http://www.newjersey...-worth-the-cost
Harrison wants some of the money back from the soccer team, and it wants it now.
The biggest question that needs to be answered in the 2012 Major League Soccer season will not come from a result on the field but rather a judge in some courtroom.
It will be finances and will Harrison salvage something by getting a check for property taxes at the stadium site.
The New York Red Bulls franchise, which operates in a Harrison, New Jersey stadium, doesn't want to pay property taxes to the municipality. Red Bulls owner Dietrich Mateschitz refused to pay his 2010 and 2011 tax bill, which comes out to about $3.6 million because the team's lawyers feel that the land underneath the stadium is owned by the tax-exempt Harrison Redevelopment Agency.
Why should Mateschitz pay for something he doesn't really own? The land below his soccer stadium.
In a Newark courtroom in January, Judge Christine Nugent told Mateschitz's lawyers that she disagreed with the Red Bulls franchise claim and ordered the team to pay the property taxes. The Mateschitz’s franchise lawyers appealed Judge Nugent's ruling.
The judge also said no to another notion that the franchise put forth. Red Bulls attorneys said because the team-owned stadium serves a public purpose, it should be tax-exempt.