Early Friday evening, just a day after the Jets announced their new stadium plan for the Hudson Yards area, zany Knicks/MSG owner Charles Dolan leaked word that he's interested in buying the development rights to Hudson Yards?for $600 million. For those paying attention, that's "a whole lot more" than the Jets' offer of $100 million?but still far below the land's appraised price of about $1 billion. Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica nails the situation:
You keep hearing that Kalikow and the MTA want to conclude a deal for the land quickly. Why, for land that is supposed to be this valuable? I'll tell you why. Because Bloomberg and Doctoroff need shovels in the ground for their Olympic bid, that's why. They're the only ones with a deadline here, not anybody else in town. Kalikow doesn't even know if Cablevision's bid is the highest out there, because there was never a real bidding process in the first place. Why? Because nobody else was supposed to bid. Fixed fight. Most developers in town didn't want to go up against the mayor on a deal this big. So they stayed out of it.There's more awesome math to dissect, but we're going to gather ourselves for a moment and ponder the playground duel that's about to go down. We're lucky to be around to see it.
· Jets Sweat Out Dolan's End Run [Mike Lupica, NYDN]
· Bloomberg: Offer from Cablevision 'A Joke' [Newsday]
· New Jets Stadium: Small Enough to Fit on Table! [Curbed]