Mayor Scolds Cablevision Over Ads Critical of Stadium Plan

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Mayor Bloomberg scolded Cablevision yesterday, saying the corporate owner of the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, and Madison Square Garden should spend money on its stumbling sports teams instead of on television ads critical of him and a proposed West Side stadium.


“The Knicks are going to have a struggle,” Mr. Bloomberg said during a rant that would not have been out of place on sports talk radio. “I think the coach is a good coach. He could use a lot more money. They’d be better off spending their money there than these ridiculous ads. As for these ads, they are outrageous lies.”


Cablevision Systems Corp., the primary opponent of a $1.4 billion sports complex on the West Side of Manhattan, has produced in the past several months a series of ads that have become increasingly disparaging of the mayor.


The advertisements, which air regularly on television and radio, claim that the city’s $300 million contribution to the project makes no sense given the city’s potential budget deficits for the next three years. Cablevision also is concerned that a new stadium would compete for entertainment events with Madison Square Garden, located a few blocks away.


The Garden is the home of the Knicks and Rangers, hosts music concerts, and was the site of last summer’s Republican National Convention.


Garden Chairman James Dolan said Mr. Bloomberg was “trying to hide a flawed and financially risky plan by taking cheap shots” at the Garden.


“He talks about debt as if it is free money, but city taxpayers will be forced to pay his hefty stadium bill,” Mr. Dolan said. “Anybody who uses a credit card knows that debt is not free. Mayor Bloomberg should listen to the overwhelming opposition to his football stadium and tell the truth about the ballooning taxpayer costs.”


The Cablevision ads suggest that Mr. Bloomberg is a liar and maintain that the reason the city cannot afford to give significant pay raises to its police officers and firefighters is stadium costs.


Mr. Bloomberg has countered that a new stadium and an expansion of the adjacent Jacob K. Javits Convention Center would bring the New York Jets back to town from New Jersey, would provide badly needed economic activity to an underdeveloped area of the city with minimal effect on the city budget and would give the city a shot at hosting the 2012 Olympic Games.


The Jets, who play at the Meadowlands complex, in East Rutherford, N.J., and would be the primary tenants of the new stadium, have been airing ads arguing the need for a stadium.


As the two sides have spent some $11.5 million on lobbying in the last several months alone, the dispute has become one of the most contentious issues of Mr. Bloomberg’s first term and among the city’s most controversial development projects in more than 30 years.


On Tuesday, the mayor, who attends Knicks and Rangers games regularly, belittled Cablevision for the cost of its ads given the amount of tax breaks the company receives from the city.


“Well, I don’t know why the stockholders of Cablevision put up with it,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “Cablevision has probably spent the same amount of money producing ads that the tax break that the taxpayers of this state have given them, about $11-odd million a year. If they spent $11 million more on the Knicks, maybe the Knicks would be a better team and that would fill Madison Square Garden.”


Next, the mayor laid the current National Hockey League lockout at Cablevision’s door.


“Keep in mind that right now Cablevision, along with other owners, have locked out the Rangers and the other NHL teams,” he said. “So we don’t have hockey here. That was one of the reasons we gave them a tax break.”


The stadium would be built on the three blocks bound by 30th and 33rd streets and 11th and 12th avenues. Besides housing the Jets, it would be designed to host conventions and concerts.


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