agreed! I always park in the garage adjacent to the building and on Saturday I was back on 21 quicker than ever, with less cops around. go figure!
that being said, this whole thing reeks of unprofessionalism. I know bettman and co have no business butting in- does anyone? to say ‘shut up or we’re fining you!’? its that g-d freedom of speech. buncha hippies
I don't know why, but when you agree with me, it makes me feel good about my posts.
Since when does any team or city mayor air their dirty laundry like this. It comes off as unprofessional as hell and to directly involve public safety as a result of a personal vendetta? Yeah that's some fine representing you're doing for the people.
I hope the NHL weighs in with a public statement along the lines of safety. After the crap that unfolded just last year in California this is no time to use fan safety as a bargaining chip in a personal game of high stakes poker in the media. That's not only poor sportsmanship, its downright dirty. Perception is reality and it doesn't matter how safe things are with or without police presence, publicly withdrawing them gives the impression it isn't safe without them around and this will impact longer distance fans - especially families that normally wouldn't make the trip into Newark but for a special game - or playoffs. That's just not right.
Except there will be extra police on hand for the playoffs:
Quote:
He did say however that the size of the force would be increased when the Devils, who begin the Stanley Cup playoffs on the road against the Florida Panthers on Friday, play their first home game next Tuesday.
Except there will be extra police on hand for the playoffs:
Well there's a dispute, because this was in the article as well:
Quote:
DeMaio said he may have to reduce the size of the Prudential Center detail even further, depending on public safety needs, adding that the arena may have to pay a little extra for safety in the future. He would not say what the size of police squad would be for tonight’s NBA game hosted by the New Jersey Nets.
I don't get the massive support for Vanderbeek. The guy clearly lied about many things that the arena would bring and hasn't paid up. He's running a team that's in debt and it's clearly showing now.
Booker has a right to be pissed because the arena and it's impact on Newark isn't that impressive.
I'm coming out of retirement for one post.
Read the history of this situation and learn it. Then speak. In this case he is actually right, they have provided everything they were responsible to provide after the attempt to re-open the arena deal, cancel it, and sell the steel for scrap during the initial construction plan. Booker has never had a problem with this until the last few weeks because he needs to have it for political purposes, because the Sharpe James supporters will not support him in the next election otherwise.
The Newark Housing Authority is essentially the school board from Lean on Me.
If you learned the history you would be SURPRISED how little the Devils gave in that deal. Newark did not even manage to meet their ends of the deal, which could not be that significant, because all the Devils had to give per the agreement was advertisements on the light boards in the arena, on the TV screen, limited use of the building to Newark, and also they had to do some local PR/community building stuff which was met by letting the practice rink be used.
You wonder why the arbitration went the way it did? That's why. Now because of the idiots Booker surrounds himself he's in a real losing battle. Especially since he is a tweener politically. He's going to get himself buried and this is really intelligent because he is now opening himself up to a lawsuit.
I'm a fan of Booker's, and I'm not thrilled at all with what I think were some bad faith moves by JVB, but I'm not liking all the public dirty laundry airing.
Reducing the police presence is a smart move at this point; it's clearly far beyond what's needed, and the city is paying for it all, which is almost unheard of in pro sports as far as I know. If it's truly been planned all along to do this, then great. If it's an act of pettiness, then I'm not so pleased.
I think for me it boils down to: agree with Booker's annoyance, disagree with making everything so public.
agreed! I always park in the garage adjacent to the building and on Saturday I was back on 21 quicker than ever, with less cops around. go figure!
that being said, this whole thing reeks of unprofessionalism. I know bettman and co have no business butting in- does anyone? to say ‘shut up or we’re fining you!’? its that g-d freedom of speech. buncha hippies
The league actually does have a decent amount of say and if they don't think it's safe they can bring in their own security
Well there's a dispute, because this was in the article as well:
That's for down the road when the playoffs are over and for insignificant events like the Nets. And like other teams the Devils should pay for their own SWAT team around the arena which isn't even needed on most nights.
Thinking about this, exactly how much police have you seen around the arena so far this season anyway? I have been to plenty of games this year and have maybe seen 2 or 3 cops.
The area is safe anyway, just dont go west on Broad St and your fine.
All Booker does it tweet all day, its like a city being run by a 14 year old girl.
This means that ticket prices at The Rock will now be lower, because the price increase that was recently built into the cost of every ticket sold at The Rock that directly goes directly to the City of Newark for police presence will now be removed!!!!
