Money Yank

Despite being richer than pharaohs, the Yankees have saddled the city of New York with more than twice as much money as the city agreed to chip in for the new Yankee Stadium. Read all about it:

Skyrocketing expenses at the new Yankee Stadium will saddle taxpayers with a $325 million bill - more than twice the amount the city approved in 2006. City Controller William Thompson blamed either "incompetence" or "blatant attempts to mislead the public" for poor initial estimates of costs for demolishing the old stadium, replacing some parks and street improvements.

The original price tag was $129 million.

"Costs don't go up that dramatically in that period of time," he said. "Either someone did that intentionally or it is the worst job of management that I have ever seen." Thompson initially supported the stadium deal and voted for it as a board member for the city's Industrial Development Agency. He said the details have changed significantly enough that he plans to vote no this week when the board considers the team's request for an extra $370 million in tax-exempt bonds.

The $325 million is just the city's direct expenses, Thompson said. That doesn't include lost tax revenues, the cost of building parking garages or a deal to trade parking space and billboard revenue for a city luxury suite. The city relented to public pressure last week and will collect the revenue from that suite instead of using its 12 seats. Yankees President Randy Levine disputed Thompson's calculations and blasted the mayoral candidate for playing politics. "Bill Thompson voted for this deal originally," Levine said. "I had been meeting and debriefing him regularly and as soon as the term limits law passed [allowing Bloomberg to seek a third term], all of a sudden he determined that this was a bad deal."

City officials released a point-by-point critique of Thompson's analysis. They said the increased costs for infrastructure improvements around the stadium were the result of a larger park, better environmental cleanup, a new Metro North station and increased construction costs. "It makes for good political theater," mayoral spokesman Andrew Brent said in a statement. "But it's hard to believe [Thompson] doesn't know that the deal leverages a federal program and will result in New York City getting back more tax revenue than it will cost."

The Yankees deal will get even more scrutiny Wednesday when Levine and a top city economic development official are to testify before a state Assembly committee investigating stadium financing.

The Yankees are saying that the revenues the city get back will more than blah blah blah. That’s what I get out of articles that talk about politics at the city level. I see “comptroller” and my eyes start to glaze over. The thing to take away from this story is the answer to the question, “Should I hate the Yankees?” And the answer is “only if you love America.”