PLAYING GAMES
By TOM TOPOUSIS in N.Y. & FREDRIC U. DICKER in Albany

 

June 3, 2005 -- State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said yesterday he will approve a West Side stadium only if the city wins its bid next month to host the 2012 Olympics.

"We're going to say exactly that: If we get the Olympics, we are there," Bruno told The Post, speaking hours after a state judge threw out a Cablevision lawsuit trying to stop the project.

"We're taking one step at a time. And the mayor has made the first step July 6, the Olympic decision. So I am dealing with that in that time frame."

Bruno said he would instruct his representative at today's scheduled meeting of the Public Authorities Control Board not to second Gov. Pataki's proposal for a West Side stadium and instead offer an amended plan linking the approval to the Olympics.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said yesterday he is not ready to OK the stadium. He had requested today's vote be postponed for a third time.

Silver, Bruno and Pataki appoint all three members of the board. As of last night, the meeting was still on for this afternoon.

Both Bruno and Silver have continued to insist that there are remaining questions about financing of the $2.2 billion stadium. Silver also repeated his long-standing concern about the project's impact on lower Manhattan.

"This deal is not ready to be voted on," Bruno fumed.

In a surprise development, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi yesterday bolstered Bruno and Silver's concerns about the stadium in a letter saying that a vote today by the PACB would be "premature" because of lingering questions about the $600 million in city and state funding.

But Mayor Bloomberg insisted that every question asked about the project has been answered.

"If you have questions after all of this time, you either weren't asking or you weren't listening," Bloomberg said at a news conference with Pataki.

Pataki said yesterday's court ruling clearing the MTA's sale of the West Side rail yard to the Jets removes the last excuse for blocking the project.

"This has been the most discussed public issue for the last couple of years," Pataki said. "And now is the time to say yes."

Meanwhile, tensions between Pataki and Bloomberg developed late in the day.

A source close to the governor said the mayor "hasn't done enough" to convince Silver that the West Side stadium project and related building in the area wouldn't divert badly needed commercial development at Ground Zero, which is in Silver's district.

Additional reporting by Kenneth Lovett and David Seifman

ALBANY - New York's chances of getting the Olympics actually worsened despite a favorable court ruling yesterday regarding the proposed West Side stadium, according to one leading oddsmaker.

New York's odds are now 22.5 to 1, a .5 percent dip, according to Ireland's Tradesports.com.

New York, according to the site, is still way behind favorites Paris and London in the five-city race to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. Many other betting sites have New York ranked fourth, behind Madrid and ahead of only Moscow.

Meanwhile, Whoopi Goldberg and billionaire Donald Trump are the latest big names enlisted to help secure the Big Apple's Olympic bid.

Goldberg and Trump will be featured in two new ads airing internationally as part of NYC2012's "Let the Dreams Begin" campaign. The ads will run through July 6, when the International Olympic Committee selects the host city. Kenneth Lovett