Field of Schemes: Pols pile on Jets

February 10, 2005

Pols pile on Jets

Could that be ... the fat lady? Yesterday brought an avalanche of bad news for the New York Jets' $1.7 billion stadium plan, as three top state legislators threw roadblocks in the proposal's path:

State senate majority leader Joseph Bruno, an upstate Republican, told reporters yesterday he sees no need to make a decision on the stadium before the International Olympic Committee makes its choice to host the 2012 Games in July: "Some people ... are trying to use the time frames as pressure but that doesn't work." New York is currently considered a longshot to win the 2012 bid, and its stock is dropping.
State assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, agreed with Bruno that no quick decision on the stadium is needed, and went further than that, saying that if need be Shea Stadium or Yankee Stadium could be pressed into service to host Olympic ceremonies: "I think New York is capable and flexible enough that there are enough facilities."
State senate deputy majority leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican, has added his name to the list of local politicians urging the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to open up the West Side rail yards site to competitive bidding: "That will assure the taxpayers and commuters they're getting a fair value," wrote Skelos in a letter to MTA chair Peter Kalikow.

With both Bruno and Silver holding veto power over the stadium through their positions on the Public Authorities Control Board, it's now all but certain that nothing will be decided for the Jets project before the summer.

Meanwhile, the growing clamor over the rail yards sale could come back to haunt New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner, who's attempting a similar noncompetitive bid for Brooklyn rail yards where he wants to build his basketball arena. Skelos, in fact, specifically urged that competitive bidding be used for the Jets because of the precedent it would set for the Nets project. Could that be two fat ladies singing...?

COMMENTS

Neil, have you heard any estimates on the traffic situation if the Olympics go to NYC? I couldn't even imagine it.
Posted by: Tyler Nicholson at February 10, 2005 02:27 PM

All this fighting about stadiums on top of rail yards makes you wonder how MSG IV ever got built on top of penn Station....
Posted by: Bertell Ollman at February 11, 2005 01:40 PM

They haven't done a traffic study of the Olympics to my knowledge. But it hardly matters, since an Olympics basically shuts down the entire city for three weeks, and generally large swaths of the population just leaves town. Think the Republican National Convention, only three times as long and ten times as big.
Posted by: Neil at February 13, 2005 12:47 AM