New arenas to put teams into the big-money game- Crain's New York Business.com

New arenas to put teams into the big-money game- Crain's New York Business.com:

"New arenas to put teams into the big-money game
Complexes put NY on top in sports; luxury boxes will beef up revenues


When the Prudential Center, home of the New Jersey Devils, opened in October with concerts by native son Jon Bon Jovi, it became the first new sports complex in the New York area in a quarter-century.

It was just the opening act. Five other state-of-the-art, amenity-filled arenas are slated to open over the next year or two. The new residences of the Red Bulls, Mets, Yankees, Nets, Jets and Giants will have a positive economic impact on New York as well as the teams. All of the projects are being accomplished with a mixture of private and public funding.

Besides raising the value of the franchises and making the teams financially healthier, the sports palaces will uplift the city as a tourist destination. They have already vaulted New York into the sports stratosphere.

'New York is further propelled to the top,' says Dan Migala, editor of sports marketing newsletter The Migala Report. 'That the public and private sector can sustain [the development of all the complexes] at the same time points to the health of New York.'"