NEWARK, N.J. -- City officials from the town of Harrison have voted to spend $130 million to build a stadium complex for Major League Soccer's MetroStars, which would make them the fourth team to have a facility built purposely for an MLS club.
The MetroStars hope to start their 2006 season at a 20,000-to-25,000-seat stadium that would be built in the town of just over 14,000 across the Passaic River from Newark. The deal is assuming that Hudson County officials agree to back a financing plan, town officials said Thursday.
The MetroStars, who now play their home games at Giants Stadium -- one of the venues used for the 1994 World Cup, would pay $30 million toward the stadium and parking garage, said team president Nick Sakiewicz.
The $160 million construction cost includes acquisition and cleanup of a blighted 200-acre parcel where pipes and steel were made since the early 1900s, said Peter B. Higgins III, chairman of the Harrison Redevelopment Agency.
Also planned is a privately funded $300 million complex including stores, restaurants, 420 apartments, 200 loft homes and 150,000 square feet of office space along the Passaic River, said Joe Romano, executive vice president of the Advance Realty Group, the developer.
The stadium would be owned by Harrison, and operated by the MetroStars.
The MetroStars would follow the opening of Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, in 1999, the Los Angeles Galaxy's Home Depot Center in Carson, California, last year and the planned opening of another stadium in Frisco, Texas, for the Dallas Burn next year.
The Galaxy became the first MLS team to turn a profit last year and the Crew said they would make a profit if not for payments to the league headquarters to cover MLS's losses at the league level.
"We expect to have our elements completed in time for the opening," Romano said.
Stadium income, including tickets and concession sales from games and concerts, would go to the MetroStars, and will allow the team to become profitable for the first time in its nine-year history, including payments to MLS, Sakiewicz said.
He blamed the costs and "the limitation of revenue streams" at Giants Stadium, part of the state-operated Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford.
"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that these buildings make sense for our business," Sakiewicz said.
The team is among several that are planning to abandon the Meadowlands. The new owner of the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets is seeking to build an arena in New York's borough of Brooklyn.
The New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League have endorsed a ice hockey venue that Newark wants to build. The National Football League's New York Jets want a football stadium of their own on the West Side of New York City's Manhattan borough. That would leave the NFL's New York Giants as the only professional team at the complex.
The stadium is still being designed, but Sakiewicz said it would have a grass field, with a concert stage built into one end. The team expects 20 to 27 luxury suits, and a "large" amount of club seating, he said.
The MetroStars have been averaging 18,967 fans at their seven home games this season at Giants Stadium, which can hold 78,000.
After three years of talks with the MetroStars, the Harrison City Council on Wednesday night voted to seek funding for the project.
The funding, in the form of bonds, must be approved by the Hudson County Improvement Authority. A message seeking comment from authority Executive Director Norman Guerra was not immediately returned Thursday.
Sakiewicz said the team expects to get a top company to pay to name the stadium, which would be well positioned to be part of the 2012 Summer Olympics if New York City wins the bidding.
"This stadium would be ideal for preliminary rounds of both men's and women's soccer," he said.
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