NEW YORK -- In a letter to New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg sent Monday, Comptroller William Thompson asked the city
to reject a tentative $1.6 billion deal to build new stadiums for
the Mets and Yankees.
Thompson wrote that the contract, negotiated by former Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani, contains "certain troubling provisions" -- including an escape clause for the Yankees that Giuliani had denied
existed.
Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel did not immediately return a
telephone call seeking comment.
Giuliani completed the stadium negotiations just three days
before he left office on Dec. 31. The contract, which called for
the city and the teams to split the $1.6 billion cost of the
stadiums, is nonbinding.
Bloomberg has said the city cannot currently afford to build the
ballparks due to projected budget deficits of more than $4 billion
during each of the next three years.
"Our economic development team is studying the agreement, and
Mayor Bloomberg believes that stadiums should be built when the
city can afford them," Bloomberg spokesman Ed Skyler said.
In his letter to Bloomberg, Thompson pointed out several
amendments to the agreement made in the waning days of the Giuliani
administration, when the mayor publicly announced that it was a
priority to push through a plan to construct the publicly funded
baseball stadiums.
One of those amendments is an escape clause that would allow the
Yankees, Giuliani's favorite team, to terminate their lease with
the city at any time during a nine-year period beginning Dec. 31,
2002, if the Yankees "reasonably determine" that the city "does
not intend to proceed with the stadium project."
The team's only requirement would be to give the city 60 days
notice before leaving Yankee Stadium.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg said he was never told about the amendments by the Giuliani administration. He tried to downplay the importance of the issue.
"I think in all fairness to Mayor Giuliani, the basic terms of what he agreed to were described to me with exception of those two
things, which I don't view really as substantive in the grand scheme of things," Bloomberg said.
The Yankees' current lease requires the team to choose between
leaving Yankee Stadium after its lease expires this Dec. 31 or
committing to play an additional five seasons at the Bronx stadium.
The Mets, who play at Shea Stadium in Queens, have an escape
clause similar to that of the Yankees, Mets senior vice president
Dave Howard said. He declined to comment on the comptroller's call
for the city to reject the stadium deal.
When Giuliani announced the stadium deal on Dec. 28, he pledged
that the contracts contained "no escape clauses" for the teams.
The amendment that gives the Yankees the option to leave was
signed by two Giuliani administration officials, including
then-Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota, who was Giuliani's
second-in-command.
Thompson's letter also objects to another amendment signed Dec.
28 in which the Giuliani administration agreed to pay both clubs
$50 million over five years to cover planning costs for the new
stadiums.
Bloomberg has said he would abide by that provision even if no
stadiums are built.
Finally, Thompson pointed out another amendment that would free
the Mets from any obligation to pay the city fees for games
televised on ESPN and for certain advertising revenue.
"I recognize the economic value of baseball to New York City
and support our teams," Thompson wrote to Bloomberg. "However,
... I urge you to negotiate new lease amendments with the teams
which protect the city's financial interests by capturing revenues
that were due the city in the original lease."
Yankees spokesman Howard Rubenstein said that if the tentative
deal presented problems, the Yankees would be willing to continue
operating under the existing lease.
"If it doesn't work out, they could go back to the old lease,"
Rubenstein said. "The Yankees are going ahead with planning."
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