Sheldon Silver dies in prison

[Jets Things]

[section314]

As Robert DiNiro said to Chaz Palminteri at the end of A Bronx Tale...."may God have mercy on your soul."

[Warfish]

8 hours ago, Sperm Edwards said:

I don’t have a link handy, but my recollection was he spent something on the order of $75MM in planning, lobbying, and more - including pushing the venue as a future olympics site - to get a WSS done. There was so much pressure from so many well-connected residents about having the WSS there (oh, the horror of 10 home games a year!) and I loosely knew a couple of them at one time. In the end, it wasn’t happening. He didn’t have the pull, and the right people who were grease-able were already in Dolan’s pocket. 

I don’t know that a Nassau County stadium was ever in the cards or even though of or proposed to him with any seriousness.

He could’ve done Queens, but he never really showed interest in that, whatever his reasons. Maybe it didn’t have the cachet of Manhattan; maybe it was getting called on his bluff of saying in NYC he’d do the WSS or he’s not doing NY. I know he’s got a huge farm-estate in NJ but don’t know if he already had that when the WSS fell through, and figured if he couldn’t have the premiere NYC stadium then he may as well live in NJ and split the construction costs with the Giants. Who knows.

But he clearly wanted a WSS. Nobody sinks that much money and effort into a project but secretly doesn’t really want it. Jumping in to the current stadium was a last-minute thing because Mara/Tisch were fine doing this with or without him, and they weren’t waiting any longer for him, so he hopped on board.

$75M is a little under 2% of Woody's Net Worth. 

He could have done more, had he really wanted, and been just as rich as any other multi-billionaire.  He's made that $75M back a dozen times over since then.

The WSS was always a pipedream idea IMO, but had Woody really wanted it, he would have paid for it all himself and done what it took to get it done. 

He didn't want to badly enough, and that, in part, is why he didn't get it.  Him being a complete loser at NYC politics didn't help him either.  But at least he got to be UK Ambassador, I guess....

I think you're quite right, if Woody couldn't have "the premiere NYC stadium" AND have NYC taxpayers pay for a good portion of it and the surrounding infrastructure, then he was happy to take his ball and go home to the more profitable confines of New Giants Stadium rather than build it on his own dime in Queens or Nassau or the like.

Ultimately,  it makes little difference to me, as a non-local Jets Fan I don't have a dog in this fight.  

 

[Biggs]

5 hours ago, JetsFanatic said:

Anyone who blames Woody for the Manhattan stadium not materializing is clueless to the corrupt and beaurocratic government of NYC. Woody sunk in $75M and won the support of the Mayor and Governor and this project still failed because of the layers of corrupt beaurocratic nonsense invovled. 

The Mayor and Gov where pushing for an Olympic bid and a huge redevlopment plan for a convention center with ties to the stadium.  Woody's 75 million was chump change compared to the funding the City and State were going to put up to build a stadium that would line his pockets.   It was a down payment on city and state financing through municipal bonds that the tax payers would ultimately be responsible for funding.  

It would have been great but don't act like Woody made some huge investment.  He was buying influence for a publicly funded stadium that he would greatly profit off of. 

[Irish Jet]

6 hours ago, JetsFanatic said:

Anyone who blames Woody for the Manhattan stadium not materializing is clueless to the corrupt and beaurocratic government of NYC. Woody sunk in $75M and won the support of the Mayor and Governor and this project still failed because of the layers of corrupt beaurocratic nonsense invovled. 

I think you overstate how much money that is to these people.

Roman Abramovich spent more on Alvaro Morata ffs.

[Peace Frog]

6 hours ago, JetsFanatic said:

Anyone who blames Woody for the Manhattan stadium not materializing is clueless to the corrupt and beaurocratic government of NYC. Woody sunk in $75M and won the support of the Mayor and Governor and this project still failed because of the layers of corrupt beaurocratic nonsense invovled. 

Yes, absolutely clueless. It had absolutely zero to do with Woody. He could have put in $750 million and STILL would have gotten shot down. 

Sheldon Silver was the NY State Assembly Speaker and as such had veto rights on the project. Silver was in the pocket of the Dolan Family who owns MSG. The WSS project also planned to expand the Jacob Javits Center- and the combo of the WSS and the JJC would have posed an entertainment competition threat to MSG so Silver did Dolan’s bidding and shot it down. 

It was Silver’s corruption and veto right that killed it, not Woody’s unwillingness. Woody wanted it very badly. 

That’s just ignorance from folks that didn’t live through it.  

[Dcat]

I don't like to express joy when another person dies.  True, Sheldon Silver was a bad man. Perhaps there were some good things he did in his lifetime that someone out there can celebrate.  

RIP.

[Green DNA]

New York politics are just as corrupt as Mississippi or Louisiana and Silver was the poster boy for all that is inherently wrong in government.

[Sperm Edwards]

1 hour ago, Warfish said:

$75M is a little under 2% of Woody's Net Worth. 

He could have done more, had he really wanted, and been just as rich as any other multi-billionaire.  He's made that $75M back a dozen times over since then.

The WSS was always a pipedream idea IMO, but had Woody really wanted it, he would have paid for it all himself and done what it took to get it done. 

He didn't want to badly enough, and that, in part, is why he didn't get it.  Him being a complete loser at NYC politics didn't help him either.  But at least he got to be UK Ambassador, I guess....

I think you're quite right, if Woody couldn't have "the premiere NYC stadium" AND have NYC taxpayers pay for a good portion of it and the surrounding infrastructure, then he was happy to take his ball and go home to the more profitable confines of New Giants Stadium rather than build it on his own dime in Queens or Nassau or the like.

Ultimately,  it makes little difference to me, as a non-local Jets Fan I don't have a dog in this fight.  

 

$75MM is a mountain of money, even for a billionaire who has plenty more. Hitting a dead end after spending all that isn't in any way evidence - or even a good rationalization - that he didn't really want it. 

It bugs me a little because, as a non-NJ resident, it's too inconvenient to go to games anymore. I gave up my season tickets years ago. I've got a family far more deserving of my time than those extra to/fro hours, and the Jets ****ing suck anyway, so it's not worth the crazy amount of time it takes to get in & out of MetLife. However, if I could've taken a train into the city (or if I still lived there), I'd go to a lot more, just like any other times we head into the city for a show, a night out, meeting friends who live an hour from the city in the opposite direction, etc.

Doesn't change my life in any major way, but it would've been nice. I'd surely go to at least 5x more games than I do now. But not if a 3 hour game eats up 7-8 hours of my day (and not because of 3-4 hours worth of tailgating). 

Also while this doesn't affect me either, MetLife is just ugly, or at best forgettable, in this era of architectural works of art that other teams play in. The WSS proposal mockups looked gorgeous, so I'd have to blame Mara/Tisch for that, where Woody couldn't convince them to change to a design from this century.

So it doesn't keep me up at night, but every time they show it on screen it's another reminder how the Jets suck and can't do anything right lol.

[Peace Frog]

16 minutes ago, Dcat said:

I don't like to express joy when another person dies.  True, Sheldon Silver was a bad man. Perhaps there were some good things he did in his lifetime that someone out there can celebrate.  

RIP.

Well, he reinstated the death penalty in NY in 1995 so he had that going for him.  Since repealed as unconsitutional but he gave it the college try.  

[Peace Frog]

1 minute ago, Sperm Edwards said:

$75MM is a mountain of money, even for a billionaire who has plenty more. Hitting a dead end after spending all that isn't in any way evidence - or even a good rationalization - that he didn't really want it. 

It bugs me a little because, as a non-NJ resident, it's too inconvenient to go to games anymore. I gave up my season tickets years ago. I've got a family far more deserving of my time than those extra to/fro hours, and the Jets ****ing suck anyway, so it's not worth the crazy amount of time it takes to get in & out of MetLife. However, if I could've taken a train into the city (or if I still lived there), I'd go to a lot more, just like any other times we head into the city for a show, a night out, meeting friends who live an hour from the city in the opposite direction, etc.

Doesn't change my life in any major way, but it would've been nice. I'd surely go to at least 5x more games than I do now. But not if a 3 hour game eats up 7-8 hours of my day (and not because of 3-4 hours worth of tailgating). 

Also while this doesn't affect me either, MetLife is just ugly, or at best forgettable, in this era of architectural works of art that other teams play in. The WSS proposal mockups looked gorgeous, so I'd have to blame Mara/Tisch for that, where Woody couldn't convince them to change to a design from this century.

So it doesn't keep me up at night, but every time they show it on screen it's another reminder how the Jets suck and can't do anything right lol.

I was working in NYC all during that time and being able to WALK to a concert or other event at the stadium on a Wednesday or a Thursday night would have been awesome.  

And yes, the mockups looks incredible--would have been a beautiful shining emerald right in the middle of that spectacular skyline.

Lol folks scoffing at $75 million.  

[Biggs]

3 minutes ago, Sperm Edwards said:

$75MM is a mountain of money, even for a billionaire who has plenty more. Hitting a dead end after spending all that isn't in any way evidence - or even a good rationalization - that he didn't really want it. 

It bugs me a little because, as a non-NJ resident, it's too inconvenient to go to games anymore. I gave up my season tickets years ago. I've got a family far more deserving of my time than those extra to/fro hours, and the Jets ****ing suck anyway, so it's not worth the crazy amount of time it takes to get in & out of MetLife. However, if I could've taken a train into the city (or if I still lived there), I'd go to a lot more, just like any other times we head into the city for a show, a night out, meeting friends who live an hour from the city in the opposite direction, etc.

Doesn't change my life in any major way, but it would've been nice. I'd surely go to at least 5x more games than I do now. But not if a 3 hour game eats up 7-8 hours of my day (and not because of 3-4 hours worth of tailgating). 

Also while this doesn't affect me either, MetLife is just ugly, or at best forgettable, in this era of architectural works of art that other teams play in. The WSS proposal mockups looked gorgeous, so I'd have to blame Mara/Tisch for that, where Woody couldn't convince them to change to a design from this century.

So it doesn't keep me up at night, but every time they show it on screen it's another reminder how the Jets suck and can't do anything right lol.

Of course he wanted it.  It was going get over a billion dollars in public financing.

[Jet_Engine1]

I feel bad about my post. While I dislike what the guy did, and wish things had worked out, the guy was a person with a family and people who cared about him. Feels wrong to celebrate his passing. He was a corrupt politician, not a serial killer.

[Biggs]

On 1/25/2022 at 11:02 AM, Peace Frog said:

Yes, absolutely clueless. It had absolutely zero to do with Woody. He could have put in $750 million and STILL would have gotten shot down. 

Sheldon Silver was the NY State Assembly Speaker and as such had veto rights on the project. Silver was in the pocket of the Dolan Family who owns MSG. The WSS project also planned to expand the Jacob Javits Center- and the combo of the WSS and the JJC would have posed an entertainment competition threat to MSG so Silver did Dolan’s bidding and shot it down. 

It was Silver’s corruption and veto right that killed it, not Woody’s unwillingness. Woody wanted it very badly. 

That’s just ignorance from folks that didn’t live through it.  

Woody is a crook with a history of crooked dealings in real estate and  he was convicted of tax fraud in how he handled the purchase of the Jets.  The idea that he would put up 750 million of his own money to call Silvers bluff is ridiculous.  The WSS could have been privately financed.  It was a scheme based on public financing.   Public financing requires getting politicians in line.  

[Peace Frog]

12 minutes ago, Biggs said:

Woody is a crook with a history of crooked dealings in real estate and  he was convicted of tax fraud in how he handled the purchase of the Jets.  The idea that he would put up 750 million of his own money to call Silvers bluff is ridiculous.  The WSS could have been privately financed.  It was a scheme based on public financing.   Public financing requires getting politicians in line.  

Yeah, sure, ok.  

It was based on public land.  Woody could have writtent the entire check himself and Silver STILL would have vetoed it.  He had 100% veto power and Dolan would not let him approve it. WSS and JJC could not be allowed to happen right down the street from MSG.

Besides, no stadiums (other than MetLife and SoFi) are fully privately financed.  Everybody does it.

Again, had zero to do with how it was going to be financed.  

Woody being a "crook" and being convicted of tax fraud is just an irrelevant red herring.  

[The Green Dude]

On 1/24/2022 at 7:51 PM, sourceworx said:

Damn. Forgot how nice it was going to look.

The excitement the boards had when this was actually in play. I'll never forget when Silver shot it down.

[EM31]

Talk about poster child for term limits

[Biggs]

37 minutes ago, Peace Frog said:

Yeah, sure, ok.  

It was based on public land.  Woody could have writtent the entire check himself and Silver STILL would have vetoed it.  He had 100% veto power and Dolan would not let him approve it. WSS and JJC could not be allowed to happen right down the street from MSG.

Besides, no stadiums (other than MetLife and SoFi) are fully privately financed.  Everybody does it.

Again, had zero to do with how it was going to be financed.  

Woody being a "crook" and being convicted of tax fraud is just an irrelevant red herring.  

Woody proposed this beautiful state of the art stadium for the Jets in Mahattan with a dome and he ended up financing half of Giant Stadium in a swamp.  Sure Woody is irrelevant. 

 

[Peace Frog]

7 minutes ago, Biggs said:

Woody proposed this beautiful state of the art stadium for the Jets in Mahattan with a dome and he ended up financing half of Giant Stadium in a swamp.  Sure Woody is irrelevant. 

 

I'm not sure what point you are making.  The WSS was shot down because of Sheldon Silver. 

Full stop. 

Not public or private financing, not Woody, not NJ. None of that.  

[FootballLove]

Not sure what's worse for him. Alive in prison, or dead in hell having Lean Hess yelling at you 24/7/365/infinity

[Jet Nut]

On 1/24/2022 at 5:28 PM, Warfish said:

Had Woody wanted a WSS, he would have figured a way out to get one.

Frankly, shoulda been a Long Island Stadium, not a WSS anyway.

But ultimately, it's on Woody.  Just Woody.

No it wasn’t on Woody, it was on dirty politicians.  Mayor Bloomberg and even the governor wanted it done.  
Long Island would have been the worst place for the stadium.  

[Jet Nut]

20 minutes ago, FootballLove said:

Not sure what's worse for him. Alive in prison, or dead in hell having Lean Hess yelling at you 24/7/365/infinity

Why would Hess be in hell and why would he care where Woody built the new stadium?

[Jet Nut]

On 1/25/2022 at 1:21 AM, Sperm Edwards said:

I don’t have a link handy, but my recollection was he spent something on the order of $75MM in planning, lobbying, and more - including pushing the venue as a future olympics site - to get a WSS done. There was so much pressure from so many well-connected residents about having the WSS there (oh, the horror of 10 home games a year!) and I loosely knew a couple of them at one time. In the end, it wasn’t happening. He didn’t have the pull, and the right people who were grease-able were already in Dolan’s pocket. 

I don’t know that a Nassau County stadium was ever in the cards or even though of or proposed to him with any seriousness.

He could’ve done Queens, but he never really showed interest in that, whatever his reasons. Maybe it didn’t have the cachet of Manhattan; maybe it was getting called on his bluff of saying in NYC he’d do the WSS or he’s not doing NY. I know he’s got a huge farm-estate in NJ but don’t know if he already had that when the WSS fell through, and figured if he couldn’t have the premiere NYC stadium then he may as well live in NJ and split the construction costs with the Giants. Who knows.

But he clearly wanted a WSS. Nobody sinks that much money and effort into a project but secretly doesn’t really want it. Jumping in to the current stadium was a last-minute thing because Mara/Tisch were fine doing this with or without him, and they weren’t waiting any longer for him, so he hopped on board.

If I remember correctly he also had to pay around $200 million for environmental surveys on the effects on the environment and wildlife.  

[Biggs]

38 minutes ago, Peace Frog said:

I'm not sure what point you are making.  The WSS was shot down because of Sheldon Silver. 

Full stop. 

Not public or private financing, not Woody, not NJ. None of that.  

There were 2 out of 3 no votes.  It wasn't just Silver or Dolan.   It was dead when NYC didn't get the Olympic bid.  

[Warfish]

1. Majority of Local area residents didn't want it.

2. Majority of Local area elected officials didn't want it.

3. Majority of NY'ers as a whole didn't want it, or the Olympics to which it was being tied/linked.

4. Most residents/local politicians didn't want to pay for it publicly or give away the land.

5. What Silver (and Bruno) vetoed, via the Public Authorities Control Board, was specifically the public funding aspect and the land transfer from MTA (i.e. ~$300M in public funding and land that was exceedingly valuable). 

2 of 3 votes killed it, with only Pataki's rep. voting yes.

Of course MSG/Cablevision was against it, and Woody should have known that from the start, and sorted that out from before the start.  Again, another example of his ineptitude, he had to know his plan would have that opposition, and the political clout that opposition carried.

 

[Peace Frog]

Lol 

[32EBoozer]

 

On 1/24/2022 at 4:45 PM, kelticwizard said:

I thought he got that conviction reversed, or something.

I thought he was able to do his sentence at home due to COVID concerns. Lawyers!

Maybe public outcry got that deal cancelled.

[FootballLove]

10 hours ago, Jet Nut said:

Why would Hess be in hell and why would he care where Woody built the new stadium?

LOL NY Jets are Leons Baby and Sheldon Silver sh*t all over them...ruined their shot at a brand new stadium. I heard Leon was so mad he was throwing fire balls all over the place and asked Satan if he can barrow his pitchfork. I was just connecting the dots!

[Maynard13]

On 1/24/2022 at 1:45 PM, kelticwizard said:

I thought he got that conviction reversed, or something.

So he’s in purgatory?

[Dunnie]

Good!
füçk him! And I hope his soul rots in hell for what he did to NYC and his private interests to line his pockets and that included Killing the Jets’ own Wst Side Stadium. 
 
 

I agree with the WSS part.

.... Richard Todd, Ken OBrien, Chad Pennington, Mark Sanchez, Genope, Sam Darnold ...

[Jet Nut]

9 hours ago, FootballLove said:

LOL NY Jets are Leons Baby and Sheldon Silver sh*t all over them...ruined their shot at a brand new stadium. I heard Leon was so mad he was throwing fire balls all over the place and asked Satan if he can barrow his pitchfork. I was just connecting the dots!

Leon Hess was dead was kind of my point, lol

[Fantasy Island]

[long suffering jets fan]

On 1/25/2022 at 1:21 AM, Sperm Edwards said:

I don’t have a link handy, but my recollection was he spent something on the order of $75MM in planning, lobbying, and more - including pushing the venue as a future olympics site - to get a WSS done. There was so much pressure from so many well-connected residents about having the WSS there (oh, the horror of 10 home games a year!) and I loosely knew a couple of them at one time. In the end, it wasn’t happening. He didn’t have the pull, and the right people who were grease-able were already in Dolan’s pocket. 

I don’t know that a Nassau County stadium was ever in the cards or even though of or proposed to him with any seriousness.

He could’ve done Queens, but he never really showed interest in that, whatever his reasons. Maybe it didn’t have the cachet of Manhattan; maybe it was getting called on his bluff of saying in NYC he’d do the WSS or he’s not doing NY. I know he’s got a huge farm-estate in NJ but don’t know if he already had that when the WSS fell through, and figured if he couldn’t have the premiere NYC stadium then he may as well live in NJ and split the construction costs with the Giants. Who knows.

But he clearly wanted a WSS. Nobody sinks that much money and effort into a project but secretly doesn’t really want it. Jumping in to the current stadium was a last-minute thing because Mara/Tisch were fine doing this with or without him, and they weren’t waiting any longer for him, so he hopped on board.

New York State loses the stadium to New Jersey and New Jersey gets the tax revenue.  It was a middle finger to New York State and their corrupt politicians.  Splitting costs had something to do with it as well.

[Peace Frog]

11 hours ago, Maynard13 said:

So he’s in purgatory?

Oh geez, when we were kids my older sisters used to torture me and my brothers telling us we weren’t going to heaven, we were going to Limbo. 

[usapaw]

On 1/26/2022 at 3:54 PM, 32EBoozer said:

 

I thought he was able to do his sentence at home due to COVID concerns. Lawyers!

Maybe public outcry got that deal cancelled.

It didn't work out for him....https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/sheldon-silver-former-ny-assembly-speaker-being-sent-back-to-prison-sources/3041264/