According to a report in the Star Ledger, the New Jersey Devils new arena will cost taxpayers more money than originally planned.

"To date, the total public contribution of city, state and federal funds to acquire land, build the arena and reroute pedestrian and vehicular traffic is $311.5 million. Add the Devils' $156 million investment, and the $467.5 million project will make the Newark project one of the most-expensive arena developments ever."

Apparently, the city officials are a bunch of idiots. When you can calculate the cost of something you have to take many facets into consideration. Did these guys take basic economics classes in college, or did they even attend college for that matter?

The estimated cost for the physical construction of the Prudential Center was $310 million by Mayor Sharpe James and the Devils organization three years go. However, that price continued to rise, eventually reaching about $360-375 million, depending on who you asked.

Taxpayers and the city agreed to that number before building the arena. But, I am not sure if they would have agreed to a project nearing a record-high $500 million for the city of Newark. Nevertheless, the Devils organization and city officials are now making several adjustments to prepare for the center's opening on Oct. 25 and Devils home opener on Oct. 27.

What I still do not understand is why the development costs, which include creating additional ramps from the transit, thousands of parking spaces nearby, etc. were never taken into consideration.

The state of the art facility is nearly ready, but taxpayers are definitely going to suffer for years to come. I was definitely in support of a new Devils arena, in Newark or wherever, and I expected the average person to suffer financially, but people also have a reasonable expectation of knowing the truth. I just hope that this arena brings enough money to store owners, the city, and everyone inbetween, and really make this project worth a half a million dollars.

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