deal since Manhattan Island was sold for 24 bucks.”
“Timing is everything,” McKeon said. “The timing of Gifford Miller’s arguments against the stadium is totally down to political opportunism. He wants Bloomberg’s job. And he has decided that the best way to attack Bloomberg is to attack the thing that Bloomberg has invested so much political capital in.
“If this guy was a serious politician, his speeches and campaign funds would be put to much better use by saying what he would do for New York, rather than tearing down someone else’s idea.”
In a statement to the Echo, a spokesperson for Speaker Miller, Paul Rose stated:
“Speaker Miller believes the Jets’ $2 billion stadium is simply the wrong choice for New Yorkers, especially when we need these vital resources to educate our children and pay cops and firefighters to protect our city. The right choice is to develop the West Side and build a stadium in Queens that would provide twice as many jobs and cost less money.”
To McKeon, jobs shine brightly on the horizon as a direct result of the Jets’ stadium. Little wonder, then, that he waxes lyrical about the project and its potential. He contends no other area of Manhattan is so underdeveloped as the far West Side, and he wants his members, in tandem with the Jets, to change that:
“This is almost like the last grand vision for Manhattan,” he said.