Cash-strapped NJ Sports Authority spends $1M on season tickets, $200K to keep contracts secret

Cash-strapped NJ Sports Authority spending chided

TRENTON, N.J. — Despite being deeply in debt and looking for state help, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority spent more than $1 million on premium tickets and season passes at the new Meadowlands Stadium and nearly $200,000 on a court fight to keep concert contracts at the Izod Center secret.

Those revelations come at a time when spending by the public agency is under heavy scrutiny because it is asking the state for nearly $33 million this year to help make up for a budget shortfall.

Created in 1971, the Sports Authority operates the Meadowlands, which includes the stalled Xanadu retail and entertainment project, and manages the new New York Jets and Giants football stadium. It also operates the nearby Izod Center, the Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, the Atlantic City and Wildwood Convention Centers and the Camden Aquarium.

Now $830 million in debt, the agency has been steadily losing money for years. The state has helped finance most of its debt, but this is the first time the agency has asked the state to bail it out for operating costs.

That didn’t stop the authority from paying $854,000 for seat licenses, $221,000 for tickets to 20 games, and $275,000 for a luxury suite at the new Meadowlands stadium — a move governor’s spokesman Michael Drewniak called “an astonishingly bad decision” that will have to be fixed.

“These are marketable seat licenses, and that’s something we’ll deal with going forward,” Drewniak said.

NJSEA spokesman John Samerjan said the Sports Authority will recoup the cost of the tickets, which are sold to sponsors and other VIPs, and some of the cost of the seat licenses through a fee tacked on to the tickets.

At the same time the agency is asking the state for money, it has refused to disclose how much money it is making or losing on concert contracts.

Last year, The Star-Ledger of Newark sued the NJSEA over copies of concert contracts after the agency refused to disclose them under the state’s open records laws. This week, in response to a public records request by The Associated Press, the Sports Authority disclosed how much it has spent on keeping those contracts secret.

The agency released heavily redacted contracts to The Star-Ledger, even though contracts with the same promoters with other public venues around the country were quickly released, the newspaper reported. Samerjan said revealing the full concert contracts would put the authority at a competitive disadvantage.

The agency has also come under criticism for allowing lawmakers to purchase premium concert tickets that are not available to the public.

In April, Bloomberg News reported that 22 elected officials purchased tickets directly through the Sports Authority in 2009 — a time when the state was suing online ticket brokers over their marketing practices.

Public records show that staffers for former Govs. Jon Corzine and Richard Codey were among those who took advantage of the available tickets.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, and his staff received the most tickets among public officials, including 34 tickets to see Bruce Springsteen.

Sarlo, whose district encompasses the Meadowlands, said he and his staff used the tickets primarily for personal use and that they, “like other stakeholders, stadium supporters and lawmakers — including governors — had limited access to the tickets and followed a long-standing policy to secure them, which included paying full face-value and fees.”

Samerjan said the tickets have long been available to policymakers and other business partners and VIPs, including media outlets, as a way to showcase the facilities.

Criticism of the agency’s spending and political perks comes at a time when nearly every department in New Jersey state government faces budget cuts.

Drewniak said the governor’s office has concerns about the agency’s spending and questions about why it is not self-sustaining.

State Auditor Stephen Eells said a review he prepared for lawmakers shows the Sports Authority “has a serious cash-flow issue, to a point where it’s seriously affecting operations.”

Most of the agency’s shortfall this year comes from a $22 million loss in horse racing. The rest comes from the opening of the new stadium at the Meadowlands, which is home to the Jets and Giants and was just announced as the host of the 2014 Super Bowl.

Because the stadium is privately owned, the state will not be able to share in revenue from concerts and sponsorships even though the Sports Authority will manage it. Samerjan said the authority was faced with either buying the season tickets now or possibly losing the seats permanently at the new stadium.

Gov. Chris Christie has created a commission to specifically recommend ways to either fix or dismantle the agency. A report is due June 30.