We don't need a Doctor, we need a priest!

By Tom McMorrow, Jr.

June 6, 2005

New York City's Olympic dream for 2012 is dead, unless a miracle occurs in the next few days.

In Albany, Sheldon Silver and Joseph Bruno have garroted NYC2012, and twisted it tight.

The stadium, however, is clinging to life. Remember, the Jets own, if they complete the deal, the air-rights over the rail yards. If they decide they still want to move ahead without state money, they can. And there is nothing that anyone could do, at that point, to stop them. It would seem to me to be too expensive, but it is up to the Jets to make that final decision.

I wouldn't rule it out.

The stadium is not dead until Jay Cross says it is.

Meanwhile, in Albany, that dreary city where politicians rule...

On the day when the Olympic Commission on the 2012 Olympic applicant cities came out with a lukewarm endorsement of New York's chances, with the main problem with New York's bid for the games for the commission being the stadium's lack of progress, Sheldon Silver, and to a lesser, but still significant degree, Joseph Bruno, grabbed New York's Olympic chances by the throat and shoved them in the grave. The victim may still be stirring, but someone had better call a priest or rabbi. It's time to read New York's Olympic dreams for 2012 their final rites.

Without a stadium approval from the state, New York has zero chance of getting the games. Zero. Anyone who tells you anything different under the guise of being an "expert" is a self-serving scoundrel.

The Olympics may be dying, but the stadium is not dead, at least not yet. The Jets will need to make some hard choices over the next few days. A majority on the City Council favor the stadium, but without the state's $300 million, the Jets would be adding a huge pile onto what is already the most expensive stadium ever.

By the way, a lot has been made by members of the media of that fact. One constantly sees in print (as well as in the opposition advertising), "The most expensive stadium, ever!" What they never seem to mention is that ANY stadium that is suitable to host NFL games built in New York City will be the most expensive stadium ever. Manhattan, Willets Point, it doesn't matter- it is going to cost a lot. That is the nature of building in New York City.

There will be plenty of time for Olympic dream post-mortems. The Olympic Dream funeral will be serene and calm, unlike the ugly spectacle today in Albany.

As Blanche DuBois, Tennessee Williams doomed heroine from "A Streetcar Named Desire," tells her sister Stella, "...Funerals are pretty compared to deaths."

She must have been to Albany.