Two Local Stadium Projects Face Different Futures

Now that the city's experience of baseball's All-Star Game has come and gone, is New York in a position to host a future NBA or NHL All-Star Game in Brooklyn or Manhattan? If you take Mayor Bloomberg at his word, a new arena in Brooklyn for Bruce Ratner's Nets is a go. But Cablevision's James Dolan is not playing ball with the city. In March, a spokesman for Madison Square Garden, Barry Watkins, announced that the Garden would undergo a renovation of its existing building — instead of incorporating itself with the planned Moynihan Station Project on Eighth Avenue, right across the street. Ratner claims the Brooklyn rail yards arena will open sometime in 2010. Originally, Ratner planned to have the building operating in 2006. The project has been delayed by lawsuits and the current economic slowdown, though. If Ratner is able... [read full story]