The collapse of a steel beam into an empty seat last week forced the temporary closing of the fabled 75-year-old Yankee Stadium in the city's Bronx borough, reigniting a longstanding debate over where the team should play.
Traditionalists and opinion polls favor renovating the existing stadium, but team owner George Steinbrenner has made no secret of his dislike for the Bronx.
A study commissioned by the Giuliani administration in 1996 considered the feasibility of building a stadium in Manhattan, not far from Madison Square Garden. A baseball-only stadium there is seen costing about $700 million.
And there is the lure of New Jersey. Football's Jets and Giants and basketball's Nets have moved from New York to new homes across the Hudson River.
Giuliani's plan to build a new stadium for the Yankees - as well as a new stadium for the New York Mets who play in Shea Stadium and perhaps a football field or soccer field as well - proposes using funds from the city's commercial rent tax.
The tax is now 4.5 percent and imposed on businesses below 96th Street in Manhattan that pay at least $100,000 in yearly rent.
The mayor had supported ending the commercial rent tax altogether but said now it should be reduced gradually and earmarked to finance sport facilities. It would be gradually cut to 3 percent in 2001, he said.
"This is a way of funding a stadium not by increasing taxes but by decreasing taxes, which is a totally mindboggling concept to everybody else that's ever struggled with this before," he said at a news conference.
But Giuliani would not answer reporters' questions of just where new stadiums would be located, although he did say his plan would keep the teams in New York.
"This can fund a Shea Stadium or a Yankee Stadium in any part of the city," he said. "The one thing it will not do is fund a Yankee or a Shea Stadium in New Jersey."
The commercial rent tax is seen generating about $600 million by 2002, according to figures provided by City Hall.
Dubbed "The House That Ruth Built" after legendary hitter Babe Ruth, Yankee Stadium opened in 1923. The stadium underwent a $100-million renovation in 1974 and 1975.
Reuters
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani Monday has announced a financing plan to build a new baseball stadium for the Yankees, but he won't say where it will be.
