W. Side story: No way!

State board kills plan for Jets stadium

BY JOE MAHONEY in Albany
and MICHAEL SAUL in New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

An obscure state board rejected the proposed $1.9 billion West Side stadium yesterday, dealing a catastrophic blow to the city's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games and to the Jets' dream of returning to New York.

Mayor Bloomberg, the project's top supporter, conceded defeat - even hinting at the humiliating specter of withdrawing the city's Olympic bid, which would end a 10-year marathon for the world's most prestigious sporting event just one month before the finish line.

"As for our Olympic bid," said Bloomberg, his voice raw with emotion for a moment, "rejection of the stadium will seriously damage our chances at winning the 2012 Games.

"We will be talking to the United States Olympic Committee, which selected us to represent the United States and its citizens, about the situation," said Bloomberg, refusing to elaborate.

The Public Authorities Control Board - a panel controlled by Gov. Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno - voted not to approve the stadium at a meeting in Albany late yesterday afternoon.

The stadium required the unanimous approval of the board's three voting members, and representatives for Silver (D-Manhattan) and Bruno (R-Rensselaer) both abstained, killing the project.

Asked whether the West Side project is definitively dead now, Silver said glibly, "It's never been alive.

"The 2012 Summer Olympics are being used as a shield to hide another goal: to shift the financial and business capital of the world out of lower Manhattan and over to the West Side," charged Silver, who represents lower Manhattan.

"Am I supposed to turn my back on lower Manhattan as it struggles to recover? For what? A stadium? For the hope of bringing the Olympics to New York City?" he railed.

The stadium's stunning defeat came just hours after the International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission released a 123-page technical analysis of the bids from the five finalist cities. New York is competing against Paris, London, Madrid and Moscow.

The report did not rank the cities but it clearly suggested Paris was the best, London was next and Moscow was the worst. New York received high praise, though, and Olympic observers pointed out that the city with the highest technical evaluation doesn't necessarily win, as was the case with the past two Summer Games.

Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, founder of the city's Olympic bid, described the vote as "deeply disappointing" because it came on a day when the IOC report "verified the strength of New York's bid."

Bruno had said he would support a West Side stadium on the condition that New York is awarded the Olympics. But Silver insisted he wouldn't support a stadium at that site.

Over the weekend, Bloomberg floated various incentives and protections to ensure the West Side didn't grow at the expense of lower Manhattan. The incentives included waiving the commercial rent tax in whole or in part for five years for all Manhattan below Chambers St. and for 12 years on the World Trade Center site, as well as a $5-per-square-foot rent subsidy to new tenants at 7 World Trade Center or the Freedom Tower.

Jets President Jay Cross said the "project is being held hostage by politics that have nothing to do with what's best for New York, and everything to do with what's best for Cablevision," referring to the project's chief opponent.

Charles Schueler, a spokesman for Cablevision, which spent roughly $30 million to scuttle the project, declined to comment when asked whether the company's offer to purchase the MTA's West Side railyards for $400 million still stood.