Money and sports --- Mike (slow)
>> new york giants’ fans have been going to the meadowlands in new jersey for the last 28 years but could soon see their beloved team in a new home. the team’s c.e.o. announced the franchise will consider building a new football stadium instead of renovating the current one. for more, we turn to this week’s “money and sports” segment and are joined by mike buteau out of atlanta. mike, the giants, do they need a new stadium? they share it with the jets, do they not?
>> they do and the news out of new york, the jets looking to build a new stadium and move out of the meadowlands, the giants had been looking over the past year into renovating the stadium. the cost of renovating giant stadium, a 28-year-old building, would run them $300 million. if you’re going to spend $300 renovating, you might as well look at the cost of building a new one. they’re looking at the two options here, $300 million for renovations and you look at a new stadium, for example, in philadelphia, lincoln financial field, that’s a $500 million stadium, the eagles on the hook for $355 million of that. so this is a new deal the giants could look at, get the first naming rights sponsor to take away giants stadium, get a state-of-the-art stadium, luxury boxes, bring in more revenue and free themselves of the new york-new jersey exhibition authority.
>> any time i hear about the stadium it seems like it’s coupled with the possibility of pulling the team out of town, but no suggestion of that so far?
>> so far, no. the giants would be staying in the same location most likely. the jets would be moving out of town with a new stadium so the giants stadium would be solely giants stadium.
>> we’re weeks away from the summer olympics in the birthplace of it all, athens, greece. but i understand that the international olympics commitee is looking ahead to the 2010 and 2012 era, and early this week awarded the european broadcasting rights are significantly more than they paid last time. so why are european broadcasters paying more to air the olympics?
>> the european broadcast union which has broadcast the olympics since 1950 retained the rights for 2006-2008 and are bidding for 2010-2012, and this is the first time the broadcast rights have been put up for bidding. news corp. was the rival here, driving up the price 40%, looking at $756 million for 2010 and 2012.% the key being that they opened it up for bidding. news corp., the i.o.c. was worried they might put some of the events on pay-per-view so they awarded it to the european broadcast union again.
>> how does that stack up to what nbc has contracted to pay?
>> you’d think a 40% increase to $756 million would be significant but when you look at what nbc paid for the same years, $2.2 billion and that’s a record. clearly, the broadcasting rights with nbc, definitely lead over% -the baud casting rights in europe but still significant, a 40% increase for european rights.
>> i understand now that lance armstrong, of course, the tour de france, five-time winner, says he will skip the olympic games in athens, is that right? why is that?
>> a bit of a surprise. he’s competed in the last three olympics. after one of the stage races the other day he said he should hint he―he said he is not going to. if you look at the tour de france, it’s similar to france. tiger woods has said if they bring golf to the olympics, he wouldn’t want to play in it because the other tournaments are bigger events for him. so a sixth tour de france title for lance armstrong would be better than the olympics.
>> mike buteau, good to have you on, joining us from atlanta. we’ll get a preview of next week’s expected market action from the pacific rim and that and more coming up.
