New York Newsday May 10, 2005 If you want to persuade lawmakers to give hundreds of millions of dollars to a proposed football stadium perhaps you do as the Jets did Monday: send "Broadway" Joe Namath...

Namath goes long for Jets stadium

BY ERROL A. COCKFIELD JR.
ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

May 10, 2005

ALBANY -- If you want to persuade lawmakers to give hundreds of millions of dollars to a proposed football stadium perhaps you do as the Jets did Monday: send "Broadway" Joe Namath, one of the best who ever played the game.

Most of the lawmakers here remember the season of '69, when he led the Jets through a sports marvel, cementing his image in football lore. So he had women, and men, swooning in the Capitol's corridors.

"Joe's here," said state Assemb. Dan Burling, a Buffalo-area Republican. "I gotta see him." Then Burling burst into a cramped elevator Namath was riding on.

Taking Namath through the Capitol was one cog in the vast media, political and celebrity machine the team is using to woo support for the project before May 18 when the state's Public Authorities Control Board is expected to vote on the plan.

Sports celebrities, in particular, have been a key part of their arsenal, from Dallas Cowboys Coach Bill Parcells to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who has promised the Super Bowl if New York builds the 75,000-seat stadium.

"There are so many people around the country looking to New York right now to see this come through," Namath said at a press event, his Super Bowl ring gleaming under a noon sun. "That's why I'm here."

While it has support from Gov. George Pataki, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- two Republicans -- the $2.2 billion stadium has met an icy reception from the leaders of the two houses in Albany: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Brunswick Republican.

Namath, fresh from Florida, with a Palm Beach County tan, was an attempt to ease the way for the Jets, before the five-member panel deliberates.

To that end the team has also courted minority lawmakers and labor unions with promises of jobs. And to quell a call for the stadium to be moved to Queens they have persuaded politicians from that borough to oppose that idea.

To sell their plan, the Jets have been trying to navigate the political culture of a place known for its secretive discourse, where deals can come together or fall apart in the final moments. The team is seeking $300 million each from the city and state in taxpayer subsidies.

But lawmakers, lobbyists and political experts agree that in exchange for their support, Bruno is likely to call for equal monies for suburban projects and Silver could demand that Pataki provide more business and housing incentives for lower Manhattan, which is part of Silver's district.

The team's push yesterday was part of a buildup to the May 18 vote. Officials have stepped up advertising, launched a Web site, www.voteforjobs.com, and organized an Albany labor rally for May 17.

Opponents of the stadium said the visit was more of a show than a debate about the project's merits. State Assemb. Richard Gottfried, a West Side Democrat, said the battle over the stadium is not a game. "Joe Namath is a distinguished retired football player, but we shouldn't rely on him for advice on how to spend the taxpayers' hard earned money," Gottfried said in a statement.

Namath and his Jets entourage did raise some eyebrows about ethics as he signed autographs, which on the right piece of paraphernalia can fetch quite a penny. "It's one of the greatest moments for me that I got to see Joe Namath here in person," said state Assemb. Susan John (D-Rochester). Later during a meeting with Bruno, Namath signed a football for the majority leader that had already been autographed by football legend Jim Kelly.

Whether the excitement Of his visit would reap any tangible benefits remained to be seen.

Using Namath could be a savvy move, but Paul Levinson, chairman of the mass communication and media studies department at Fordham University in the Bronx, compared it to actors who play doctors on television doing drug commercials.

"It probably goes back to the Roman empire," Levinson said. "When they wanted to get public support for something they trotted out a famous general."