The “public” plazas in Times Square are being pimped out for commercial events and product launches — but the city is making little profit.
Now the local community board wants the city Department of Transportation to restrict events in the Crossroads of the World and charge higher rates as the NFL prepares to launch an outdoor theme park in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl Boulevard, stretching from 34th to 47th streets, will run from noon to 10 p.m. between Jan. 29 and Feb. 1 and include a theater, an autograph and concert stage and a 60-foot-tall toboggan run.
The city wouldn’t respond to requests for comment on how much the NFL was paying in events fees.
“We want to make sure that the city gets a good deal when it rents out these spaces,” said Raju Mann, a member of Community Board 5. “Right now, they can’t technically make money, which is crazy from our perspective.”
The city currently charges fees from several thousand dollars to upward of $20,000 to reimburse police and other agencies for crowd control and permit processing.
The Times Square Alliance, which manages the plazas, receives a smaller concession fee, ranging from $950 to $28,000 for a large event.
But little — if any — revenue goes into city coffers. The fees also aren’t covering maintenance costs to the alliance, which went over its plaza budget by $55,000 in 2013 and $99,000 in 2012.
The alliance, which had revenues of $17.42 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013, received $74,000 in government grants.
In 2013, corporations and nonprofit groups held more than 50 events in Times Square, including a promotional tent by People magazine for its Sexiest Man Alive issue. The city charged People $22,500 for crowd control and $9,500 for the alliance’s maintenance budget.
Last week, the DOT withdrew a controversial proposal to expand the 41,000-square-foot plaza on Broadway and Seventh Avenue between 41st and 47th streets to 53rd Street. The plan would have tripled available concession space without instituting bigger fees.
The community board and then-Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer disapproved of the plan.