Editorial

Mike's Amazin' Olympic vault

Faster than you can say Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones, Mayor Bloomberg sprinted to the fore Sunday with plans for building a stadium in Queens, a new home for the Mets, as a way to keep New York's Olympic hopes alive. He's nothing if not resourceful.

The concept of replacing aging, outmoded Shea Stadium was bruited about for years in talks between the team and City Hall, but neither party was sufficiently motivated to close until the defeat of the West Side stadium radically altered the circumstances. They've now got a handshake and the preliminary outlines of a fair deal.

As an immediate benefit, Bloomberg can credibly continue the city's Olympic quest. He has a promise to build, so will they come? We hope so, but, as on the West Side, the Olympics do not by themselves justify large investments of public money on a stadium. The crucial test is whether the taxpayers would bear the freight for building a professional sports facility.

Projections for the new Shea - whatever it's called - indicate the public would come out ahead, despite a city investment of $105 million and a state contribution of $75 million. The stadium would be built on a parking lot beside Shea. The Mets would pay $600 million and the public money would be used primarily to defray the expense of sinking pilings into the marshy earth in the area to support the building.

Over the life of the stadium's 30-year bonds, the facility is projected to generate $170 million in new tax revenues. More importantly, the city would be relieved of having to pay an estimated $212 million to renovate and maintain the existing Shea, a city-owned building. The Mets would take responsibility for maintaining the new stadium.

The bottom line, by these calculations, is that the taxpayers' out-of-pocket expenses would drop, making the public investment a sound one. Meanwhile, Met fans would enjoy more hospitable surroundings and, perhaps, the stadium, with additional public investment, would become the prime venue for the Olympics. So far, the political powers that doomed the West Side stadium, with its even greater economic pluses, seem conducive to supporting the project. Maybe it will be possible to get something done in New York after all.