Talks between the Giants and Xanadu developers Mills Corp. and Mack-Cali have broken down over whether Xanadu would be allowed to open on Giants game days. The club went to court Tuesday in an effort to get a judge to enforce such a ban.
No one wants to speculate on what will happen if the team doesn't meet the mid-September target date, part of a memorandum of understanding signed on April 14 during a triumphant news conference at 29-year-old Giants Stadium.
Either the Giants or the state could walk away from the deal next month if the three agreements are not in place. That could lead to a revival of a long-running dispute over how much renovation would be necessary on the current stadium to make it "state of the art," as required by the Giants' lease.
Codey is intent on making a stadium deal part of his legacy, and Giants officials seem reluctant to find out whether gubernatorial candidates Jon Corzine or Doug Forrester would be as eager to cooperate with the Giants on a new stadium.
"I want to have something done by [Sept. 15]," Codey said. "I want everybody to work things out and compromise. I'd say I'm still optimistic."
Codey was joined at Tuesday's meeting by New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority Chairman Carl Goldberg.
"I would say that the Giants understand, without any ambiguity, what the expectation of the governor is as far as the content of the documents we need to move into the master planning process," said Goldberg, a prominent real estate developer.
Goldberg and sports authority President George Zoffinger expressed disappointment early this month with the quality of the Giants' design work. The Jets, meanwhile, recently submitted a preliminary plan for 90,000-seat stadium that wowed state officials with its retail and entertainment concepts throughout the 75-acre site.
But Mara said the Giants' plans remain on schedule.
"Our developers and architects will have a submission next month that is fully compliant with what the state wants," Mara said.
That submission, however, is unlikely to include much input from the Jets as long as they continue flirting with Queens.
Does that mean if the Jets decide to stay in New Jersey, that the design work has to start all over again?
"I don't see why we would have to do that," Mara said. "We've been working on this for close to a year, and we've spent millions of dollars for a seating bowl and other concepts. We can't start over now."
Talks with Mills/Mack-Cali have floundered over the Giants' assertion that traffic on game days would be nightmarish if Xanadu patrons mingled with the 80,000 Giants fans.
"It's obvious that we are at an impasse with them," Mara said. "It's equally obvious that there are a lot of balls up in the air right now."
E-mail: brennan@northjersey.com
