So tomorrow is the big day — are Joe and Shelly going to play hooky? Will they sneak out and smoke cigarettes behind the gym all day while Curious George runs around, trying to play the mindful elder, but really just looking like a geeky Student Council flunky, with Mike-Mike trailing his heels, furiously taking notes and trying to look dignified but just coming off like Alex Keaton?
As they gilt themselves with Olympic finery to justify the most egregious act of corporate welfare, well, this week at least, could someone please point to me what events will take place at this ‘Olympic’ stadium? See, the tradition is that track and field events, sometimes soccer (though this is less an issue since most host countries have myriad soccer venues due to its popularity) and opening and closing ceremonies are held at the moneyshot location, which is how the Jets Stadium is being touted. But given that it already is doing double duty as a convention center [Voice of Dan Doctoroff: Hey! Back there! Stop snickering — this is serious stuff! You can too use an arena for other events. I rememeber when the Cleveland Cavs moved from Richfield Coliseum, and it was used very successfully as the site of a flea market, and for motocross, for several years] and football stadium (I think it is going to make toast as well, but that will cost an extra $400 million), it seems reasonable to suspect that not an insubstantial amount of additional money will be needed to realize this one-time use. And it has to be that. I really doubt the cost of putting up and taking down a soccer field in the midst of the dozens of major new events this place is supposed to draw for Javits is going to feasible on the MetroStars numbers.
Take a look at this image and you tell me if you think you can fit a soccer field, or a running track in that snug lil’box. If you were wondering, a soccer pitch is typically 100-130 yards long (comprable to a football field), but between 70-100 yards wide (whereas a football field is only 50 yards or so wide). A easier way to compare is to look at a similar facility plan for the 2008 Games, Guangdong Stadium. Note that neatly inscribed inside the running track is a soccer pitch, which is larger than a standard football field. Now go back and look at this one more time and you tell me if you think someone is fudging the numbers a bit. If this facility is so goddamn important to the Olympics, how about we get a rendering of what the facility will look like without the words “Jets” scrawled all over it? Because it sure won’t look like this.
A couple of questions that might be useful for vote tomorrow: is there additional expense incurred for the adaptation of the stadium for the Games, and is it currently shown in projected costs (Remember how Atlanta built a stadium and then tore half of it down to become the new home of tomohawkkin’ Jane Fonda’s ex’s Braves?)? If not, how much is this costing, and how is it being funded? Have is it been conclusively demonstrated that such a tight facility will indeed accomodate those events, regardless of cost? How long will the facility be unusable because of modifications (that is, if expanding the convention center is such an urgent issue, pushing off full use of the facility until perhaps 2011 as a convention center seems imprudent)? Even if we get good, solid information on all these points, can we ask again, who actually wants this thing? Can Bloomberg find anyone in Manhattan that doesn’t work for him that actually thinks this is a good thing for the borough?
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Stadia agonistes.
So tomorrow is the big day — are Joe and Shelly going to play hooky? Will they sneak out and smoke cigarettes behind the gym all day while Curious George runs around, trying to play the mindful elder, but really just looking like a geeky Student Council flunky, with Mike-Mike trailing his heels, furiously taking notes and trying to look dignified but just coming off like Alex Keaton?
As they gilt themselves with Olympic finery to justify the most egregious act of corporate welfare, well, this week at least, could someone please point to me what events will take place at this ‘Olympic’ stadium? See, the tradition is that track and field events, sometimes soccer (though this is less an issue since most host countries have myriad soccer venues due to its popularity) and opening and closing ceremonies are held at the moneyshot location, which is how the Jets Stadium is being touted. But given that it already is doing double duty as a convention center [Voice of Dan Doctoroff: Hey! Back there! Stop snickering — this is serious stuff! You can too use an arena for other events. I rememeber when the Cleveland Cavs moved from Richfield Coliseum, and it was used very successfully as the site of a flea market, and for motocross, for several years] and football stadium (I think it is going to make toast as well, but that will cost an extra $400 million), it seems reasonable to suspect that not an insubstantial amount of additional money will be needed to realize this one-time use. And it has to be that. I really doubt the cost of putting up and taking down a soccer field in the midst of the dozens of major new events this place is supposed to draw for Javits is going to feasible on the MetroStars numbers. Take a look at this image and you tell me if you think you can fit a soccer field, or a running track in that snug lil’box. If you were wondering, a soccer pitch is typically 100-130 yards long (comprable to a football field), but between 70-100 yards wide (whereas a football field is only 50 yards or so wide). A easier way to compare is to look at a similar facility plan for the 2008 Games, Guangdong Stadium. Note that neatly inscribed inside the running track is a soccer pitch, which is larger than a standard football field. Now go back and look at this one more time and you tell me if you think someone is fudging the numbers a bit. If this facility is so goddamn important to the Olympics, how about we get a rendering of what the facility will look like without the words “Jets” scrawled all over it? Because it sure won’t look like this. A couple of questions that might be useful for vote tomorrow: is there additional expense incurred for the adaptation of the stadium for the Games, and is it currently shown in projected costs (Remember how Atlanta built a stadium and then tore half of it down to become the new home of tomohawkkin’ Jane Fonda’s ex’s Braves?)? If not, how much is this costing, and how is it being funded? Have is it been conclusively demonstrated that such a tight facility will indeed accomodate those events, regardless of cost? How long will the facility be unusable because of modifications (that is, if expanding the convention center is such an urgent issue, pushing off full use of the facility until perhaps 2011 as a convention center seems imprudent)? Even if we get good, solid information on all these points, can we ask again, who actually wants this thing? Can Bloomberg find anyone in Manhattan that doesn’t work for him that actually thinks this is a good thing for the borough?