Taxpayers’ running tab: Cost for parkland at Yankee Stadium up 67%

A beach on the Harlem River? Must notify Rip Curl Pro…pronto!

Between add-ons and upgrades, the cost has grown 67% over what Mayor Bloomberg promised when he agreed to subsidize the new stadium for America’s richest team in 2005, the Independent Budget Office announced Tuesday.

“It’s outrageous,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Parks Advocates. “The taxpayer should not be bearing any of these expenses. The New York Yankees should. They were allowed to take this parkland and the elected officials handed this over to them.”

Responding to the new numbers, the mayor said he regretted the rising costs, but insisted that increased spending on the parks around the stadium would benefit more than the Yankees.

“These are parks for the public,” he said. “This has nothing to do with the wealthiest team in baseball.”

Bettina Damiani of Goodjobs New York, a group that has regularly criticized the stadium deal, called the mayor’s contention “laughable.”