Oly cow! Plan B

Mike reveals Amazin' Queens plan

By MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

It's a whole new ballgame for the Mets, Yankees - and the city's Olympic bid.

Declaring "New Yorkers aren't quitters," Mayor Bloomberg unveiled plans yesterday for a new Mets ballpark that could be converted into an Olympic stadium - marking an extraordinary eleventh-hour gambit to revive the city's flagging bid for the 2012 Games.

The mayor also hinted yesterday that the Yankees will be getting a new Bronx stadium by 2009 - as first reported by the Daily News - with an announcement expected in days.

The Queens solution comes six days after an obscure state panel torpedoed Bloomberg's plan to build a West Side stadium, in a huge blow that raised the humiliating specter of yanking the city's Olympic bid.

"We're like the athlete who falls and gets up and dusts himself off and pushes ahead," Bloomberg said.

"Today, we can stand here and tell New York, tell the United States and tell the world that we are going to continue to fight for the Olympic Games. You can never count New Yorkers out."

The Mets would get the ballpark, to be built in Shea Stadium's parking lot, no matter how Olympic officials vote next month. And if the city wins the Games, the Amazin's could play for one season in enemy territory: Yankee Stadium.

Unlike the city's failed Manhattan proposal, the mayor's plan B has broad political support - including that of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who killed the West Side project and praised the Queens plan as the "preferred alternative."

The new plan also would cost taxpayers far less than the $600million earmarked for the $2.2 billion West Side stadium.

Here's the deal:

• The owners of the Mets would foot the bill for a new 45,000-seat ballpark to open for the 2009 season. Officials declined yesterday to estimate how much the stadium will cost, but Silver put the figure at $600 million. The design also was unclear, though the Mets previously proposed a ballpark modeled on Brooklyn's old Ebbets Field.

• The city would pay $85 million, and the state would pay a proposed $75 million for infrastructure improvements around Shea, which already has access to mass transit and major roads.

• If the city wins the Games, the $250 million to convert the ballpark to an 80,000-seat Olympic stadium will be shared by the Games' organizing committee, the city and state. The state and city would pay about $50 million each.

  Mets owner Fred Wilpon said yesterday he has one message for the Olympic Committee: "We want you here. ... We welcome you to Queens."

  Left uncertain was the fate of plans to bring the Jets home to New York. The team has refused to move back to Queens, and has vowed to keep pursuing the West Side site. Bloomberg predicted the football team would stay in New Jersey.

  Last night marked a reversal by Bloomberg, who repeatedly had said the city's Olympic bid hinged on approving the West Side stadium by last week.

  Olympic officials made the unusual move last week of letting the city revise its bid. New York is competing against Paris, London, Madrid and Moscow for the Games. The winner will be picked in Singapore on July 6.

  It's believed the Queens stadium will be a tougher sell than the West Side facility, but U.S. Olympic officials were hopeful. "The NYC2012 bid to bring the Olympic ... Games to America is very much alive," said U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth.