Less than two weeks ago, Mayor Eric Adams had a quick response to a con man who begged him to drop the vaccination requirement that kept Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving from playing in New York City.
“Kyrie can play tomorrow,” Mr. Adams replied. “Get yourself vaccinated.”
But privately, the owners and executives of some of the wealthiest and most influential sports franchises in the country were already trying to persuade Mr. Adams to change his mind.
Yankees president Randy Levine personally contacted the mayor’s team and encouraged officials to consider baseball played outdoors where Covid transfer rates are slower than indoors.
Steven A. Cohen, the hedge fund manager and Mets owner who donated $1.5 million to a super PAC last year to support Mr. Adams’ mayoral campaign, has paid $10,000 a month to a lobbying firm, Moonshot Strategies, to help state officials and to push City Hall on various issues, including Covid protocols.
Both baseball teams are believed to have players who have not been vaccinated, with opening day now two weeks away.
Corey Johnson, the former chairman of the city council who now runs his own lobbying firm, receives $18,000 a month from the Nets holding company, and lobbying records show he recently contacted the mayor, his chief adviser and his chief of staff.
By this week, Mr. Adams decided to change course: He formally announced on Thursday that he is lifting the New York City vaccine mandate for professional athletes and performers based here.
The mayor insisted that lobbying activities played no part in his decision; instead, Mr Adams said the city’s economic recovery from the pandemic was the driving force behind the move. He said sports and entertainment played a vital role in generating jobs and taxpayers’ money.
“We lead the entire country on unemployment for the most part. We’re seeing incredible job opportunities in our business district,” the mayor said at a news conference at Citi Field, the Mets’ home stadium. “Every day, the men and women standing here are dependent on our economy turning around so they can provide for their families.”
He said he had always thought it unfair that athletes from New York City had to be vaccinated to play here, but visiting players didn’t — the result of an executive order dating back to the previous administration. The city, the mayor said, treated its own performers differently, noting that the mandate had placed New York City’s teams at a “competitive disadvantage.”
But Mr. Adams, a Mets fan who had his wish that the press conference be held in the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, said he would not lift the restrictions until he was satisfied that certain key virus stats had been met.
The number of coronavirus cases has risen 31 percent in New York City in the past two weeks, with the BA.2 subvariant accounting for about a third of cases, although hospitalizations have declined.
It is the second time in recent weeks that the mayor has reversed the rules to stimulate vaccination. Earlier this month, he suspended rules requiring patrons of indoor establishments, such as restaurants, to be vaccinated. The mayor’s decree still requires most employers to require proof of vaccination from their employees.
Mr Adams’ decision, first reported by Politico, sparked anger among unions representing the more than 1,500 civil servants who lost their jobs for failing to comply with the vaccine mandate. They reprimanded the mayor for what they termed as disparate treatment.
“There should be a re-entry program for workers to get their jobs back,” said Harry Nespoli, president of the Association of Uniformed Sanitation Workers and chairman of the Municipal Labor Committee. “There cannot be one system for the elite and the other for the essential workers of our city. We are ready to work out the details with the mayor, as we have done during this process.”
Mr Nespoli said he was consulting lawyers about a potential lawsuit. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court rejected the latest attempt by New York City teachers to challenge the vaccine mandate.
Kelly Finlaw, 38, an art teacher in Washington Heights for 16 years, was one of the city’s 956 school workers fired for failing to vaccinate. Ms Finlaw, who was fired last week, said she has not been vaccinated because she had adverse reactions to vaccines as a child and because she has lingering questions about its safety. Health experts say, and studies show, that vaccines are safe and effective.
She said she had applied for exemptions from the teaching mandate three times and had been denied.
Ms. Finlaw said the vaccine mandate exemption for athletes and performers made Mayor Adams look “foolish” and showed that decisions were made about politics, not public health.
“When Kyrie decided not to get vaccinated and was willing to stand up for it in the beginning, I was very, very grateful because he has a reputation that no teacher will ever have,” said Ms Finlaw.
Mr. Irving, she added, “does no more important work than I do.” The Nets did not respond to a request for comment.
The mayor said he had not been lobbied, although he had spoken to teams about it. “I heard all parties and then I made the final decision, but this is not based on lobbying,” he said.
Out of the reach of Mr Johnson, who declined a request for comment, the Nets are also paying the Parkside Group $7,500 a month to lobby the city and state government, including on Covid-related business protocols.
Both Mr. Levine and Sandy Alderson, the president of the Mets, said they had not officially lobbied the mayor but acknowledged that they had spoken to his office about the vaccine mandate.
“I suggested they talk not only to me, but also to Major League Baseball, which I believe they did,” said Mr. Levine. He urged Mr. Adams to make a decision before opening day, April 7.
Mr Alderson said after the press conference that a mandate that prevented some of the team’s star players from getting on the pitch would have had major economic consequences.
†Star players draw more people to the margins,” said Mr. alderson. “I do believe that if we were to play with less than full occupancy, it would have an impact on the number of people who would come to the stadium and the number of people that would need to be supported by all our suppliers. , guest services, the local businesses and such†
Mr Levine and Mr Alderson declined on Thursday to disclose exactly how many of their teams’ players have not been vaccinated, citing privacy clauses in the new collective bargaining agreement.
Mets star pitcher Jacob deGrom is hesitant about his vaccination status; the team was one of six in Major League Baseball last year to fail the 85 percent vaccination level, a threshold that eased some pandemic-related restrictions.
The Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has also refused to disclose his vaccination status; the team’s manager, Aaron Boone, said two weeks ago that the Yankees still had a “few guys who haven’t been vaccinated.”
The mayor’s decision reverberated beyond the sports world and across the political spectrum. Lee Zeldin, who is running for governor on the Republican line, said the mayor’s move strengthened the party’s argument to completely abolish the vaccine mandate.
Adrienne Adams, the current council president and a Democrat, said the move smacked of “inequality” and warned the mayor was sending “increasingly ambiguous messages” about public health at a time when coronavirus cases are on the rise.
Jay Varma, the former health adviser to Mr Adams’ predecessor Bill de Blasio, warned the move opened the city to legal action because the remaining mandate is “arbitrary and erratic.”
And not everyone follows the mayor’s lead in dropping vaccine mandates. Some of the city’s major organizations and presenters, including Broadway theaters and the Metropolitan Opera, plan to continue to demand vaccinations for performers based in the city.
Even when he lifted the mandate, Mr Adams said his stance on Mr Irving’s vaccination status remained unchanged.
†Kyrie, you need to get vaccinated,” Mr. Adams said. “Nothing has changed. Get vaccinated.”
Lola Fadulu and Julia Jacobs reporting contributed.