Meadowlands ex-CEO says Xanadu completion is key to sports complex's success

Jon Hanson said a completed Xanadu would attract foreign shoppers, office buildings, hotels, rapid transit, new residents

Gallery preview EAST RUTHERFORD — When Jon Hanson and Robert Mulcahy presided over the Meadowlands in the early 1980s, life was good.

Two football teams, a basketball team and a hockey team had settled into their new homes. The racetrack was still going strong, delivering tens of millions in profits to the state every year. The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority that oversaw it all was lauded as a national model.

"When the sports complex opened, it was the beginning of New Jersey standing up for itself and having its own psyche," said Mulcahy, who was president and CEO of the authority from 1979 to 1998. "We were always between New York and Philadelphia."

But both men helped craft the report, released this week and strongly backed by Gov. Chris Christie, that recommends eviscerating the Sports Authority they once ran.

"Nothing stays the same forever," Hanson, who chaired the governor’s commission on gaming sports and entertainment, said today.

"The facts were the facts. You look at them, and you say, this is broken. I wasn’t involved in breaking it, but I was asked by the governor to put together a team and work together with that team to make it a better place."

Hanson, who served as sports authority chairman for a decade through the 1980s in its heyday, said he sees an even brighter future for the sports oasis.

The key, he said, was completing the massive — and idling — retail complex known as Xanadu. Once finished, foreign shoppers would visit, office buildings and hotels would rise from the ground, and rapid transit would help 5,000 new residents commute from a village, Hanson said. All on the site where horses now race.

"You can have a self-contained mini city where the sports complex is today ... that is more successful and be a 24-hour-type facility than what we’ve experienced in the last 35 years," he said.

While both men said they did not want to dwell on the past — Hanson said he had not even kept up with the authority as it declined in recent years — they singled out some factors that hurt: a stadium deal that drained the authority of cash, off-track wagering plans that languished.

Hanson said the racetrack has fallen victim not just to gambling competition from other states, but also to a generational shift. People don’t flock to horse tracks the way their grandparents did. The demographics have changed.

The sickly state budget pushed the issue over the edge, said Mulcahy, a member of the seven-member advisory commission.

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"There’s a lot of heartache," he said. "Nobody likes to take on jobs where they have to make hard decisions, but you got no money. And when you got no money, what do you do? ... You can’t provide subsidies to continue a losing proposition."

Hanson — who brought the Jets, Devils and ownership of the Monmouth Racetrack to the sports authority — said it is not affecting him.

"When you’ve been doing business as long as I’ve been doing business, you become very objective about what is," he said. "Nothing stays the same in the real estate business. The sports complex is the real estate business. They got location, and they got real estate, and it changes."

Hanson admitted he knew "very little" about Xanadu and "nothing" about the structure of the lease of the new stadium. So when Christie asked him to analyze the state’s gambling and entertainment prospects, he divided his commission up and assigned them to tasks that suited each person best.

Initially, critics doubted he could take off the rose-colored glasses when scrutinizing the sports authority. They misjudged him, said Jerry Zaro, the economic growth czar under former Gov. Jon Corzine who remained for the start of Christie’s term.

"That shows the leadership and vision of Jon Hanson," Zaro said. "(He) recognized that times change, and with changing times, circumstances have to change. Nothing is forever. I think he recognizes that."

There are still the memories. The 1994 World Cup. The Three Tenors at Giants Stadium in 1996. Developing major purses and world-class harness racing.

"When we were there, it was a time when there was real enthusiasm about these things. It was an outstanding time in New Jersey," Mulcahy said. "When you accept an invitation to participate in a commission like this, you owe the governor what you think is your best judgment, not what you feel you’d like to do."

Claire Heininger contributed to this report.

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