Taxpayers’ net loss on arena

The troubled Nets arena planned for Brooklyn was supposed to raise city revenue, but instead it’s going to be a net loss for taxpayers, according to a report released by the city’s Independent Budget Office on Thursday.

The city will spend $40 million more on the Atlantic Yards project, including the loss of existing tax revenue from the area, than it will take in through the much-hyped tax revenue from the arena over its first three decades of its operation, the report states.

Even counting the small benefits to the state and the MTA, “it’s still a small net loss for the various public entities,” said the IBO’s Doug Turetsky.  

Developer Bruce Ratner, the report notes, has saved himself $726 billion through government benefits.

The report only considers the 18,000-seat arena, and not the various buildings proposed for the blocks around it.