Jets stadium gains support in Council

BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

A growing number of city lawmakers are starting to cheer for the Jets in the team's bid to build a stadium on the West Side.

As of yesterday, 23 of the City Council's 51 members back the $1.9 billion stadium, and a source said the football team will secure a majority of the Council within the coming weeks. Eleven Council members have publicly opposed the stadium.

The rising Council support comes as Speaker Gifford Miller, a stadium opponent, said yesterday the Council is poised next month to bar Mayor Bloomberg from funneling $300 million to the project.

While Bloomberg is expected to veto that legislation, Miller said yesterday he expects an override. And if the legislation survives a legal challenge, the Council could be in position to decide whether the city should be allowed to pony up $300 million for the stadium.

On the steps of City Hall yesterday, the Jets unveiled three new backers: Council members Tracy Boyland (D-Brooklyn), Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn) and Helen Sears (D-Queens). In recent weeks, the team also added embattled Councilman Allan Jennings (D-Queens) to its roster of supporters.

"What you're seeing here in the City Council is a momentum ... toward people wanting to see this stadium built, so we can provide jobs and give opportunity to the working families of the people of the city of New York," said Councilman Dennis Gallagher (R-Queens).

Stadium supporters, who gathered on the City Hall steps, ended the news conference chanting, "Stadium, yes! Miller no! Stadium, yes! Miller, no!"

Miller, a Manhattan Democrat, is seeking to unseat Bloomberg.

Top construction union
endorses Mike's reelex

Michael Saul

Amid chants of "four more years," Mayor Bloomberg won the endorsement yesterday of the New York Building and Construction Trades Council, a major supporter of the proposed $1.9 billion West Side stadium.

At a construction site in Brooklyn, Ed Malloy, the group's president, said the mayor's support of the stadium was "only one piece of the endorsement process."

Malloy said he thought Bloomberg's rivals lacked vision. Asked to explain how he reached that conclusion, Malloy said, "The only thing I've heard from other candidates is that they're opposed to the West Side stadium. I mean, I haven't heard much else than that. Have you?"

In 2001, the group, which represents 60 affiliated unions and more than 100,000 members, endorsed Democrat Mark Green. "We thought that Mike Bloomberg didn't have a chance," Malloy explained.