New York Times article on sports arena plan, Nov 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

THE NEW YORK TIMES METRO TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2001 L+ D5

REGION

Weighty Group Revives Plan for a Newark Sports Arena By IVER PETERSON ' ; With the election over. Rich Me- tee canceled hearings on the project. the one at the Meadowlands. Michael TRENTON Nov 12 —Two months Grath, Mr. McGreevey’s spokesman. The new plan uses the same fi- M. Horn, a member of the new group after a plan to build a $355 million prospects were good for the new nancing as the failed one, envisaging and a former state treasurer, said sports arena in Newark fell apart Proposal — as long as it includes an investment of $115 million from the bill would contain disclaimers of New Jersey political and business safeguards to protect taxpayers, the owners of the two teams, $50 any state obligation for the bonds. heavyweights have formed a new million in loans and grants from Es- Any money raised beyond the orgaAization to revive the project. Mr. McGrath said “but he sex County and the City of Newark, amount needed to retire the bonds The srouD Backing What’s Best in *““8 a plan that IS self-financing and the remaining $190 million would go to the state, Mr. Horn said. New jfrsey Inc is lerby Finn Ca- In’addition, backers of the plan main­ tain that sending the Devils and the sperson, former chairman of Benefi- arena would be ______ Nets to Newark would end the state’s cial Corporation, the fm^cial con- ^^e Nets and the Devils, the obligation to pay $15 million in annu­ Udes former Gov. T om- national-franchise sports teams PloVinSl UD thc fciCt al subsidies to their present home at as H. Kean a Republican and for- .^heir Xi States Senators^ Bill Bradley and owners have threatened to move them outof the state unless they get that teOmS ha VP. NeW' 1^0018 nOVe 1 the Meadowlands, Continental Air­ lines Arena. 5 J But the proposal still faces numer­ Democrats, the arena. Mr. Keane appealed to Jpr^pv in thpir namP^ V. Earl Wilson/The New York Times _ would be paid for with about $115 million from the separate Garden State chauvinism when he that keeping “two professional --------------------- ous hurdles. Backers say they hope that, with the election over, legisla­ tors will be able to resist the tempta­ owners of the New Jersey Nets bas- teams with New Jersey in their tion to lard the bill up with other Ellen Sorokina remains at home to care for her husband, Oleg Jaisini. ketball team and .the New Jersey names will be another point of pride” Under the plan, the state would projects. But there is no certainty it She would like to get a bigger apartment for them and their daughter, 16. Devils hockey team, but with most of for the state. create a sports and entertainment will generate broad-based support on 1* the financing depending on a novel Legislation to build the arena, zone with the authority to issue its own. And a deal for a Newark kind of bonding based on the creation strongly backed by Acting Gov. Don- bonds for'the area surrounding the arena will be contingent on a plan to A Man’s Internal Struggle of a special sports and entertainment district in the Newark. A previous proposal failed in the aid T. DiFrancesco, eventually foun- dered in September after lawmakers burdened it with tens of millions of arena area, near the Newark train station. The bonds would be paid off with the difference between current revive the Meadowlands, where the teams now play. Other entertainment uses for the Strains Family Resources State Legislature in September after it became embroiled in the politics of the governor’s race. Republican additional obligations for sports projects up and down the state, but particularly in South Jersey, the pre- sales, parking and construction-ma- terials taxes now raised in that area and the amount raised once the Meadowlands have been proposed over the years, including ideas for an amusement park like Disney World By AARON DONOVAN candidate Bret D. Schundler at- cinct of Jack Collins, the Assembly arena is up and running. or a Nascar stock car oval. But busi­ tacked the, plan as a public subsidy speaker, who supported much of the The backers’ financial plans as- nesses with ties to the Meadowlands, Oleg Jaisini fears there is a prob­ lem with the water. An artist’s life for private sports-team owners and a additional spending. The projects sume that a hotel and office space particularly Hartz Mountain Indus­ potential debt burden on the state, were added to induce legislators in will be built in the zone, generating tries, developer of more than 35 mil­ His wife and his psychiatrists fear that the problem is in his head. becomes one of The Democratic candidate, James E. other parts of the state to approve a added tax revenues. Proponents of lion square feet of real estate in the Mr. Jaisini, an artist from Ukraine McGreevey, now the governor-elect; project for North Jersey. As the plan the proposal argues that the new Meadowlands, can be expected to . who immigrated to the United States paranoia. first supported the plan but then became a political liability in an elec- location, near Pennsylvania Station, renew their opposition to decreased with his family in 1989, has become turned against it. tion season, a key Assembly commit- would provide better fan access than traffic and investment there. increasingly paranoid about bacteria .in the water that ter never sees her father having a comes from the seizure.” But because they have only

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