Harrison Project-Front Page of Bergen Record

sounds very optimistic.

i think nick will stay on as gm until the deals are finalized....he's entirely too involved....

no if only news of oz's firing came out today...it would be an even better day...

 

Carefully read Zoffinger's virtual non-endorsement -- "under the right economic circumstances". Talk about your proverbial "truckhole". Then read that Gov. McGreevey stands behind Zoffinger's position on this. Zoffinger has been nothing but hostile to the Metro and will continue to be and will not allow any project to compete with his patronage pal Charlie S. What a pack of lying skeeves, the whole lot of them.

 

Any predictions how the Senate mess in NJ will help or hinder the way politicians will support the Harrison project.

 

The Lautenberg / Torricelli issue has nothing to do with this.

Here's the only "news" that I could find in this article:

So if there's no movement within the next month, we're in trouble.

 

Zoffinger - "I favor the development in Harrison, which could include a soccer stadium, under the right economic circumstances..."

translated into common terms, I think that means

"I favor the development in Harrison so long as somebody is dumping loads of Benjamins into my backyard swimming pool"

 

How far is new Harrison project from Queens by car? And by mass transit if there is any?

 

The stadium would be in walking distance of the Harrison PATH station, which is easily accessible from NYC or Newark (and the main selling point for the site).

I doubt NJSEA will hinder the project in any way. I'd think they would be happy to get rid of them. They'll still get their big soccer internationals at GS since the proposed stadium will only hold 25K.

October 24 may not be a drop-dead date, but simply the next possible one where something will happen. If it does clear the committee, there's only 2 hurdles left: The full Senate, and then the Governor's signature.

 

That article sounds very promising. I will definately vacation in Harrison if you get that stadium. Good luck guy's.

 

I was shocked when I saw it on the front page of The Record with the large drawing of the stadium. With all the space dedicated to it, you would have thought it was a done deal or something. Instead, it seemed to be a rehash of everything we've already read all year from the Star Ledger.

On the other hand, with the exception of the picture of Nick with the goofy grin, it was nice to have it as a cover story to keep the "casual" soccer fans up-to-date on the Harrison project.

 

About 15 years.

 

I'll even put it in my will to have my ashes dumped there!

 

Thanks for your help

This summer, legislation to create the district was on a legislative fast track. It had cleared the Assembly and was heading for the Senate. But lawmakers decided to attach a controversial plan for a Newark arena for the Devils and Nets onto the legislation. The bill failed.

We can all now thank "ESC honorary member for life" Sharpe James for helping screw-up the timeline for our new stadium.

 

Same old song and dance. Distract from the real problems. I'm surprised the Metros have this kind of pull with the local media.

 

Real problems like soccer fans supporting teams disbanded over 15 years ago and the Manchester Yankees instead of MLS?

 

The sad reality is that you will live a long and healthy life and when your time comes, there still won't be a Metro stadium to receive your ashes. This is all ************************, smoke and mirrors as it has been since 1996. Nick has nothing. This is a smokescreen. Nick can't even rent a high school stadium for this Club to play in -- he is that clueless. OZ is going to kill another team next year because Nick won't can him. Why won't Nick give him the heave ho? I don't know.

 

It would be nice if there was a public hearing either on or before the 24th of October. I would love to voice my opinion, as well as everyone else.

There has been so much crap added with our stadium project, but the one in Carson, California already has a shovel in the ground.

Ain't politics grand..............Bastards.

 

Why does the past and things from abroad cause so much angst in the current generation of fans in this country? Maybe it's the disregarding of these things that is holding the sport back in this country, not the lack soccer specific stadiums.

 

Nah. In fact, people that won't support the Metro because they have a false romantic notion of what the Cosmos "were", gets in the way of what the Metro might be. As for the ManU nonsense, the reason that you will see that venture crapped on here is because it is bogus, it is a mere circus exhibition without the elephants -- sucking soccer dollars out of fans' pockets to see meaningless exhibition matches at the expense of developing a competitve pro league. If soccer fans are stupid enough to shell out for that, well that is their decision -- it is a free country. Charlie Stillitano is the carney and anyone who throws a nickle in his direction is the rube.

Tell me, are you willing to be the rube?

 

I'll gladly pay to support something that will help broaden the appeal of the sport in this country, not something that is cashing in on a "name brand". I can get the same amount of satisfaction reading about exhibitions in the morning paper as I can from attending them.

 

The way things are going, I'd swap Metro for A-League teams in 4 of the 5 Boroughs. Obviously Manhattan would be out, and I'm assuming these teams could find decent places to call home in Brooklyn, Queens, et. al.

Let's say my hopes for next season are dim. I told myself I'd go one more season at the Swamp. After that, no more season tix till we move. I suspect we will play on plastic, for one thing. I also suspect the play on plastic won't be much improved over what we experienced this year.

 

Just some random thoughts from what everyone has said here over the past couple of days:

1. Sharpe James didn't kill this bill in June. The budget negotiations killed this bill; James was keeping it alive. It was NEVER going to pass the Senate, even unencumbered, because nobody wanted to spend any more time on what's essentially a special interest bill. Granted, James was doing so strictly for his own reasons and not for Metro, but it was fun to watch at 1 am on the last day of the legislative session as he refused to let the thing go. He's likely a crook, but as far as Metro are concerned he's all right.

2. Call me incredibly gullible, but it appears that we will have a resolution of this soon. Ghost's rantings to the contrary have only convinced me that it's likely going to work.

Here are Ghost's primary reasons why this will fail:

-- The NJSEA will muck it up.
-- Nick is full of crap on everything else, why should we believe him on this?

Let's take the last point first. Nick is the point person for this effort locally, but he's not running the show; Kevin Payne and Garber are. Everyone from every other team agrees that the league NEEDS this. Do you really think that Phil would leave his several hundred million dollar investment in the hands of someone who is that incompetent? I think this is the only thing that Nick could do well -- take him out of team operations and focus on this. It's what they should have done with Charlie years ago.

With regards to argument #1, who is McGreevey more endebted to: Zoffinger, or the Hudson County Dems? If you said Zoffinger (hello Ghost), I've got some Meadowlands property to sell you. If it passes the Senate, McGreevey will sign it.

The only problem is that none of the three GOP members of the Tourism et al Committee have come out in favor of it. My guess is that it will either go through 6-0 or not get a vote and die. It's just a question of how hard the Republicans want to oppose the Democrats on everything this session.

 

The question is will the ones who didn't get their way with the Newark Arena in June now just dismiss any proposal for a stadium anywhere else in New Jersey. The lack of a major power broker in the state legislature signing on to the cause has hurt this project in the past.

 

If you listen to James, he's got his money now through the Newark Airport / Port Authority settlement and doesn't need the legislature. The possibility of retaliation there seems minimal.

 

OK. It's one week later. And ten days before this should be voted on in committee, according to the original article that spawned this thread. Y'all are focussed on the new coach, but us folks out here in the hinterlands of the country are wondering how the stadium effort is going. Y'all contacted your senators on the committee? Or is this one of those "We have to sit back and cross our fingers" things?

Or, more likely, "Pay attention to other things, because this is just one more 'announcement in X days' things."?

Too bad the legislature schedule isn't ahead of the MLS Cup Final schedule...