Now, for the first time, the selling of personal seat licenses is a real possibility in the New York area. Jets and Giants executives are considering using them at the $1.6 billion stadium they are building in New Jersey, which is scheduled to open in 2010. Although any decisions are months away and team officials are reluctant to discuss details publicly, sports business analysts and others around the N.F.L. said they expected to see the teams sell licenses. Fans, meanwhile, are bracing to pay extra. %26#8220;Listen, I know it%26#8217;s inevitable,%26#8221; said Bobby Stiso, a textiles salesman from Airmont, N.Y., who spent nearly three decades on the Giants%26#8217; waiting list before buying two season tickets several years ago. %26#8220;If Wellington Mara were alive, would he do it?%26#8221; he said, invoking the name of the team%26#8217;s patriarch, who was devoted to Giants fans, answering nearly every letter he received from them. He died in 2005.Personal seat licenses are like taxi medallions or a seat on a financial exchange. Buying one entitles the fan to have first call on the purchase of a season ticket. Fans can re-sell and buy licenses among themselves or online, with the value pegged to the local market and win-loss dynamics. The initial cost has yet to be determined for the Jets and the Giants, but other teams have charged from $150 for an average seat license to $150,000 for a premium spot in the Dallas Cowboys%26#8217; new stadium. The prospect of selling them is made more likely by the N.F.L.%26#8217;s requirement that teams repay their debt much faster than their bankers demanded. The credit crisis could also affect the teams if any of their debt has floating rates, which would make their financing more expensive %26#151; and make revenue from seat licenses more important.That league pressure %26#8220;doesn%26#8217;t make them inevitable,%26#8221; said Jay Cross, the Jets%26#8217; president. %26#8220;What it does make inevitable is, we have to raise more equity.%26#8221; One option among many is to seek upfront payments from sponsors and companies buying naming rights to the stadium and to the four main gates.Some Jets and Giants fans have already started worrying about how they will afford license fees. Arnold Spier, an accountant from Fair Lawn, N.J., is paying $3,000 for four upper-deck Jets season tickets and worries that his children%26#8217;s college costs and rising gas prices may not leave enough to justify buying seat licenses. %26#8220;If you asked me now, maybe I%26#8217;d pay $500,%26#8221; he said. But, he added: %26#8220;I don%26#8217;t care about their financing. Giants Stadium serves my purpose fine.%26#8221; Personal seat licenses came into vogue as stadium costs soared, the number of projects multiplied, and city and state governments became less likely to spend tax money to cover the bulk of stadium financing. The Carolina Panthers started the current trend in 1993 by selling 62,500 seat licenses from $600 to $5,400 each to help pay to build what is now called Bank of America Stadium. The Panthers now sell licenses costing $3,000 to $20,000.These de facto seat taxes have not surfaced in New York because no new professional stadiums have opened since Giants Stadium in 1976. Sports business experts and fans are convinced that the Jets and the Giants will use seat licenses to repay their debt. Luxury boxes, club seats, naming rights, sponsorships and ticket sales may not be enough. %26#8220;I%26#8217;d be shocked if they didn%26#8217;t do it,%26#8221; said Dan Migala, who publishes a sports marketing newsletter. %26#8220;I can%26#8217;t imagine in this marketplace that they wouldn%26#8217;t.%26#8221; If they sell licenses, the Jets and the Giants will probably use them on all 9,200 club seats, the premium level below luxury suites. They would then have to decide how many other seats would require licenses. Mark Lamping, the new chief executive of the two-team stadium, has experience with licenses. As the president of the St. Louis Cardinals, he marketed 10,000 of them at $1,500 to $10,000 to help finance the new Busch Stadium, which opened in 2006.Until now, the Jets and the Giants have been marketing their new stadium%26#8217;s 200 luxury boxes, which are being leased at an average price of $600,000 annually. But they have not yet focused on the prices for all the other seats, or on the subject of licenses.John Mara, the Giants%26#8217; president and co-owner, said, %26#8220;We%26#8217;re looking at all possibilities for the financing of the stadium.%26#8221;Twelve N.F.L. teams have combined to generate nearly $900 million in seat license fees since the mid-1990s. The Green Bay Packers raised $110 million from 55,000 season-ticket holders to renovate Lambeau Field by selling less valuable versions of licenses called seat user fees. They are generally less expensive ($600 to $1,400) and do not provide seat ownership, but are refundable if fans decline to buy season tickets. 1 2 Next Page %26#x00bb;
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