New York City – New York City may be in for stadium sticker shock Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens & Brooklyn) warned today, with the release of a new survey showing cost overruns for the last 10 National Football League stadiums. According to the study, the stadiums have cost 19% more than initial projections due to expensive overruns.
That would drive the cost for the proposed West Side stadium up from $1.4 billion to $1.67 billion—a $267 million increase that the Jets are under no apparent legal obligation to pay.
HIGHLIGHTS ON WEINER’S STADIUM OVERRUN STUDY:
Stadium: Projected Cost: Actual Cost: % Overrun: $ Overrun:
Lincoln Financial Field, Phil. (2003) $340 million $512 million 50.5% $172 million
Soldier Field, Chicago (2003) $587 million $655 million 11.58% $68 million
New Lambeau Field, GB (2003) $295 million $295 million 0% $0
Ford Field, Detroit (2002) $315 million $420 million 33.3% $105 million
Gillette Stadium, Boston (2002) $325 million $392 million 20.62% $67 million
Reliant Stadium, Houston (2002) $367 million $449 million 22.3% $82 million
Quest Field, Seattle (2002) $425 million $430 million 1.18% $5 million
Heinz Field, Pittsburgh (2001) $214 million $261 million 21.96% $47 million
Invesco Field, Denver (2001) $360 million $400 million 11.11% $40 million
Paul Brown Stadium, Cinci. (2000) $288 million $339 million 17.71% $51 million
Average Overrun: 19% $63 million
The West Side stadium deal is already going to cost taxpayers $600 million dollars—the highest public cost of any stadium deal in U.S. history. But it could get worse.
City Hall cites three documents to support its claim that the Jets will have to pay for any cost overruns.
The first is the General Project Plan, which states that “any project overruns will be borne by Jets Development.” The problem is that the project plan is not legally binding, and even if it was, neither the Jets nor the City have signed it yet.
The second is a Memorandum of Understanding between the City and the State regarding the West Side stadium project. It’s language is ambiguous regarding who pays for what overruns, and in any case, the Jets are not a party to the document.
Finally, there’s the Memorandum of Understanding between the Jets and the City. It makes no mention of cost overruns at all.
Today, Rep. Weiner called on the City to disclose any documentation or contractual agreement legally binding the Jets to pay cost overruns.
“If there’s a document binding the Jets to pay for cost overruns, no taxpayer has ever seen it,” said Rep. Weiner. “The City has to come clean about who’s going to pay when the overruns come. This is looking more and more like the mother of all sweetheart stadium deals.”
Weiner has proposed adopting the planned expansion of the Jacob Javits Convention Center to accommodate world class conventions, but return the Jets to their rightful home by exploring the sitting of the new stadium in Queens - perhaps at Willets Point.
Stadium cost data was University of Oregon business school Professor Dennis Howard and publicly available news reports.
