Cost of New Meadowlands Stadium Skyrockets

This story just broke a short time ago, but it does not bode well for the taxpaying citizens of New Jersey.

NEWARK, N.J. - The price of the new football stadium for the
New York Giants and New York Jets has risen by $600 million to $1.4 billion.

"Costs continue to go up," said Alice McGillion, a spokeswoman for New Meadowlands Stadium Corp., a company that represents the team owners.

She seems so casual about it, as if it's a five-cent bump on a can of soda. But we're talking about $600 million here.

The teams awarded a contract to Swedish construction company Skanska AB, which said Friday it had received a $998 million order to design and build the open-air stadium at the Meadowlands sports complex in East Rutherford, N.J.

"It shows the continued momentum and we are on the timeline that we need to be for a 2010 opening," McGillion said Friday.

The teams, which announced the joint venture in 2005, originally estimated costs at about $800 million.

You can read the rest of the story, yet nowhere does it explain how or why projected costs have nearly doubled in less than two years. Considering the teams are not scheduled to play there until 2010, you can safely assume $1.4 billion will not be the final tab. All along it's been reported the State of New Jersey will not be footing any substantial portion of the tab and we're in a pretty dire fiscal condition with the highest property taxes in the nation. Governor Corzine promised a reduction in that area, but I'll believe it when I have the check in hand.

I've been in the current Giants Stadium many times over the years and it's only 31 years old and in decent shape; certainly not palatial like some of the structures built recently, but a serviceable football stadium that should have lasted far longer. And for which we're still paying:

The state isn't paying for the stadium's construction, but will continue to pay debt on the old stadium, about $120 million.

Maybe with any luck some of the $600 million will go toward a retractable roof. It doesn't make sense to me that a strictly open-air facility be constructed which limits the number of events that can be held there--Super Bowls and Final Fours immediately come to mind.