Madison Square Garden

David Paterson was on the WFAN "Boomer and Carton" show this morning, expressing frustration over the city’s stalled major development projects.

“What I’m going to do," Paterson told the hosts, "is probably move construction of Moynihan [Station] to the Port Authority, which I think has a better chance of getting it done quickly, and I hope that we can start construction quickly enough that we can reverse plans that exist.”  read more »

Developers Vornado Realty Trust and the Related Companies are grasping for options to keep alive a multibillion dollar redo of Penn Station and related real estate development, as they have asked the city and state to back a loan to build a new Madison Square Garden in the Farley Post Office across Eight Avenue.

The proposal is intended to lure the Garden back to the table, as the company, led by Chairman James Dolan, pulled out of the larger plan in March. The state is considering the offer as one of many options for the project, a state official confirmed.

In this option, the state and city could be saddled with the cost of the arena—said to be in the range of $900 million to $1 billion—should the larger redo of Penn Station ultimately fall apart.  read more »

The dismal performance of the New York Knicks has hurt the fan-fueled business of Irish pubs near Madison Square Garden, according to the Sunday Times.  read more »

WNBC.com got hold of a March 25 letter from Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to Madison Square Garden Chairman James Dolan, Vornado Realty chief executive Steve Roth, and the heads of the M.T.A. and Amtrak, faulting the parties for holding up the installation of a security perimeter around Penn Station to protect what he called “the single most critical transit hub in the United States” from terrorist attacks.  read more »

With the plans for a grand redo of Pennsylvania Station looking all but dead following Madison Square Garden’s announcement that it will renovate its existing arena rather than move to a new site, one of the developers central to the project has indicated his approval for a scaled-back version if the larger plan indeed fails.

“I am hopeful a scaled-back version and perhaps even a doubly scaled-back version will happen,” Vornado Realty Trust CEO Steve Roth wrote in a letter to investors that appeared in SEC filings yesterday. “In my view, there has been too much public endorsement of the idea of this project for nothing to happen.”  read more »

Madison Square Garden today unveiled plans for a $500 million interior renovation of its arena that would remake and reconfigure lobbies, concourses, seating and concessions in the four-decade-old building. Should the project go forward, it would bring an end to the plans to remake Penn Station, a $14 billion initiative of transportation and commercial development in the area that hinges on the Garden moving its arena.

“You saw the plans, you see the model—we can accomplish everything that anybody could possibly want in a new arena by renovating,” Hank Ratner, vice chairman at Madison Square Garden, told reporters this afternoon. “We are not going to be moving.”  read more »

News yesterday that Madison Square Garden's owner, the Dolan family, will renovate instead of moving across the street to the Farley Post Office seemed to doom the planned Moynihan Station, but the head of the project said today he thinks the family's decision "isn't irrevocable."

"We just need a lot of strong public leadership to get to the point where, you know, [the Dolans] see the project as a potential reality," Vishaan Chakrabarti, president of the Moynihan Station Venture (a team of the Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust) said at a real estate luncheon today. The $14 billion Moynihan project would create a new transit hub to replace the aging Pennsylvania Station.  read more »

Madison Square Garden said on Thursday it is planning to move forward with a renovation of its existing facility, a move that, if realized, would kill the $14 billion plans for a remade and expanded Penn Station with surrounding commercial development. City officials and the private developers behind it, however, hold out hope that the project can still move forward.

“Madison Square Garden has decided to move forward with our renovation, previously announced in 2004. After exploring several alternatives, it has become clear that the only viable option is a renovation,” a spokesman for Madison Square Garden, Barry Watkins, said in a statement.

The Garden’s announcement comes as the state recently lost the two top people leading the project: Governor Spitzer and his deputy for development, Patrick Foye. Governor Paterson expressed support for the project, but has seemed rather preoccupied with hammering out a budget by March 31.  read more »

Ante up!

Now suddenly everyone is interested in Newsday. The New York Times is reporting that a Manhattan media blockbuster trio is "in discussions" to buy the Melville-based newspaper: Rupert Murdoch, James Dolan and Mort Zuckerman. Sam Zell decides who's the winner.

It sets up a satisfying auction between Mr. Murdoch (Post-owner) and Mr. Zuckerman (Daily News-owner) and Mr. Dolan, who owns MSG, the Knicks, Rangers and Cablevision.  read more »

The Observer's Eliot Brown broke the news on Friday that the Dolans may balk at moving Madison Square Garden a block west, a necessary component of the grand Moynihan Station plan. The Times' Charles Bagli on Saturday reported on the general problems now threatening the entire plan, including a softening real estate economy.

Crain's now reports that a failed Moynihan Station plan could mightily impact Steve Roth's Vornado Realty Trust. The publicly traded landlord is one of two developers--Stephen Ross' Related Companies is the other--working with the state and other entities, including the Dolan family, on the project.  read more »

On Thursday night, Jan. 3, the Western-themed midtown restaurant Johnny Utah’s was half-full, a mostly business-casual crowd. The lifelike and dangerous-seeming mechanical bull in the center of the room was bucked (or shimmied side to side, if you were a woman whose assets this might highlight) under a few brave volunteers between long bouts of inactivity.  read more »

In a morning sure to be rife with Jim Dolan-bashing, the City Council is holding a hearing Monday on a Madison Square Garden tax break, as elected officials are calling for an end to the approximately $11 million-a-year property tax exemption. The movement to revoke the break is gaining steam at the same time that Mr. Dolan, the owner of Madison Square Garden and a true darling of the media, is in negotiations to move across the street into the Farley Post Office as part of a complex redevelopment of Pennsylvania Station.  read more »

It was the New York Knicks with everything to prove in Thursday night’s game against Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv at Madison Square Garden, before an overwhelmingly pro-Maccabi crowd.  read more »

A jury just ruled against Isiah Thomas in the harassment suit filed against him by Anucha Brown Sanders, awarding the former New York Knicks executive $11.6 M. But it's not Mr. Thomas who'll have to pay it:

 

A verdict earlier Tuesday found that New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas had sexually harassed Browne Sanders, subjecting her to unwanted advances and a barrage of verbal insults, but also said he does not have to pay punitive damages.

   read more »

When Justin brings sexy back to HBO, viewers will see his moves, but what they won't see is the lust, which seemed to permeate the very air inside MSG.  read more »

The state Public Authorities Control Board has voted to buy the Farley Post Office for $230 million and change--with some of that being provided by a loan.

This was exactly what Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver wanted to do last fall, but which Gov. Pataki resisted, since it meant that the state would own a building without having approved a plan to go along with it (and also because he saw Mr. Silver's position as posturing for Madison Square Garden's sake). That plan, to turn the post office into Moynihan Station, still has not been approved by the PACB.

If Moynihan never gets approved and the larger attempt to move Madison Square Garden collapses, the taxpayers of New York State will have an awfully large, hard-to-heat building on their hands. But, hey, who could pass up a chance to own a set of 20 53-foot Corinthian columns?

- Matthew Schuerman

This chart is from the state's temporary lobbying commission latest report, showing how much it cost 5,117 registered lobbyists last year to represent the interests of their 3,277 clients to state lawmakers. (Easily identifiable rend in lobbyist spending over the years: up!)

Elsewhere in the report are the details 41 settlements the commission has reached with lobbyists who ran afoul of lobbying irregularities including $75,000 from Madison Square Garden for providing "public officials with complimentary attendance in a hospitality suite" at sporting events, and $10,000 from the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York for "a meal expense on March 29, 2004 in the amount of $279.75 for three individuals, at least one of whom was a public official.

Et cetera.

-- Azi Paybarah

Would Ken Fisher, the former City Councilman-turned-blogger, be able to help a developer get a real-estate project through a gridlocked bureaucracy? City Hall, the monthly published by the folks who bring you Our Town and The West Side Spirit, at one time thought so.

And maybe he could. But more so than a Sandy Lindenbaum or Ross Moskowitz?

The 10-month-old newspaper is about to come out with "The Land Use Power List: 10 People Who Can Make Sure Your Project Gets Built--or Stop It." Mr. Fisher was on an early version of the list that The Real Estate obtained. The others, with The Real Estate's annotations, are below:

Dan Doctoroff (a shoo-in) Amanda Burden (of course) Melinda Katz (if you are Wal-Mart) Robert Tierney (unless you are Tom Wolfe) Avi Schick (maybe in five months) Joshua J. Sirefman (maybe five months ago) Joe Bruno (so long as he stays in office) Eliot Spitzer (time will tell) Sheldon Silver (if your project involves or competes with Madison Square Garden in any way whatsoever, then yes)

Manhattan Media President Tom Allon and City Hall Editor Edward-Isaac Dovere told The Real Estate that the list above is already out of date and will likely change before it is published March 12. Mr. Sirefman--who left the Economic Development Corporation in January--has been cut. Mr. Fisher, a real estate lawyer and lobbyist, may or may not be.

City Hall is still taking suggestions, so feel free to write them in below. You could even nominate yourself and no one would know. Hey, it's the blogosphere! - Matthew Schuerman

Charles Gargano, the chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, is sometimes portrayed as a developer's best friend, but Wednesday morning, in his first extensive comments after the failure of Moynihan Station (and mixed in with much less passionate words about Atlantic Yards), he spat out the word "developer" like it was an unripe persimmon. He also didn't seem to care for Shelly Silver too much.

Here are his choice words:

"The notion that we presented a project that the developers didn't want to build -- who's in charge here, the developers or the public sector? We are in charge and we put a project out in RFP [request for proposals], and we got responses to the RFP that what we presented to the [Public Authorities Control Board]. We did not present a project that included a six to eight order of magnitude larger than the project that was put out in the RFP."

And later:

"The comments that were made by [state Assembly] Speaker Silver were, 'This is not the project the developers want to build.' What does that mean? What the hell does that mean? We put out an RFP. The next thing is, 'Well, we'd like to see the whole project.' Well, we did present the whole project, the Moynihan Station project. So there is no really sound reason not to approve this project. It was just a lot of talk in my opinion to reject the project for personal reasons -- whatever, Madison Square Garden. I don't know what it might be, but we do know, and all of you in the media do know, some of the associations with Madison Square Garden and Speaker Silver."  read more »

Gargano wouldn't say whether the state would pay another $10 million to extend the option to buy the Farley Post Office from the feds -- a step that would be required to keep the Moynihan Station project alive. He didn't say the project was dead, either, though he did say that the incoming Spitzer administration would need to "revive" it, and wished them well.

- Matthew Schuerman

Four architectural firms presented plans to developers in closed-door meetings late last month for a  read more »

Plans afoot to supplant Madison Square Garden "Four architectural firms presented plans to developers in closed-door meetings late last month for a redesigned Penn Station - with Madison Square Garden chopped off the top and moved one block west." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman Presenting the priciest downtown single-family sell "A 55-foot-wide townhouse at 11 West 10th Street has gone into contract. The asking price was $37.5 million. If it closed near there, this 1847 mansion would be the most expensive single-family residence downtown." Go to story by Max Abelson Brooklyn building booming - is that a good thing? "There's a building boom underway across the East River, in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. This is a good thing. Or so you'd think." Go to editorial  read more »

Brookfield Properties is planning "a huge new office development" on a recently completed assemblage between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, 31st and 33rd Streets, The Post reports, behind what would be Madison Square Garden if the Moynihan-Penn Station deal ever gets done. On the other hand, don't get too excited. Steve Cuozzo quotes a source saying, "They will not build on spec, but are considering a two-building or a three-building option depending on tenant interest." -Matthew Schuerman

Fresh from vetoing the project to turn the Farley Post Office Building into Moynihan Station, a new  read more »

Gov. Pataki had a few choice words for Shelly Silver this afternoon, opening his statement on the Moynihan rejection with a quote from the real Moynihan: "The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare."

He also, for the first time, brings up the burning question that has lurked behind this project since trouble started brewing earlier this year: Would going ahead with the partial Moynihan plan now have put the state and city government in a better negotiating position vis-a-vis tax breaks for Madison Square Garden and the contribution for a redeveloped Pennsylvania Station--than it would be if it were to wait until everything came together before breaking ground?

Pataki says yes: "New Yorkers and visitors from around the world should not be held hostage to an effort to finance a new Madison Square Garden on the backs of taxpayers."

Full statement after the jump.  read more »

-Matthew Schuerman

Holding out for his compromise proposal extended this morning, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (or, rather, his appointee) voted against the Moynihan Station project at today's Public Authorities Control Board meeting. "We thought our alternative provided the critical advantages that we needed and we thought it would be better for a full, safe modern transporation facility," Silver's spokesman Skip Carrier said.

The Governor had threatened to nullify the agreement with Related and Vornado and start over again--or, in a way, did Silver just do that?--by bidding out a larger plan to move Madison Square Garden and redo Pennsylvania Station. A statement explaining how far he is willing to go is coming out soon.

Sort of a West Side Stadium, Part II, except this time Pataki, not Bloomberg, is the loser.

-Matthew Schuerman

The Governor, lacking political leverage during his final months in office, has come up with another way to nudge Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to see things his way and approve the Moynihan Station plan at the Public Authorities Control Board meeting tomorrow.

The state economic development agency, Pataki wrote in a letter to Silver today, "would have no realistic choice but to invalidate the existing award and immediately begin a new [bidding] process for a 'bigger development' that might include a new Madison Square Garden."

Pataki also warns that the U.S. Postal Service's agreement to sell the Farley Post Office, where the train station will go, expires at the end of the year.

Negotiating with federal agencies is always a pleasant experience; renegotiating even more so.

-Matthew Schuerman

Governor George Pataki’s aides are scrambling to get the jackhammers going at Moynihan Station in  read more »

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is saying he will not vote to approve Moynihan Station until the larger Madison Square Garden swap is worked out.

"I think there has to be a final presentation of the plan that is going to be built in order for us to vote on it," he said before an event at Ground Zero this morning. "What we were presented with is not the same plan as what we are being asked to vote on."

The Public Authorities Control board, on which Silver controls one of three votes, postponed a vote on the train station three weeks ago. Asked if he would be willing to wait if negotiations with Madison Square Garden take another year (they started a year ago), Silver replied:  read more »

"I'd have to surmise that at some point someone is going to make a determination as to whether this will happen or not."

-Matthew Schuerman

Today's anticipated Public Authorities Control Board meeting to approve the Moynihan Station project (the one without Madison Square Garden moving) was postponed until Friday, to give more time for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to review the project. "It's a complex kind of deal, big," said Silver spokesman Skip Carrier, adding that the Speaker has not yet committed his vote. "We are checking it out." -Matthew Schuerman

In the category of strange, random things that come to our attention:

State Senator Ruben Diaz and City Councilman Hiram Monserrate - who is running for State Senate against incumbent John Sabini - somehow found their way into this video promotion for Dr. Jaerock Lee's appearance last month at Madison Square Garden.

And we somehow missed it.

Jaerock Lee - also known as Lee Jae-Rock - is a faith healer who made into the local news recently when an embarrassed David Wright appeared, then renounced his appearance, in a promotional ad for the event. (Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams and Manny Ramirez also took part in the promotional campaign.)

In addition to the individual testimonials, the ad for the MSG event features a narrator saying this sort of thing: "In the name of Jesus Christ, the blind have come to see, the mute speak, the lame stand up from wheelchairs and all kind of incurable diseases, included AIDS, have been healed."

Monserrate, in his brief appearance, said that he would "help get the word out to the people."

-- Josh Benson

The city just came out with a new proposal for tax breaks for developing the Hudson Yards (PDF) which appears to scale back some of the generous incentives it was originally contemplating. The 40-block West Midtown area would be split into three vertical zones, with the blocks west of 10th Avenue receiving the deepest cuts to encourage real estate developers to beginning excavating there faster.

Still, James Parrott, deputy director of the liberal Fiscal Policy Institute, says no tax breaks are needed to get developers interested in moving west, certainly not for the superblock around Madison Square Garden, where Vornado Realty Trust is considering building almost 5 million square feet of office towers. (The proposal would tax improvements to the MSG site at the regular rate for the first four years, then cap tax increases for the following 15 years.)

"It's a joke that these incentives are needed to build in Midtown," Parrott told us, arguing that high rents in core Midtown are forcing companies further west. "You have to worry about unintended consequences. Is that going to lead to outer borough areas insisting on steeper property tax incentives? Is that going to result in pressure form Midtown property owners to hold the line on assessments or some other city action?"

The city's Industrial Development Agency will hold a public hearing on the proposal next Thursday, August 3, and is supposed to vote on it the following week.

-Matthew Schuerman

Please allow us a brief sports diversion. Only days after the conclusion of soccer madness, Mayor Bloomberg announced today that that other suburban pastime of netted goals and short shorts will be invading the city: New York has been awarded its first-ever professional lacrosse franchise, thus far unnamed, which will play in Madison Square Garden. (I guess these guys didn't count.)

"The New York City franchise is dedicated to ensuring that every fan has the chance to experience the thrill of a live lacrosse game," said Mr. Bloomberg.

Thrill?

Well, it has to be more fun than watching the Knicks lose.

Lacrosse fans can suggest team names here.

- Jason Horowitz

The plan to turn the Farley Post Office building at Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street into a commuter-ra  read more »

Chairman Steve Roth told investors why Vornado is interested in the Madison Square Garden swap (we wrote about it this week) at an investors conference yesterday:

"We are about making money here on a grand scale," David Lombino reports in The Sun.

Well, at least he's honest.

Roth added: "As an unintended consequence, the city will benefit enormously from a new world-class arena and facility."

Unintended consequence?

-Matthew Schuerman

Charlie Rangel will deliver the Baruch College commencement speech at Madison Square Garden.

Robert Heim will kick off his campaign for Assembly at JD's Restaurant.

Hudson Guild hosts a panel discussion entitled "Chelsea 2025: The Future of Urban Communities."

For convention related events, see our convention schedule post.

—Nicole Brydson

Things got off to an interesting start at the New School graduation ceremony at Madison Square Garden, where John McCain is set to give an address.

Jason Horowitz just called in to say that a student who was scheduled to perform a song and give a short speech departed from her prepared remarks at the beginning of the event to deliver a somewhat ruder introduction than school officials were expecting.

After finishing her song - it was about world peace - the student laid into the Senator from Arizona, saying that he didn't reflect the ideals of the university, and objected to his support of the war in Iraq.

McCain was about five feet away at the time. He didn't seem to have much of an immediate reaction.

The student returned to her seat with her arms raised in triumph as the crowd applauded.

Said New School President Bob Kerrey when he got to the microphone moment later: "We're having fun now, aren't we?"

We'll bring you reaction from McCain - who used a speech earlier this week to call for civility among people who disagree over the war - shortly.

Everyone was psyched for the CW upfront at Madison Square Garden Thursday morning. The first launch of a broadcast network in a decade! With young, multi-racial, technologically savvy viewers! Who are making their first major purchasing decisions! And developing brand loyalty!

At one point during the festivities, America's Next Top Model host Tyra Banks led an uncomfortable one-woman pep rally for the hot new network's hot new logo. "Y'all know I'm all into fierceness, and, like, visuals," she shouted, "and the new logo is hot."

A magazine editor sitting nearby observed that this superhot new logo, which spells out "CW" in thick, curvy lowercase, is the exact mirror image of the logo for CNN.

[Continued after the jump]  read more »

The state agency behind the creation of Moynihan Station unveiled a new design today by David Childs, but the biggest question was not answered: What is happening with relocating Madison Square Garden? If the Garden does hop a block west, to the Ninth Avenue backside of what is presently the Farley Post Office and what will become the train station, it would almost certainly require design changes. But the agency's chief, Charles Gargano, would not touch on that, saying that he had seen no proposal. Nor would Vishaan Chakrabarti, whose company, The Related Companies, will lease and develop the non-train portion of the building along with Vornado Realty Trust, show his cards.  read more »

Notice from the adjacent rendering that Childs did not reinstitute the so-called potato-chip skylight that was lost when HOK and Jamie Carpenter took over the project last summer (only to be replaced by Childs shortly afterwards). Why? It would have destroyed the building's facade and hindered the ability of Related and Vornado to qualify for historic preservation tax credits.

Tonight, it's Brooklyn night (aka Marty Markowitz night) at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden.

Tomorrow morning, the City Council holds a hearing on lobbying reform.

And tomorrow evening find out if there is any affordable housing left in New York City.

—Nicole Brydson

The Times reports that Sharpe James delivered his petitions for re-election, but has not yet declared his entrance into the race for mayor of Newark.

Also in the Times, five internal police reports are made public, bringing to light police tactics used during the RNC in 2004. The Post reports that the owners of Madison Square Garden have been fined for dining with public officials in their hospitality suite without reporting the meals to the lobbying commission.

—Nicole Brydson

Crain's is reporting that the Dolans have finally agreed to rebuild the jinxy Madison Square Garden one block west, on Ninth Avenue, as part of the renovation of the Farley post-office building. They're sourcing it anonymously.

A new office tower would go up above Penn Station instead.  read more »

[A] source said The Related Cos. brokered the deal by smoothing over hard feelings remaining from the West Side stadium fight between the Bloomberg administration and Cablevision executive James Dolan, the Garden’s chairman.

Meanwhile, office and retail development originally scheduled for the western end of the Farley block will be scotched to make way for the new Garden. - Tom McGeveran

The Daily News continues to pillory 9/11 aid, this time skewering grants that went to projects that were being funded through private means beforehand. Top target: the Alliance for Downtown New York, which received $5.4 million for projects.

Brooklyn Beep and Ratner Booster Marty Markowitz says that the proposed Atlantic Yards arena could produce more traffic than does Madison Square Garden.

A chicken in every pot, an Equinox in every Related building.

The Sun has an appreciation of the new Brooklyn court building entitled “Why Brooklyn Looks Like Buffalo.” This is meant to be a compliment.  read more »

And finally, or not finalized yet: a deal to build a platform over the M.T.A.'s “eastern rail yards” on the West Side, in which the city and transit agency would split the profit from selling development rights.

-Matthew Schuerman

We hear the Dalai Lama will stop by the Farley Post Office this Sunday to pay tribute to his late friend, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, for whom the post office will be renamed—once it turns into a train station. Turns out the two went way back, and the Senator’s daughter, Maura, agitated for Tibetan rights before she began agitating for the train station. No time set but His Holiness’s official schedule shows him to be across the street at Madison Square Garden at 3 p.m.  read more »

New Yorkers of a certain vintage will remember the night in February 1968, when the “new&rdquo  read more »

New Yorkers of a certain vintage will remember the night in February 1968, when the “new” Madiso  read more »

They just don't keep us busy enough around here at the Observer.

Terry Golway wrote on Sunday in the Post about Fred Siegel's new Rudy book, making the point that "Giuliani changed New York politics so completely that all of the would-be mayors bear his imprint to some extent."  read more »

And some other guy has a Newsday op-ed on some of the counter-intuitive aspects of the stadium fight, including the upside for Mike, the downside for Shelly, and the fact that Dolan beat Mike as much on strategy as on connections.

Madison Square Garden's best paid lobbyist, we note, wasn't somebody's family member, but rather Glover Park's Gigi Georges, who insiders credit for Dolan's central gambit -- his own bid to buy the stadium.

Wednesday 8thLessons learned this week:  read more »

Wednesday 23rdTechnically speaking, it's spring (even though we're still sleeping under flannel she  read more »

Jess Duran, the communications director for the politically wired Hispanic Federation, appears to have departed on very short notice.

We were unable to reach Duran today, and the Hispanic Federation wasn't returning calls. But we hear that the departure may have had something to do with the relationship between the non-profit and Cablevision, the company that owns Madison Square Garden. Cablevision recently hired the Federation's executive director, Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez, as vice president for government relations, with the portfolio of helping with its campaign against the West Side Stadium.  read more »

We'd love some more details on Duran's departure, and were hoping that one of our correspondents up in Albany this weekend for the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus meeting could help us figure it out.

Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan met with a dozen or so neighborhood pols and community activists yesterday in a Madison Square Garden conference room to admit that "he didn't think it was helpful" that he had become the face of the opposition to the stadium, one participant told us. Dolan told stadium opponents he'd stay out of the way and put up "whatever you need," floating the possibility of making a big contribution to the independent Hell's Kitchen/Hudson Yards Alliance.

Dolan's aide Lee Schroeder set up the meeting immediately after the Observer reported on his allies' complaints that the stadium battle had become a "pissing match" between Dolan and Mike Bloomberg.  read more »