TRENTON — The New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority spent almost $1 million to lock up season tickets for the Giants and Jets, seats that will be used by VIPs including elected officials.
The state agency secured 142 season passes in the NFL teams’ new $1.6 billion stadium in East Rutherford by paying an $854,000 one-time license fee and $221,600 for actual tickets to 20 games set for 2010. The agency also paid $275,000 for a luxury suite. The costs were provided in response to a public records request by Bloomberg News.
Business partners, politicians and others associated with the agency will be able to buy the tickets from the authority, which plans a service fee to recoup costs, said John Samerjan, a spokesman. The agency, which neither owns nor manages the new stadium and is supposed to operate without taxpayer help, is asking lawmakers for $32.8 million to make up a funding shortfall at a time when state social services are being cut.
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“These are the kind of shenanigans we need to guard against,” said Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono, a Middlesex County Democrat who is seeking an audit of the authority’s budget. “It seems not only an unnecessary and unwise expense, but wholly inappropriate given the amount of money they are seeking from the state.”
Dennis Robinson, the authority’s president, said the purchases were made so the agency could keep tickets it controlled in the old stadium.
“In 2008 the Authority was forced to make a decision — either give up your seats forever potentially, or continue to purchase a reasonable amount of seats for business purposes,” he said. “The decision had to be made on the spot.”
The authority reserves the seats for use by sponsors of its other facilities, high-stakes horse bettors and people who are valuable to its business, Robinson said.