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We're Stuck Paying for Abandoned Stadiums

New Jersey still owes $110M on what's now a parking lot

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 8, 2010 11:32 AM CDT

(Newser) – The old Giants Stadium is a parking lot now, but New Jersey residents still owe $110 million on it. Seattle's King County currently owes more than $80 million for the Kingdome, which was demolished in 2000. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Houston Kansas City, Memphis, and Pittsburgh are all still paying for arenas that have been abandoned by their teams or razed outright, the New York Times reports.

Giants Stadium is the most expensive of those missteps, and it’s that expensive mainly because politicians kept kicking the bill down the road. The stadium was supposed to pay for itself with its horseracing track, but even in 1976 analysts thought that was a bad gamble. A series of expansions over the years didn't help either. “The Meadowlands wasn’t a bad idea, says one Manhattan Institute fellow. "But rather than pay it off, they let it ride."

New York Giants president and CEO, John Mara talks about some of the high-tech features of the new Meadowlands football stadium Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, in East Rutherford, N.J.
New York Giants president and CEO, John Mara talks about some of the high-tech features of the new Meadowlands football stadium Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, in East Rutherford, N.J.   (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 10 comments
Hershey-Squirts
Sep 10, 2010 7:32 PM CDT
Stuck paying for old and brand new stadiums. What a surprise. I mean shocking!
Purple_Zebra
Sep 10, 2010 5:19 PM CDT
We the People must refuse to subsidize the building of privately owned businesses which belong to billionaires.
Purple_Zebra
Sep 10, 2010 5:16 PM CDT
We the people need to refuse to subsidize the building of privately owned businesses for rich billionaires.

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