Owners Approve $300 Million Loan to Giants and Jets for New Stadium
FRISCO, Tex.--The NFL's team owners today ratified a $300 million subsidy to aid the New York Giants and New York Jets in building a new stadium in the Meadowlands.
The owners voted, 30-2, during a meeting at a resort in this Dallas suburb to approve the request by the two teams. The measure needed at least 24 votes to be ratified.
The Giants and Jets plan to open a privately financed $1.2 billion stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., in 2010. The facility is projected to make them among the wealthiest franchises in the league.
Representatives of the two teams expressed doubts that the stadium project would have gone forward if the loan from the league had not been approved.
Some small-market clubs had objected to the project because the additional revenues generated by the new stadium will increase labor costs for the other teams. But the NFL Players Association eased those concerns by agreeing to reduce the teams' salary cap obligation to the players by $800 million over a 15-year span. Union officials took that step because they believe the players will make back that money and much more from their share of the new revenues generated by the stadium in the New York area.
The Jets joined the Giants in the Meadowlands project after public funding for a proposed stadium for them in Manhattan was rejected.
The owners today also approved a $42.5 million grant from the league's G-3 stadium loan program for the Kansas City Chiefs to renovate Arrowhead Stadium.
The loans to the Giants, Jets and Chiefs exhaust the G-3 fund. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league, the owners and the union will study proposals for a new system for helping to fund stadium construction.
By Mark Maske |
December 7, 2006; 1:50 PM ET
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Posted by: SkinsFan1 | December 7, 2006 2:52 PM
$1.2Billion stadium, privately financed with a $300M league subsidy! I cannot imagine the stadium, but now I see why the NFL is profitable and growing, while the MLB is losing popularity.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 7, 2006 3:57 PM
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Freakin ridiculous.