Sep 16, 2008 9:18 pm US/Eastern
Lawmaker, Yankees At War Over New Stadium Perks
Assemblyman Brodsky Charges That City Officials Will Get Free Luxury Boxes On The Public's Dime
Yankees Hit Back, Say Brodsky Twice Voted For Plan
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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New York Assemblyman Richard Brodsky says taxpayers and ticket buyers are the losers in plans to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies to build the new Yankee Stadium. (File)
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
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The outside of the new Yankee Stadium, which is schedule to open next spring.
CBS
As the new Yankee Stadium prepares to open next season, a state lawmaker is questioning what he calls a lucrative deal at taxpayer expense.
A blistering 30-page report was released Tuesday and it claims the stadium deal is being paid for by you -- not the Yankees.
With the new stadium set to open next year, a major detractor is sounding off.
"This is the house that you built, not the house the Yankees built," Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Westchester, said.
In the report, Brodsky blasts city officials for getting a free luxury box, negotiated in secret two years ago, and paid for by the taxpayers.
Luxury boxes at Yankee Stadium are set to go for $600,000 to $850,000. But a box for city officials, controlled by the mayor's office, is free, just as it will be at the Mets' Citi Field. The city also gets dibs on buying 180 tickets to Yankee home games, before they go on sale to the public.
"We should not have a special class of public official who has free access to these facilities while the rest of us can't afford it," Brodsky said.
All this while fans will be asked to pay higher ticket prices at the new ballpark.
"It's part of politics," one fan said. "I don't think it's right."
"They're elected officials; they're us, so why should they get it for free?" one woman asked.
Brodsky said the stadium has city and state subsidies of $336 million and up to $500 million in IRS-approved tax-exempt bonds. He charges the assessed value of stadium land was inflated to qualify for tax exemptions. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the deals with the Yankees and Mets, saying they're great for the city.
"And both team owners invested $800 million to $1 billion, private money into the economy, private money going in," Bloomberg said.
Later Tuesday, the Yankees reponded, noting, as did Bloomberg, that Brodsky had twice voted in favor of the Yankee stadium deal in the Legislature.
"The project has been one of the most transparent transactions undertaken in the city of New York and details have been recorded in voluminous, publicly available documents," said Yankees spokeswoman Alice McGillion.
She said Brodsky's statements were inaccurate, noting that 1,000 permanent jobs will be created -- not 15 as Brodsky claimed, citing public statements by the city and Yankees.
She also said ticket prices are very affordable, with about 35 percent of tickets priced at $25 or less and half the tickets priced at $45 or less.
"It is disappointing that Assemblyman Brodsky, for personal aggrandizement, is attempting to insert himself into the final week at the current Yankee Stadium," she said.
If the city ends up accepting the luxury boxes, it will be following a pattern of perks set by a dozen other cities for football, baseball and basketball.
The mayor said the luxury box and tickets are used to entertain potential business partners, and tickets are used as rewards for city workers.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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