Still, there is good news for people whose credit scores are about as appealing as a lump of coal in a stocking on Christmas morning.

FORBES: Send Your Christmas List to FICO This Year

Located next to the convention center, the stadium would have doubled the mass and length of the huge bunker against the river already established by that "lump of black coal" -- as essayist Phillip Lopate described its dark bulk in his literary trip around the edges of Manhattan -- cutting off views and access with nearly a mile of hulking wall.

WSJ: New York Stadium Deals: Good and Bad

Affleck shrewdly kept the door ajar -- such speculation helps in the gravitas department --but on Christmas Eve, he gave the press a lump of coal by admitting he wasn't running.

CNN: Hijacking the media -- Trump shows how easy it is