Opposition Gang That
Couldn't Shoot Straight
(Part One)
March 17, 2004

Yesterday, Jay Cross, President of the New York Jets and Jonathan M. Tisch, Chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels answered a series of tough questions from Greg David, editor, Crain's NY Business and Errol Cockfield, reporter, New York Newsday. There were no punches pulled by the questioners and no flinching from the questionees. Details of the Crain's Business Breakfast event can be found elsewhere on these pages.

In a lighter vein, this observer's interest was piqued in quite a different direction. Here is a hot scoop that appeared in yesterday's New York Post:

JETS' PREZ FACING STADIUM TURBULENCE

By JEREMY OLSHAN

But they say Cross is in for a scrimmage over the stadium which would be built as part of the city's bid for the Olympics and then become the Jets' home field.

"We're not going to throw a pie in his face or anything," activist David Oats said of the planned ambush at the New York Hilton. "But we are going to make sure he knows we're there."

Oats, chairman of the Queens Olympic Committee, contends the city would be better served by moving the stadium near the Jets' former home in Flushing Meadows.

The Jets played at Shea Stadium from 1964 to 1973 before moving to Jersey.

Among those joining Oats will be theater owners, union leaders, representatives of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and state Sen. Tom Duane, and Brian Hatch, the former deputy mayor of Salt Lake City, who has dissected the city's 2012 Olympic plan point by point.

"The Olympics are an incredible opportunity for the city," said Hatch, whose city hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. "But the $12 billion plan is way too pricey."

Cross and other supporters of the West Side plan say a domed stadium would bring events like the Super Bowl and college basketball's Final Four to the city.

Additional reporting by Frankie Edozien

An aside to the New York Post: For your information, the Jets played at Shea Stadium from 1964 to 1983.

But that is not what piqued my fancy. No, what piqued my fancy was the promised pie throwing, whether the pies were real or imaginary. My sense is that Jay Cross can handle pies, or verbal brickbats or whatever the thrower chooses to toss at him with the best of them. So, with great anticipation, I buckled my seat belt and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

One hour and twenty minutes later, I unbuckled my seat belt. Alas, no pies. No verbal brickbats. No nothin'.

Which brings me to a much more serious point, or rather, question, a question only the editor of the New York Post can answer, i.e.: What was this story doing in the Post to begin with?

Mr. Hatch, former Deputy Mayor of Salt Lake City who got out of town as the Salt Lake City Olympic Bribery Scandal was breaking into the news back in '99-'00, has proven himself adept at placing items in the printed press. It must be noted that Mr. Hatch runs his own copious web log, NewYorkGames.org, a blog that is frequently informative, though totally self-serving. Mr. Hatch has formed an alliance with Mr. Oats, a Queens resident and lifetime New Yorker, in opposition to the stadium.

Now, I don't know how things are done in Salt Lake City, but in New York City when you whisper something into a reporter's ear, you had better carry through on your word, or you leave that reporter looking more than just a little foolish. Even if that reporter, in this case Jeremy Olshan, is a former employee of yours, as he was for Mr. Oats at the Queens Tribune.