A STADIUM COMPROMISE
By DAVID YASSKY

April 25, 2005 -- THE protracted and bitter fight over a proposed football stadium on Manhattan's West Wide is drawing to a close. The stadium's fate is now up to the three elected leaders of New York's state government — Gov. Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. As a practical matter, all three must vote for the plan in order for it to proceed.

The first issue, however, is one of timing. Mayor Bloomberg is calling for the state to approve the stadium immediately, before the International Olympics Committee selects a host city for the 2012 Olympics. Stadium opponents, on the other hand, are seeking to delay the vote.

Mayor Bloomberg is right on two key points:

First, hosting the 2012 Games would be of enormous benefit to New York City. It would fortify the city's place as capital of the world community, bring thousands of visitors and showcase the city to millions of potential tourists. Most important, it would generate billions in broadcast revenues to build valuable recreational facilities all along the city's waterfront.

Second, the mayor is almost certainly correct that the IOC will not select New York as host city unless full governmental approval for the stadium is in place before July. The IOC representative stated this plainly during her inspection visit to New York in February. For this reason, politicians who take a "no stadium, no way" position are in effect telling the IOC: Take the Olympics elsewhere.

To keep our Olympic bid alive, the state should act now to assure the IOC that New York is ready, willing and able to follow through on its Olympic plan. But that does not mean the state needs to give its blanket approval for the stadium project. Instead, the state should approve the stadium conditional upon New York's designation as host city for the 2012 Games.

We should tell the IOC: If you come, we will build it.

If New York is not designated as the Olympic host city, state leaders can then decide whether the stadium is a sound use of taxpayer funds based solely on the benefits of bringing the Jets back to New York and expanding the Javits Convention Center.

Perhaps those benefits are worth a taxpayer investment of $1 billion or more — perhaps not. We should make that decision rationally and on its own timetable, without the Olympics question hanging over us.

Choosing to build a stadium in order to get the Olympics is very different from choosing to build a stadium simply for the Jets and a few large conventions. In the overheated public debate, these two issues have been mushed together.

Gov. Pataki, Majority Leader Bruno and Speaker Silver can best serve the public by keeping these two issues clearly separate, deciding the Olympics question now — and leaving the just-the-stadium issue for later.

City Council Member David Yassky represents Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Greenpoint and Williamsburg.