NYC Gazette

Mayor Eric Adams: Why doesn't he stand up here with us? Where are you going? Come on, hang out with us. Boys [inaudible] summer. You've got on your full gear.

We are really excited about just common sense ways of doing the right thing. Sometimes I wake up and just say it's not always about dollars and cents, it's about common sense and just a common sense approach of how to solve problems. And today, here at Yankee Stadiums, Councilman Salamanca hit it out of the park. He hit a home run. He just had a common sense approach. He said people, great New Yorkers, they come to the game, they come with their families and their friends. Why can't we partner with our local charities and nonprofits, and do 50/50 and allow people to contribute to their non-profit? We have thousands of people sitting in the fans' stadiums, ballparks, sporting events, who want to give back and really don't know how, and we can find an easy way to do so and that is what the councilman's vision of legislatively, to make it happen, partnering with the other entities, and it's just a win. It's just a win to see how we can do this.

We've been doing it for so long. I remember my days as a police officer. We'd do what was called a 10-13 event. When a cop was in trouble, his family was going through something, we would do 50/50 raffles and raise thousands of dollars to help with medical expenses, family expenses, to save a home. And we have now taken it from the minor leagues of those small organizations to the big leagues of our professional sporting events in the city. This is just a real win. I thank my good friend Randy Levin, president of the Yankees, Jane Son, representing the Garden, Madison Square Garden Fund, Rich Constable, also representing the Garden, Ryan Watson, Sam Zussman — Sam is over at the Nets — Jennifer O'Sullivan, New York City Football Club, and this Intro Bill 891. I want to thank even our supporters that's here, our amazing Bronx borough president, Vanessa Gibson, and Councilwoman Velázquez, who's also joining us as well. And probably the most important person here is our fan.

I was telling him walking down here, I said, "You live the best life." He hangs out with his dad. His dad bring him to all of these events. And now when we bring our children to events, they are going to be able to witness not only winning on the field, but how do you give back? And really share the benevolence of just giving back to everyday causes and initiatives. You pour this into your young people early, then they grow up with the spirit of giving and that is what we're doing today. So I want to turn it over to our good friend. We're on his turf right now, the president of the Yankees, Randy Levin.

Randy Levin, President, New York Yankees: Thanks, mayor. I think first off, I want to welcome everyone to Yankee Stadium. It's wonderful to be here in the Great Hall, and I want to thank all our colleagues. I see Jane from the Mets and New York City Football Club and the Garden and the Brooklyn Nets and all of the teams have been involved in putting this together, because this is a giant win-win. We, the Yankees, are engaged with the community on a daily basis. We think as part of our day-to-day operations, in addition to putting great baseball and other sports and events on, it's living with the community and trying to make people's lives better. And the guy who lives it really for the Yankees every single day and the guy who is the driving force on our behalf in order to get this phenomenal legislation through, which is going to help literally tens of thousands of New Yorkers all throughout the city, is our vice president of community affairs, Brian Smith.

So I want to thank the mayor because we've been trying this for a long time, and thanks to your leadership, mayor, it got done, it got done. You got it done. And councilman, councilwoman, without you guys, again, this is a no-brainer but you guys got it done. And the borough president, she gets everything done up here. So with that, I want to thank everyone. I want to thank all of the people involved and turn it over really to the guy who put it over the goal line with the mayor, with the councilman, the councilwoman and the borough president, Brian Smith.

Brian Smith, Senior Vice President, Corporate/Community Relations, New York Yankees: Good afternoon. We're at Yankee Stadium on this exciting day… We can do better than that. Good afternoon! There we go. Today represents the opportunity to extend the reach of our ongoing engagement with our neighbors and community partners, to generate the access required to address concerns and challenges experienced throughout our surrounding communities. From this point on, the charitable gaming model in the form of the 50/50 raffle will fuel the New York Yankees and New York City based professional sports organizations' ability to drastically increase their investment dedicated to meeting the needs of our neighbors.

We are excited to roll up our sleeves. Vanessa, are you ready to get to work? All right. And put the related resources to work to support and activate initiatives focused on chipping away at disparities and positioning sustainable change.

In closing, I would like to thank both Council Member Salamanca for your support and leadership, Council Member Velázquez for your support and leadership. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And Mr. Mayor for making this a day to remember.

Mayor Adams: That's right, brother.

Smith: By signing 891-A into law.

Mayor Adams: That's right.

Smith: Thank you. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: So let's bring up cleanup, an amazing Council person and just a solid father. I see the councilman bringing his sons with him throughout this entire experience and journey. I could only imagine when they transition to take leadership roles, they're going to remember these days of standing by their dads. Those are the relationships that often find themselves being lost in many of our communities. He's a real symbol of fatherhood, a real symbol of leadership, and a real visionary. And again, that common sense leadership that we need, not only in the city, in the state, but the entire country, the common sense Council person, Councilman Salamanca.

City Council Member Rafael Salamanca: All right. Buenos días. Good afternoon. You don't know how blessed I am and how excited I am to actually have a press conference and a bill signing that I was able to author here in Yankee Stadium, so thank you for that. I really want to thank you, Mayor Adams, for joining us today, and I want to thank the New York Yankees ownership for allowing us to use their home today for this milestone event.

With the introduction of the 50/50 fan raffles in New York City sporting venues, we have paved the way for sports teams to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities each season. Across the country, professional sports teams have been raising incredible sums of money for local charities through games that are completely separate from the action on the field, the 50/50 fan raffles. Until now, New York City sports venues have been left out of participating in similar charitable initiatives due to an antiquated section of the city charter which prohibited the hosting of games of chance at stadiums and arenas. I would like to thank Mayor Adams for signing my bill today, Intro 891, into law, bringing New York City into alignment with what is already allowed at sports venues across New York State and virtually every other state in the country.

For those of you that don't know, the 50/50 raffles have been a staple of stadium fans' experiences for decades. Teams sell number raffle tickets both before and during the game before announcing the winning ticket near the end of the game. While 50 percent of the proceeds go to a winning fan, the remaining 50 percent gets utilized for a far more meaningful purpose, to support local charities of the team’s choosing. With the signing of Intro 891 today, we are allowing sports venues to bring awareness to and support New York City charities. I look forward to seeing the positive impact this new initiative will bring to our city and to our residents. Thank you all.

Mayor Adams: Thank you, brother. Good job. And we want to just get brief comments from both our borough president, Borough President Vanessa Gibson, and our councilwoman who also just passed a great piece of legislation for outdoor dining, so we're looking forward to that, Councilwoman Velazquez. BP.

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson: All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for being here for such a historic moment for us in the city of New York. Proud to be here with my colleagues in government, our bill sponsor, Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Council Member Marjorie Velázquez, the New York Yankees team, our president, Randy Levine, certainly, the senior vice president, Brian Smith, that many of us work with so closely to our partners at MSG, the Brooklyn Nets, New York Mets, and everyone who is here. Thank you, Mayor Eric Adams, for your incredible leadership.

Today is a great day where we take a bold step forward in recognizing that sports venues, our partners, our trusted organizations that do so much to stimulate jobs and bring revenue into our city, are now able to conduct raffles for charitable organizations in the City of New York. This is a tremendous win for the Bronx. Not only does it allow many of our not-for-profit organizations to further serve our children, our families, our seniors, with a myriad of programs in education and social services and recreation, but it also allows New York City to level the playing field just like our counterparts in other parts of the state.

So I am so proud to support this legislation now being codified into local law. Certainly, I bring you greetings on behalf of our president of the Bronx Economic Development Corporation, Rob Walsh, that testified at the City Council hearing to make sure that our voice was a part of this conversation. To our partners, Lisa Sorin at the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Meisha Porter at the Bronx Community Foundation, just to understand you have an incredible wealth of support and talent that is ready and willing and able to continue these partnerships. So once again, thank you to my colleagues in the City Council, Speaker Adrianne Adams, and thank you Mayor Eric Adams. You could have done this bill signing anywhere in the City of New York, but you chose the New York Yankees, right here in our borough of the Bronx. Congratulations, everyone.

Mayor Adams: And to our amazing councilwoman, Councilman Velázquez.

City Council Member Marjorie Velázquez: Good afternoon, everyone. It's a great day to celebrate. First of all, we are with the Yankees. Slightly biased on my end here. Thank you, Randy, for allowing us to be in your house, and let's get the World Series ring this year, okay? No pressure, no pressure. But talking about winning, this is a big win for all of us. When we talk about the Bronx and we think about Yankee Stadium, we also think about what was going on during the seventies and the eighties, the time where I was being raised here, and oftentimes, people think of the Bronx is burning. Let's take this moment to look at each other and say that Bronx is booming. We're building, because this is it guys, and it's on all of us, right?

So I want to thank the Yankees once again, the Mets, the Nets, NYCFC, MSG, all of you, because we're going to build all of New York City together. We're going to make sure that folks look at New York City, the different way of going through COVID and coming back stronger, better than ever. Taking care of our communities, taking care of our neighbors, and most important, showing compassion for each other.

So this is the first step in many. Thank you Mayor Adams for just helping us get this bill along. I want to thank my commissioner right here, Vilda, we got this done. And just, let's get this going guys, and let's make sure that we're giving back to the city, giving back to each other as we should. And a shout-out to Stanley Schlein for helping us throughout this legislation. This was yours. This is your baby, and we are glad that we took it home. Thanks.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. All right. Let’s sign a bill.

Original source can be found here.