Bruno says yes,
but only if ...

BY JOE MAHONEY
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

On the eve of a key vote by a state panel, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno offered a compromise: If the Olympics come to New York, he will support a West Side stadium.

Bruno gave his most enthusiastic signal to date on behalf of the West Side site yesterday in a letter to International Olympic Committee Chairman Jacques Rogge.

The city's Olympic supporters fear New York will lose any chance of winning the Games unless there is some commitment to build the stadium. Yet Bruno's softened stance wasn't enough to appease officials behind New York's Olympics bid.

Jay Kriegel, executive director of the city's bid committee, said he believes a conditional approval of the stadium will appear to IOC members as just more political football. "We can't afford that," he said. "What the IOC wants is to eliminate the risk, to have certainty, and therefore we really need approval in order to win the Olympics."

Still, Bruno's letter put more pressure on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) to take a stand on the proposal.

Whether the stadium wins $300 million in state-backed bonding today will be determined by Silver, Bruno and Gov. Pataki, who control the the three-member Public Authorities Control Board.

Only Pataki is clearly behind the West Side site. The support of all three men is required.

Silver said yesterday he would support a new stadium for the Games, but he refused to commit to putting it on the West Side. When asked whether he was growing more determined to stop the project, Silver said he didn't "think that's the case. I'm searching for the reasons why this makes sense."