So I had the opportunity to speak with Dave Howard today.
Asked for his legal opinion on the Garden's lease, he said the only reason it was an issue is because its time for a mayoral election (and there is no incumbent) and that there won't be a problem ten years from now because it'll be in the middle of a mayor's term.
He said that the lease is basically a rubber stamp that is usually received as a matter of course for all arenas on a routine basis.
He said it's not unlikely that the Garden will receive a lease in perpetuity as they own the land and air rights.
He said the notion that you can recreate Penn into what Grand Center is now is a fantasy given the fiscal situation. The plans were 8 years ago would've cost the city 14 billion.
He also said moving in ten years is not an option as the plans for moving would've had to start now and it would in fact be a little late. He said the entire plan for Citi field when he was with the Mets started 14 years before it opened so even ten years isn't enough time for a place like MSG.
Oh and also that eminent domain would likely never be a factor with the city as they would cooperate if it made sense for them financially.
He said the post office plans didn't fall through mainly because of the tax break issue, but because the city and all the different railroads couldn't get their **** together in time and actually agree on something. To stay competitive with all these new arenas being built, they needed to build a new arena or completely redo MSG and they had a deadline on how long they would wait. This last part was way before he joined the company though fyi, so he didn't have any input on what happened there.
Sorry for the stream of consciousness style, I wanted to get as much down as I could before I forgot.