December 3, 2008
Yanks do right thing and fans win
Forget about the fact that we knew this new Yankees stadium was coming for a year. That the long-overdue news conference began 15 minutes late yesterday, despite being on live television. That they gave every politician in the state five minutes on the podium.
This was, indeed, a glorious day, not just for Yankees fans, but for anyone who has ever stared down a bully.
Yesterday, George Steinbrenner and his henchman Randy Levine had to reveal their vision with the sweetest of caveats: The ballpark won't cost us, the taxpayers, a penny. Yes, there will be some $200 million in city and state funds for infrastructure and parkland, but even noted sports economist Andrew Zimbalist -- who has blistered owners and their avarice for many years -- doesn't object to that.
"Any way you look at it," Zimbalist said last night, "this is a pretty generous deal for the city."
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The Yankees, having utterly failed to take tax money away from their hard-working fans, will pay $800 million out of their own pockets. The bullies couldn't find anyone willing to give up their lunch money.
Given that the Mets made the same concession just four days ago, this marked a brilliant, doubleheader sweep for the common folk.
"We decided we wanted to stay in the Bronx. Do the job for the Bronx," Steinbrenner said. "That's why we decided to stay. And that's the cost, today."
From that remark, you might have deduced that the Yankees, just last year, for argument's sake, said to themselves, "Hey, let's get a new stadium, and let's pay for it ourselves!"
Suffice it to say, The Boss, who spoke only to answer a couple of questions -- his son-in-law Steve Swindal gave the family speech during the formal portion of the news conference -- didn't quite include all of the pertinent information in his statement. Had he done so, his response would've sounded something like this:
"Well, we tried forever to get the hell out of the Bronx, doing everything we could to demonize this area and make it seem dangerous. I even complained about the lack of parking spots, and I threatened to move to New Jersey if I didn't get what I wanted."
Remember that?
"We hoped to get our own, publicly-funded ballpark on Manhattan's West Side. Rudy Giuliani was on our side. Shoot, he spent so much time on our radio station with John Sterling and Michael Kay, plugging the idea, I thought he was going to put in for our lousy health benefits.
"Then, as Rudy left office in December 2001, he told us we would get $400 million in city money for a new Bronx ballpark, with us chipping in the other $400 million. But that idea lasted about as long as Armando Benitez's time in pinstripes.
"So, here we are. Yes, $800 million is a ton, but we'll make it back with all of the new luxury boxes. Besides, I'd rather spend the money on ourselves than distribute it to those *&%#! Devil Rays in the revenue-sharing program."
The speech would've been wordy, sure, but given how many meaningless politicians spoke yesterday, it wouldn't have made the event seem that much longer. And Steinbrenner's honesty would've been appreciated.
The one meaningful politician in this whole wonderful story is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who took one look at that Giuliani proposal and said, "Nope," and sent the Yankees and Mets back to square one.
"We make investments," Bloomberg said. "We don't do subsidies."
(Of course, this doesn't quite explain what the heck Bloomberg was thinking during that whole Jets fiasco. But we'll let our football equivalent Bob Glauber tackle that one).
Team president Levine -- who, if so ordered by Steinbrenner, would personally shake down every Yankees fan for loose change -- told Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki, "We heard you." And for that, the Yankees deserve credit.
Is this new ballpark necessary? We don't think so, and if there's a large segment of Yankees fans who disagree with us, then we are woefully out of the loop. But it looks and sounds beautiful, and if it can be the Camden Yards of the Bronx, then who are we to complain?
It's all good now. The bullies won't be harassing us anymore.
Mixx it!
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
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