Friday, March 31, 2006
It's Porkball for Yankees and the Bronx
[This article is in the TimesSelect (pay) area of the NYT Web site.]
Metro Matters
It's Porkball for Yankees and the Bronx
By JOYCE PURNICK
Published: March 30, 2006
WELL into a City Council hearing this week on the proposal for a new Yankee Stadium, one of the lawmakers recalled why he and his colleagues were there in the first place. "The name of this here issue is not black, not white, it's green," said the councilman, Thomas White Jr. of Queens.
At least someone in that Council chamber got it right. For most of the afternoon on Tuesday, the long, emotional hearing resembled more of an encounter group than a legislative session.
It got so heated that it was often hard to figure out exactly what Council critics of the team's plan really wanted, so avidly did they take advantage of the setting to rail at the Yankees.
"You're smiling as if you hit a home run, but from where I sit, it is a foul ball," Councilwoman Helen Diane Foster of the Bronx told Reggie Jackson, a special Yankees adviser who testified in support of the team's plan for a new $800 million stadium.
Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn, the former Black Panther, dropped in long enough to deliver one of his familiar diatribes. "This is not about baseball, this is about trust," Mr. Barron said, asking the team president, Randy Levine, how many "people of color" held decision-making jobs with the Yankees but cutting him off before he could fully answer.
No, I do not like the N.Y. Yankees. Not at all. Not the Bronx stadium where they play, nor the hordes of Yankee fans that come to Baltimore to view the Bombers in road greys. And especially not the owner, George Steinbrenner.
But more to the point, it's a sad commentary that there is even serious discussion of N.Y. taxpayers giving Mr. Steinbrenner even part of a new ballpark for his Yankees to play in. Apparently taxpayers will pick up about 20% of the cost, with the Yankees paying the rest. A better deal for taxpayers than many other new stadium projects in the United States, but still not right.
This is a franchise that is often referred to as the "richest in sports," and the team ought to be able to build itself a new venue without leaning on anyone else. And the excuse of Everyone Else Does It is, as far as I am concerned, without merit.
New Yankee Stadium
Metro Matters
It's Porkball for Yankees and the Bronx
By JOYCE PURNICK
Published: March 30, 2006
WELL into a City Council hearing this week on the proposal for a new Yankee Stadium, one of the lawmakers recalled why he and his colleagues were there in the first place. "The name of this here issue is not black, not white, it's green," said the councilman, Thomas White Jr. of Queens.
At least someone in that Council chamber got it right. For most of the afternoon on Tuesday, the long, emotional hearing resembled more of an encounter group than a legislative session.
It got so heated that it was often hard to figure out exactly what Council critics of the team's plan really wanted, so avidly did they take advantage of the setting to rail at the Yankees.
"You're smiling as if you hit a home run, but from where I sit, it is a foul ball," Councilwoman Helen Diane Foster of the Bronx told Reggie Jackson, a special Yankees adviser who testified in support of the team's plan for a new $800 million stadium.
Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn, the former Black Panther, dropped in long enough to deliver one of his familiar diatribes. "This is not about baseball, this is about trust," Mr. Barron said, asking the team president, Randy Levine, how many "people of color" held decision-making jobs with the Yankees but cutting him off before he could fully answer.
No, I do not like the N.Y. Yankees. Not at all. Not the Bronx stadium where they play, nor the hordes of Yankee fans that come to Baltimore to view the Bombers in road greys. And especially not the owner, George Steinbrenner.
But more to the point, it's a sad commentary that there is even serious discussion of N.Y. taxpayers giving Mr. Steinbrenner even part of a new ballpark for his Yankees to play in. Apparently taxpayers will pick up about 20% of the cost, with the Yankees paying the rest. A better deal for taxpayers than many other new stadium projects in the United States, but still not right.
This is a franchise that is often referred to as the "richest in sports," and the team ought to be able to build itself a new venue without leaning on anyone else. And the excuse of Everyone Else Does It is, as far as I am concerned, without merit.
New Yankee Stadium
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