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Are the Jets trying to steal the Meadowlands from the Giants? Only the Shadow knows!

Political football
Jerry Izenberg
The Star-Ledger

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Roughly five months ago, Richard Codey, the acting governor of Soprano Nation, stepped into the negotiations between the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and the Football Giants that until then sounded as though the Authority were speaking Farsi and the Giants were replying in Urdu.

If you didn't know better, you'd have sworn that they weren't debating about a stadium lease but gathering to decide who gets the contract to rebuild the Tower of Babel.

Codey, a belated entry in the proceedings, eventually set in motion the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Mara Tech and the home side's politically appointed guardians by removing the executive director of the complex, George Zoffinger, from the proceedings.

Out of sight in that case was hardly out of mind. Zoffinger lobbied the media hard from afar, but Codey's instructions to Carl Goldberg, the Authority chairman, encouraged the quest for a settlement, which they got.

Had Codey been able to find a way to keep George and John Mara at the same table, he probably never would have gotten the MOU, but he sure as hell would have been a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In any event, the MOU called for the Giants to pick up the entire tab of the projected $750 million stadium plus overruns.

But the notion that the MOU was a document that brought peace, understanding and harmony to the Meadowlands and all who dwell therein was only slightly less misleading than the day Neville Chamberlain stepped off an airplane in London waving a piece of paper on which he claimed Adolph Hitler guaranteed "peace in our time."

It should have been simple. John Mara was told to silence the 896 lobbyists, lawyers and power-lunch guys that represented yet another player -- the miracle supercalifragilistic-whiz-bang-horns-bells-and-whistles enclave called Xanadu, scheduled to bounce off the Authority's drawing board and onto its land mass, with everything from restaurants, stores, motion picture theaters and the ski jump Jerseyans have yearned for ever since Big Foot left the Meadowlands.

The Giants were instructed to first sign a deal with Xanadu before they negotiated with the Jets. The Jets, meanwhile were busy trying to swallow the West Side Highway, half the land that abuts it and probably the mineral rights beneath it in order to built The Stadium Capable of Launching a Thousand Traffic Jams.

When this failed they came home to New Jersey, where they had never shown the slightest inkling that they wanted to be.

The deal between the Giants and Xanadu still hasn't been signed. That means the Giants have 24 hours on the agreement's clock to sign it or the MOU self-destructs.

The Giants will not sign.

Why not?

Last Monday Mara flew to Virginia to meet with Laurence Siegel, the Xanadu developer. There are several versions of that meeting now circulating. For the record, the only people who really know the truth are Mara and Siegel. There were no cheerleaders or legal comma police present.

At the start, Mara said everything -- the myriad of traffic objections and dozens of other things to which the Giants objected could be settled if Xanadu agreed to accept his location plan for the stadium and a practice field. This is something Jets oppose because they said it weakens the neutrality of the first pro football stadium in New Jersey that will not be named Giants Stadium.

Mara's request had nothing to do with the architectural design of his stadium or that of the one the Jets would prefer. ... It was only about that great real-estate common denominator:

Location ... location ... location.

Siegel said he had no objections. The Giants say he said that twice during the meeting. After it ended, Siegel later telephoned Mara and said it was best his people not comment on the location. He said they wouldn't feel right being in a war between two football teams.

Xanadu was reacting to private comment from the Jets. How did the Jets know about it in the first place? The Jets further reacted yesterday by submitting a private letter to the Authority proclaiming their willingness to step in if the Giants MOU blows up at midnight tonight.

Mara had wanted Xanadu's approval for obvious reasons since, at the moment, the two are the engine that currently drives the complex.

It was a tactical error. He didn't need it in writing any more than signing under those conditions with Xanadu would have eliminated his leverage. If negotiations with the Jets hadn't worked out, they would both be the losers anyway.

As of this morning he has not signed, and you may well expect dueling press conferences (Giants and the Authority) this afternoon. The more this thing goes on, the more it seems likely that Zoffinger does not want the bi-stadium deal, that the Authority doesn't know what it wants, that Giants take it personally and the Jets seem to want dual citizenship. He knows he would have to bring the current stadium up to that of other newer ones if the Jets and Giants don't get together. But he is willing to spend the millions to do that if the Giants-Jets Stadium deal blows up.

His individual lobbying would seem to lead to the conclusion that he far prefers the status quo.

John Mara, conversely, may not have acted as wisely as he should have because now, if this doesn't go, guess who will be his landlord.

Why is this so complicated?

With so many characters with so many agendas, you could almost swear that McGreevey was still governor.