Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

There's no excuse for the tax-exempt status of Madison Square Garden, bestowed dubiously in rough 1982 and justified as preventing the departure of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers from the country's economic capital--and which Mayor Ed Koch mistakenly thought would last just ten years. But that doesn't mean that, as state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal grandstanded yesterday in a press release, that Madison Square Garden Has The Richest Stadium Deal in NYC, New IBO Report Says . Actually, that IBO report (bottom) comes with a letter to Hoylman-Sigal, who requested the analysis, stating that the bottom line is murky: All these sports facilities benefit from public subsidies or incentives that reduce costs but because the subsidy structures for each are different, cross-comparisons are difficult to make. None of the stadium owners are currently liable for New York City property taxes but for different reasons. Missing the point Hoylman-Sigal stressed that MSG isn't res...

The New Yorker yesterday published William Finnegan's  The Fight Over Penn Station and Madison Square Garden , subtitled "How the effort to renovate midtown Manhattan’s transit hub has been stalled by money, politics, and disputes about the public good." Dean Street, July 31, 2019 It's a fascinating article, on multiple levels, but one passage deserves clarification and explanation, because it unwisely sets up Barclays Center as a state-of-the-art alternative to MSG: Madison Square Garden has been New York’s biggest stage for mass entertainment for nearly a hundred and fifty years, and, for the Dolans, it has been a lucrative property. As bad as the Knicks generally are, the arena is almost always full for games, with even nosebleed seats sometimes going for two hundred a pop. The Garden stages more than three hundred events a year, and many of its patrons arrive through Penn. Step off your train, find a working escalator (or walk up the stairs), and you’re there. Ye...

A 12/6/21 Sports Business Journal article,  UBS Arena striking a new chord , has a couple of passages relevant to Brooklyn. The new arena, with the New York Islanders as anchor tenant, is at Belmont Park, the western edge of Nassau County. From the article: UBS Arena enters one of the most competitive live entertainment regions on the planet but boasts a considerable suburban space superiority over its peers, Barclays Center, Prudential Center and the inimitable Madison Square Garden. The extra room affects fans and live music performers’ in-venue experiences, and, outside, leaves plenty of room for a 350,000-square-foot retail shopping village and a future 250-key hotel that will make the site a destination beyond just hockey. And the back-of-house design is clearly an extension of OVG’s live music as a co-anchor tenant concept that it recently debuted at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. The article points out that the loading dock is enclosed and heated "with space for 10-plus t...

Remember the promise, nine years ago, of $15 tickets to Brooklyn Nets games (and how it was rarely   fulfilled )? And remember that tickets soon rose to $25 and $45, then went back to $25 (and went lower on the secondary market), once the novelty wore off--after three years--and the team struggled? Well, those days are long in the past, now that the Nets have superstars. Game tickets are now on sale, at least for full- and half-season plans, with individual ticket sales--presuming some are being held back, for premium pricing against top rivals--announced at a later moment.  Season tickets for 43 games (41 regular season, plus two pre-season) cost a minimum $3,010, or $70/game, as shown in the screenshot at right. When I checked two days ago, however, there were no tickets available at that price, but rather a handful at $80 and $90 per game in the upper (200) section, at $3,440 and $3,870 (see screenshot) for the season. Tickets in the 100 section started at $5,590 , or $13...

Well, arenas are reopening in New York State, with a state requirement for proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours, as announced 2/10/21. That allows for a resumption of sporting events, which have a huge television audience, but not necessarily for concerts--which make more money from ticket sales.  (Note that the separately announced opening, beginning April 2, of event, arts and entertainment venues at 33 percent capacity, up to 100 people indoors, does not really help arenas.) Barclays Center: two-day requirement The Barclays Center is doing better than the state requirement (and its rival  Madison Square Garden ): requiring a test within 48 hours, not 72 hours. But Barclays is not continuing--perhaps because of the difficulty doing it at scale--with what seemed a pilot: rapid testing on-site (as reported by the New York Post  and New York Daily News ), which would do more to establish that a person has not been infected in the intervening two days, an...

No more tax-free ride for the Yankees, Knicks or Rangers, council members demand , Crain's New York Business wrote yesterday, citing a letter from nine members of the City Council to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo that also calls for the Barclays Center to pay taxes. “For far too long, this city has given a free pass to our beloved teams when it comes to property taxes, out of fear they’ll somehow pack up their bricks and beams and head across the Hudson River,” stated the letter, led by Council Member Costa Costantinides (a former Queens Borough President candidate) and signed by Brooklyn Council Member Brad Lander but no others representing districts near the Barclays Center. The arguments deserve teasing out, and mostly--though not completely--make sense to me. Then again, it's not necessarily the best time to make this case, since those venues aren't earning any money during the pandemic. MSG's property tax exemption The clearest case is Madison...

That empty feeling: Pandemic crushing New York event venues , The Real Deal reported yesterday, suggesting that the two big arenas, Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center, are hurting from the coronavirus crisis, which has halted games and events. When contacted by The Real Deal, representative of the two arenas, including Barclays Center operator  BSE Global, declined to comment. That's understandable; they're still trying to make sense of this "black swan" event, along with the rest of us. The article notes that the Madison Square Garden Company's stock price has dropped 34 percent since 2/19/20. BSE Global is privately held, but surely it's hurting too. Yes, both are owned/controlled by billionaires, who can afford losses as well as payment to workers who aren't seeing paychecks. A long road back While professional sports might resume without fans, to recoup broadcasting value, it will take a while for the arenas to come back. “I think we...

In June 2013, I called it a "provisional big win for Barclays Center" when the City Council limited Madison Square Garden to 10-year permit, given that the Manhattan arena would, presumably, have to find a new location. But nothing's happened since, as the Real Deal reported 9/6/18: But with five years left on its special operating permit, MSG appears to have taken no significant steps toward what would be a years-long process of acquiring a new site and constructing a new stadium. Moreover, a City Council spokeswoman wouldn't acknowledge whether it expected that deadline to be met. Keep in mind that simply building an arena can take three years, while land acquisition and an environmental review process takes longer. When Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a press conference announcing a new 33rd Street entrance to Penn Station, he didn't mention any MSG plans. But the Municipal Art Society, which along with the Regional Plan Association an influential advocate for mo...

The Barclays Center plays an intriguing role--notably, its competition with Madison Square Garden and its apparent willingness to trade profit for prominence--in a music industry controversy that began simmering in late May. As Variety reported in a 5/23/18 exclusive,  Fired MusiCares Exec Accuses Grammy Chief of Steering Money From Charity to Cover Shortfall : In a letter addressed to the Recording Academy Board of Trustees, which is holding annual meetings in Hawaii this week, former MusiCares VP Dana Tomarken accuses chairman/president Neil Portnow of choosing to steer money away from the charity in order to fund a deficit from this year’s Grammy telecast, and of brokering a deal to hold the organization’s annual Person of the Year event at a venue that left the charity with a significant loss in 2018 fundraising efforts, resulting in a projected $1 million for this year’s event, as opposed to $5 million in 2017. MusicCares offers emergency help to those in the music...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State address yesterday (video below) was light on governmental and ethics reforms, according to Ben Max of Gotham Gazette. Below, three development-related issues. The Belmont arena He spoke regarding the new Islanders arena, starting at 1:28:25: In 2018, as part of our $6.6 billion LIRR transformation plan, we’ll finish the double track on the Ronkonkoma Line and we will finish it 16 months ahead of schedule and we will then--and we will then begin construction of the third track along the main line, which carries 40 percent of the LIRR riders. We are also rebuilding 39 stations. All together 100 projects which will transform the Long Island Railroad and transform the quality of life on Long Island finally, thanks to you. We also had really good news several weeks ago when it was announced that the New York Islanders are moving back home to Long Island. And they are going to build a $1 billion hockey stadium at Belmont Racetrack. That’s ho...

From the Independent Budget Office's Budget Options for New York City , released last week, "Eliminate the Property Tax Exemption for Madison Square Garden," with emphases added: This option would eliminate the property tax exemption for Madison Square Garden (MSG or the Garden). Since 1982, the Garden has received a full exemption from property tax liability for its sports, entertainment, and exposition property. Under Article 4, Section 429 of New York State Real Property Tax law, the exemption is contingent upon the continued use of MSG by professional major league hockey and basketball teams for their home games. In 2013, the Garden’s owners completed a $1 billion renovation of the facility, and as a result the tax expenditure for the exemption increased from $17.3 million in 2014 to $48.5 million for 2016.   When enacted, the exemption was intended to ensure the viability of professional major league sports teams in New York City. Legislators determined that the ...

Everyone knows the Barclays Center had a very good first year, not in profits, but in selling tickets and generating buzz.  In 2013, the arena's first full year, subscribers to Pollstar, the international concert database service, voted Barclays Center Arena of the Year , topping BOK Center (Tulsa, OK), Bridgestone Arena (Nashville, TN), Madison Square Garden Arena (New York, NY), SAP Center at San Jose (San Jose, CA), and  Staples Center (Los Angeles, CA). Barclays executive Sean Saadeh was a finalist for Facility Executive of the Year. In 2012, Barclays Center was Pollstar's Best New Major Concert Venue , while Madison Square Garden was Arena of the Year. MSG reclaims title In an exclusive 2/17/14, the New York Post reported  Garden greener: MSG reclaims title of No. 1 US facility : The Garden has reclaimed its title as the busiest arena in the country, selling 35 percent more tickets to concerts and family events than its Brooklyn rival from Oct....

Capping a surprisingly effective lobbying effort by the Municipal Art Society, the Regional Plan Association, and Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, the New York City Council voted yesterday 47-1 to renew Madison Square Garden's operating permit for only ten years in order to effectuate a revamp of Penn Station below.. The Garden, which is just finishing a renovation costing nearly $1 billion (begun after a plan to move to Moynihan Station dissolved, and with the expectation of a renewal in perpetuity), "barely acknowledged" the deadline, the Times reported . A move in ten years is not guaranteed. The Garden won't have to move until and unless the city, likely with much help from the state and feds, comes up with a plan to fix Penn Station. The Garden surely will lobby the next administration for changes. And surely the Garden would make a case for significant subsidies, tax breaks, or revenue generating ideas (naming rights, anyone?) if it had to...

Via Pollstar  It's clear that a lot of people, myself included, didn't recognize exactly how many musical acts would glom onto a (mostly) well-run new indoor venue accessible via public transit. But the data suggest that not only is the Barclays Center far outdistancing less accessible arenas like the Nassau Coliseum and the Prudential Center, it's well ahead of Madison Square Garden, though that designation deserves an asterisk. As the L Magazine pointed out yesterday, the 2013 mid-year report from concert-ticket tracker Pollstar shows the Barclays Center third in the world in ticket sales--nearly 660,000 in six months, and first in the United States, behind venues in London and Manchester, MSG & hockey While the L tweaked "poor Madison Square Garden hanging out down there in the number 29 spot," it should be noted that MSG currently houses two professional teams, not one, which means that 45 or so hockey games fill dates in Manhattan, nudging ou...

Well, there was a nice puff-piece on Fox Business yesterday, Madison Square Garden’s $1B Transformation , which cited the company's stock rise and quoted CEO Hank Ratner saying "we'll get through the special permit process, and life will go on as we know it." Actually, however, it was a very tough day for MSG, which was unable to convince two City Council committees to let it operate in perpetuity, as Crain's reported in  City Council committees limit the Garden to 10 years . That doesn't mean MSG will be gone, because plans to renovate Penn Station must find funding, but it was, as Crain's suggested "a huge win to preservationists" or, rather, those like the Municipal Art Society and the Regional Plan Association who want a new Penn Station. And it's a provisional big win for the Barclays Center, which not only may see rival MSG hamstrung by a relocation--though watch who ends up paying for it--but also might emerge, at least for a whi...

The annual Budget Options for NYC , from the Independent Budget Office, again suggests the possibility of having the state eliminate the property tax exemption for Madison Square Garden, which would bring the city $17.3 million in FY 2014. From the document: For three decades, the Garden has enjoyed a full exemption from its tax liability for the property it uses for sports, entertainment, expositions, conventions, and trade shows... When enacted, the exemption was intended to ensure the viability of professional major league sports teams in New York City. The argument for removal: Proponents might argue that tax incentives are now unnecessary because the operation of Madison Square Garden is almost certainly profitable. Because Madison Square Garden, L.P., owns the Knicks and Rangers teams, and the Madison Square Garden Network and Fox Sports New York, it receives game-related revenue from tickets, concessions, and cable broadcast advertising. Additionally, the Garden hosts ...