Newark Arena Makes No Progress with Public

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Survey Details

April 28, 2003

After another year of wheeling and dealing the idea of building a new sports arena in the city of Newark has made little progress with voters. A majority think it is a bad idea for the Nets and Devils to move to Newark according to the results of a recent poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind.

The poll found that 61% of registered voters say it is a bad idea for the Nets and Devils sports teams to move from the Meadowlands to Newark. And 51% say they would be less likely to attend an event in a new arena in Newark than the same event in the Meadowlands. Only 21% of voters say the move to Newark is a good idea and only 17% say they would be more likely to attend in Newark than in the Meadowlands. The numbers are comparable to a poll conducted last May by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind. "After a year of trying to find other ways of funding the arena, people appear unmoved and, if anything, support seems to have deteriorated," said Bruce Larson, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

The strongest opposition is found in the northeast part of the state where the Nets and Devils currently play. In that region 4 of 5 voters say the move for the Nets and Devils is a bad idea. The most accepting part of the state is in its urban core which includes the city of Newark. Voters in South Jersey are more likely than others to say their attendance at a sporting event wouldn't be affected. "New Jerseyans continue to struggle against the idea of investing for the long term in urban areas," said Larson. "After all, this is a state that sees itself as suburban, and its major cities as New York and Philadelphia."

Two other fault lines that appear are age and race. Voters over 60 are more strongly opposed to building the arena than are younger voters. And while 64% of whites said the move is a bad idea, only 43% of voters who identify as African-Americans said it was a bad idea. Where 14% of whites said they would be more likely to attend an event in Newark as opposed to the same event in the Meadowlands, 36% of African-American voters said they'd be more likely to attend an event in Newark.

The PublicMind poll of 820 registered voters was conducted from April 12 to April 19 and has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

Contacts: Bruce Larson, 973-443-8727; Peter Woolley 973-670-3239

Radio actuality line: (201) 692-2846.

For more information, please call (201) 692-7032.

 

Copyright © 2003, Fairleigh Dickinson University. All rights reserved. FDU PublicMind Poll [Latest update 030428]