I did an interview with Steve Kern who is organizing a rally before the Giants vs. Jets preseason game on August 23rd. The rally will take place at 4PM prior to the game in the stadium parking lot.

What are you hoping to accomplish with the rally?

My original goal for the rally was to create a public forum for the fans of both teams to be able state their opinions about the PSL Policy and provide alternatives to the policy that could be presented to the teams.  This remains my intention.  I am going to videotape the speakers at the rally and put together a compilation of Alternative Ideas, DVD of Speakers, Copy of Feed Back rec’d via email, and signed petition from the day of the rally.  This will be sent to both teams for their consideration.

What would you consider to be a good compromise between the fans and ownership?

I have listed multiple ideas on my website (www.pslrally.com) that I would think would be a good compromise, which are as follows:
A – Allow the PSL Holders to be able to Pre Purchase tickets for other stadium events one day prior to General Public sale.
B – Agree to Ticket Price and Parking Price Freeze for 5 Years
C – Return to the old policy of making the purchase of Preseason Game Tickets optional not mandatory
D – Lobby the state government to make the initial purchase of PSLs tax deductible on your state income tax return.  The future sale of PSLs would be considered income and be fully taxed.
E – Return to the old policy of allowing clear plastic bags with food and plastic thermos to be allowed to be brought into the stadium.

My other idea is a complete overhaul of the PSL Policy charging PSLs only on the best seats in the stadium.  Coaches Club Seat PSLs would be $100,000, Field One, Mezz Club A & B would all be $20,000.  The amount of revenue generated from these revisions would be more than under the current plan.  My logic for this idea is that the teams are raising the ticket prices for the new stadium making Coaches Club $700 per ticket per game, Mezz A $500 per ticket, & Mezz B $400 per ticket.  Regular fans can not afford the season ticket prices for these game tickets.  What the teams are saying by pricing these seats at these levels is that these seats are only for corporate clients only.  Why not make the corporations buying these premium seats pay for the PSLs?  With this plan, PSLs would only be charged on 11,247 seats or 14% of the stadium.

Are you a season ticket holder? How many years have you been one?

Yes, I am a Jet season ticket holder for 15 years.

What do you think about the idea that your PSL is likely to be worth much more than you would pay for it?

This is not a valid argument in my mind, because most loyal fans will never sell their tickets.  I don’t look at my tickets as an investment.  I have had my tickets for 15 years.  I have 3 young sons that are all Jet fans.  The only way that I would sell my tickets is through financial hardship, which is remote.

Even if you did look at the PSL as an investment, there are problems with it.  The PSL is only valid while the teams play in the new stadium.  The Giants have been playing in the existing stadium since 1976, which means that they will have played there for 39 years, when the new stadium opens.  If the Giants had PSLs in 1976, they would all be worthless today.  If you assume that the new stadium will last as long as the last one, the PSL would only increase in value for 20 years before it would start to lose value every additional year.

What do you think would be a reasonable PSL price?

Prior to the Jets & Giants, there have been 12 NFL teams that have used PSLs for their new stadiums.  The total revenue generated from PSLs by these 12 teams was $900M or $75M per team.  The Giants will be raising $371M or close to 5 times the average of all other NFL PSLs.  If they used the previosu average, that would mean that the average PSL would be $1000.  The Patriots privately financed Gillette Stadium in 2003 without the use of any PSLs.

Would you still attend games if you don’t purchase a PSL?

Probably not

Do you think ownership is being greedy?

Initially I did not think so, but after looking at the revenue that the new stadium will generate, I’ve changed my mind.  All you need to look at are three items that differ between the new and old stadiums – Naming Rights, Game Ticket Cost, & Luxury Suites.

Naming Rights – Metlife and Bud have signed deals worth $8M per year to name 2 of the 4 entrances.  If you value the other 2 entrances at $7M per year the total for the 4 entrances is $30M per year.  A NY Post article quoted an advertising expert as stating that the naming rights for the stadium itself would be worth $40M per year.  That is a total of $70M per year or $35M per team per year.

Game Ticket Cost – When you run the revenue generated from increases in game ticket prices over the current cost, the value is $55M per year.  This is mostly generated from the Coaches Club ($700 per ticket per game), Mezzanine Club A ($500 per ticket), and Mezzanine Club B ($400 per ticket), where the old prices were $100 per ticket.

Luxury Suites – There will be 217 Luxury Suites in the new stadium ranging in price from 300K per year to $1M per year rental.  The old stadium has 119 Luxury Suites ranging in price from 150K per year to $350K per year rental.  When you do the math using $600K as the average rental in the new stadium and $250K as the average in the old stadium, the total additional revenue generated from Luxury Suites is $100M or $50M per team per year.

These three items alone would raise added revenue per team of $140M per team per year.

These three items would completely pay for the stadium construction cost in under 6 years.

With the amount of revenue that the stadium will generate, there is no need for PSLs.

If you are going to impose the PSLs as the Giants have outlined to their fans and the Jets will be announce in the coming weeks, something should be given to the PSL holder as a benefit, as detailed in Item 2 above.

Do you think the Giants need a new stadium?

No, between 2003 and 2005 the Giants submitted plans to the State that would renovate the existing stadium.  The Jets during this same time period were trying to get approval of the West Side Stadium.  It was only after the Jets failed to get this approval in 2005, that the teams got together and starting planning this new stadium.  Why couldn’t they have continued together with the Giants original renovation plans?  They could have.  If the fans had a vote in this decision, I believe that they would have voted to renovate the existing stadium.