On top of yesterday’s charges by New York assembly speaker Sheldon Silver that plans for an expanded Javits Convention Center would evade public oversight, other assemblymembers are concerned it could contain a backdoor attempt at authorizing construction of a new Jets football stadium as well. “My view of the GovernorÌs bill is that it is more stadium-esque than perhaps we are being led to believe,” Manhattan Assemblyman Scott Stringer told the New York Observer, noting language that authorizes construction of “adjacent facilities containing a plenary hall, meeting and exhibition space.”
Even if that language was interpreted to mean a stadium – staff for Gov. George Pataki, who drafted the legislation, insist it doesn’t – the Javits Authority would still need funds to pay off any stadium bonds. And as we explained yesterday, that’s a far more difficult matter.
In other New York stadium news:
- New York City comptroller William Thompson has questioned the city’s proposed $600 million subsidy for the Jets, saying, “I don’t know if in the end that we receive enough back to be able to justify that.”
- A new poll finds that while New York City registered voters favor hosting the Olympics (67%-25%) and expanding the Javits Center (49%-35%), only 37% support using tax dollars to lure the Olympics, and 55% say the Javits expansion will cost too much public money. As for the Jets, local voters oppose a West Side stadium (51%-41%) at all, with a whopping 68% who say it will cost taxpayers too much money.