Stadium Discussion
- Thread starter Gene
- Start date
NYCFC's pitch to Joe Hart: Joe, you'll stay within the City family, start every game on a top team in MLS, and live right next to the stadium on an island named after you.
Just don't ever let him access a web search portal ever again:
What We Found at Hart Island, The Largest Mass Grave Site In the U.S.
I'm not getting my hopes up just yet. I'm far disconnected from the world the Yankees inhabit. Billions of dollars in bonds and all that other stuff is way out of my league both literally (MLB) and figuratively.Fair enough. From reading the article byNYCFCfan , it seems that they are looking to re-finance existing debt AND add on more debt. They speak of the ability to add 2,700 full time jobs. There's smoke here. I would actually be SHOCKED if this has nothing to do with an NYCFC stadium. You're right to not get your hopes up because we've been led astray in the past. This is just what you do if you are trying to find financing for a new stadium.
My two cents is that this is the beginning of the NYCFC stadium pitch. I don't know that it gets approved is the catch.
I'm waiting until we hear more details, just thought it was worth sharing because:
a) We play at Yankee Stadium
b) The Yankees are part owners
So if you're renting an office for your business in your friend's building, a friend who owns 20% of your company, and you hear he's trying to get some money for the city through his rental company, you'd like to know why wouldn't you?
That's a very fair assessment of things. As a "finance" guy, this seems like more than just re-financing of debt.
Does anyone know what the outstanding debt is on the parking garages that went under?
They're still operating, earning about $5 million last year, but the debt numbers can be found here.
They've been in default for 2 years on their debt payments. The bond collection dates have been waived, one assumes because they don't want to give up on seeing that money just yet.
They also owe the city $60 million in taxes, and you can add $12 million to that number every year.
So in conclusion: they earn $5 million a year, they have to pay $34 million a year in debt to the city and bond holders. They're $29 million in the red every year.
My guess is they're probably ~$132 million in outstanding debt as of December 31 2015, probably closer to ~$150 million today. But that's all just going off what this article says. I may be totally off base, I don't know because I don't have their numbers. But by all accounts these garages are hemorrhaging money.
That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. So if the Yankees and NYCFC retire or restructure old debt at a 4% or so interest rate (probably a fair estimate for their credit rating), you could incorporate $150 Million more on those parking garages and still be ahead of the game from a debt service perspective today.
I'm not saying that is what they are looking to do. But from a cost of money perspective, the Yankees could still be ahead of the game, and the city "wins" in some regard.
So IF this hearing is related to the stadium, does that mean the likely site would be the garage space across Yankee Stadium?
I read through the NYCEDC release. I didn't realize it had been linked, sorry. I don't think the projected jobs is new jobs. I think that's just a form release they use and they confirm that there are already 2,637 full time jobs at the site.
After reading through the release, I am not so bullish anymore. I still think it's a good sign that the Yankees are re-financing their debt for our own sake, especially when you consider their other credit decisions in the last 6 months.
After reading through the release, I am not so bullish anymore. I still think it's a good sign that the Yankees are re-financing their debt for our own sake, especially when you consider their other credit decisions in the last 6 months.
No. Sorry. I just played out a string of dominos based on how I interpreted the original article. Having read through the NYCEDC release, I want to stack those dominos back up.
I'll also add this - they must have a pretty good idea that this will be approved ($1.4 Billion). I haven't looked at the bonds, but it doesn't make sense to re-finance just some of the bonds if the market interest rate is incredibly lower than what they are currently paying. Someone with the city must have told the Yankees that they could get backing for $1.04 Billion in new bond issuances to retire the old debt, but for some reason, nothing more than $1.04 Billion.
Do you think they could have triggered this solely on the recent Moody's upgrade, or might other factors be at play too? (I'll admit to not being an expert in this field either)
My guess is that you are correct. Doesn't mean that it has nothing to do with NYCFC (they would want to lower their financing costs anyway if they were to take on more debt elsewhere for a different project), but a debt upgrade would allow them to seek better financing terms. I could look this up tomorrow, but their bonds could also have a timeframe when the Yankees/NYC were able to "call" the bonds back from the bondholders. The bonds pay 7% and the market rate is probably 4% now. They could save themselves $30 Million a year in financing costs by doing this. They would issue new bonds at the lower rate because the Yankees don't have $1.04 Billion on hand to just pay the bondholders back and be done with it.
i'm already losing hope for our own stadium . . . when do we start playing in MetLife Stadium?
Uhhhh like you even have to ask?! I'm waiting for that because it's like crack to me at this point. I need my next fix.Sorry. One more for you
As for the jobs, it's really not clear at all. That's what I'm hoping we'll see clarification on. What makes me cautiously optimistic is that the original plan under Bloomberg was to build on that site occupied by the GAL factory and parking structure.
If the Yankees are looking to pay off that debt (or restructure it) it could bode well for NYCFC simply because that was the only thing holding up the sale of the land last time. The city and the team couldn't come to terms on what would happen to the unpaid debts.
It would appear, to the uninformed observer (us), that the Yankees (who played a big role in the creation and operation of those lots) are trying to get their financial house in order. That is good news for us because if that's settled, there's little stopping the team from acquiring the land, assuming BdB doesn't come out against it.
