Share this
Twitter
Myspace
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
Tags
Article IndexSports owners in the metropolitan New York area should be paying full property taxes. The New York Yankees, the New York Mets, the Jets-Giants ownerships are getting subsidized through PILOTs, the Garden is not paying any property taxes and the truth is, the sports teams are not really creating many jobs. The NHL and NBA are within their legal rights to control their franchise movements however with so much of the league's businesses being propped up by public dollars (including cable TV monies which have been produced thanks to the 1984 Cable TV Act which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan and the revamping of the 1986 Federal Tax Code which shifted the parameters for rent at new municipally built facilities that gave a sports owner up to 92 percent of all revenues generated in the building with just eight percent going off to pay down the buildings debt), it is time to review territorial rights issues.
The American public should really know the score and how much money taxpayers are putting into the system. The news might be staggering.
Since Milwaukee officials in 1950 decided that the public should pay for a baseball stadium in order to attract a Major League Baseball team for the city, politicians have been spending vast amounts of public dollars on owners for big time sports. Leagues are private businesses yet so much of the public is picking up the bills for sports on the professional level and now the college level. The public should begin to have a say. When the Dolan family starts paying their property tax on their Manhattan holding, then they should have a say on whether Brooklyn can go after Charles Wang's Islanders franchise. Newark put up a lot of money for the downtown arena. It seems rather unfair that a bunch of suits in a Manhattan office can summarily dismiss a bid for an NBA team in a publicly built facility just because a commissioner has a fit in 2005 because things didn't go his way or because an NHL owner who is highly subsidized by a city and a state just doesn't want competition a bunch of stops away by subway.
Evan Weiner, the winner of the United States Sports Academy's 2010 Ronald Reagan Media Award, is an author, radio-TV commentator and speaker on "The Politics of Sports Business." His book, "The Business and Politics of Sports, Second Edition is available at www.bickley.com, Barnes and Noble or amazonkindle. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
ALSO BY EVAN WEINER
Lamar Smith should talk to Jon Runyan before keeping Congress out of NFL labor dispute
NFL owners and players are on the clock
Super Bowl XLV: Vince Lombardi wanted no part of the Super Bowl
Can-Am League and a study in public policy failure
Will Ben Roethlisberger get a pass at this Super Bowl?
ESPN will get real competition from Comcast-NBC merger
What if the N.Y. Jets were bought by Zygi Wilf instead of Woody Johnson?
New Jersey might have shot at New Orleans Hornets when N.J. Nets move
NFL's real Super Bowl to be played in Manhattan
Major league sports facing a turbulent 2011
NBA contraction: LeBron James says he didn't mean to get rid of N.J. Nets
Why Carmelo Anthony could join the New Jersey Nets
Big Ten Conference expansion on hold keeps Rutgers in Big East for now
New Jersey's horse racing problems rooted in NFL wanderlust
Journalist Sarah Palin should ask why TV money will fund an NFL lockout
N.J. could get World Cup again if Bill Clinton is convincing
Vince Lombardi's players don't have a seat at the NFL lockout talks
Politics of a potential NFL lockout
How DeMaurice Smith can wreak havoc on a NFL lockout
Baseball Hall of Fame should include Marvin Miller
Keith Olbermann, cable TV sports and news and a political boondoggle
New York City Marathon is area's biggest one-day sports event
Changing economics of radio and sports
Local politicians drop ball in Cablevision-FOX dispute
NBA Preview: Labor woes are coming
NFL get tough policy on illegal hits isn't enough
Is sports the third rail of American society?
FOX-Cablevision dispute and authentic frontier gibberish
Should Chris Christie be considered one of the most powerful people in sports?
Does Linda McMahon know why the N.Y.-N.J. Hitmen and the XFL went out of business suddenly?
Chris Dudley lacking NBA support for gubernatorial run in Oregon
Cablevision-FOX fight is at bad time for N.Y. Giants and Philadelphia Eagles fans
Some questions NFL players should be asking
Will the New York Giants or Jets be blacked out on local TV this season?
Time to allow sports gambling in Atlantic City
With education cuts continuing, will Title IX suffer?
Why no company has signed a naming-rights deal with the Giants and Jets
What happened to the Giants and Jets loyal fans?
Way not to research anything and just spout crap on the Internet! *applause*
Next time, get a better source than some unnamed dope who has no clue about this situation.
They will have Hockey in the Barclays Center (College Hockey). Its very possible that an Islanders move to Brooklyn is very real and it can fit if its going to be retrofitted as Ratner has already gone on record saying he would do. 14,500 for NHL Hockey can work in the Barclays Center, as Brooklyn is part of Long Island (Very Western end).
Gary Bettman gave this interview back on 2/14/2010, not 2011 so why is this here now and not New York winning streak or a few well deserved words on Grabner? . The New York Islanders have full territorial rights to move anywhere in New York outside of Manhattan which countless articles have confirmed.
Wang said recently he would go to the games in Flushing or Brooklyn in an interview.
Without the New York Islanders being what the Yankees were to YES when they were getting started there would be no Cablevision for the Dolan's to attempt to buy the Islanders from John Pickett (which failed) and eventually Msg.
Mr Grossman you want to impress us with something new how about hitting on Bloomberg and Dolan for hypocrisy, now both are hanging out at Msg and going to see Cablevision's hockey team after all the money this city losses on that tax exemptions after they cost NY the Olympic and the NJ Jets.
Nothing short of Murray and Wang at Islander games would be more shocking.
The Islanders are talking about building in Queens and the Rangers cannot claim any territorial rights, because the Islanders are already established in the region. This has already been confirmed by the league and the NHL has said Queens might be a logical place for the Islanders to wind up. The same territorial rights issue in the NBA allowed for the Nets to move to Brooklyn without any issue from the Knicks.
I would also suggest double-checking on the Islander rights. I have been told a completely different story, that the Islanders could move to Brooklyn without compensation to the Rangers. However, the point is moot. With the downsizing of Barclays Center in 2009, there is little room for an NHL franchise. The max capacity of the new arena for hockey is a paltry 14,500, considerably less than the Nassau Coliseum. In addition, the sightlines for the best seats in the arena are not optimum for hockey. There is no way the NHL or its owners would permit such a small capacity arena...no matter how new or now well located.