CABLEVISION PLAYED DIRTY ON $TADIUM: JETS

By TOM TOPOUSIS

EXCLUSIVE

During the bare-fisted battle over a West Side stadium, top brass at Cablevision tried to lean on the Regional Plan Association to change a much-awaited report so that it would look worse for the stadium, lawyers for the Jets charged yesterday.

Citing e-mails among Cablevision execs, Jets lawyer David Boies claimed that the company, which owns Madison Square Garden, was urging the privately funded RPA to nearly double the value of the rail yard in its report — to $900 million — if it were used for housing instead of a stadium.

The e-mail from Andrew Lynn, a Cablevision vice president, to other company brass said the RPA first calculated a much lower number of $475 million, which would "create a potential problem."

"I told them their number was low. In response, they are now thinking of modifying the numbers," the e-mail read.

A second e-mail that Jet lawyers said was between Cablevision vice presidents claimed Cablevision had paid RPA $10,000 for its study and suggested offering yet more money "through indirect means."

Cablevision yesterday dismissed the charges, but would not comment directly on the e-mails.

"The West Side stadium issue was resolved in June. The MTA has taken the land back, the people of New York have moved on, and we believe the Jets and their lawyers are pursuing a frivolous claim and should move on, too," said a Cablevision spokesman.

But Boies said after a court hearing yesterday:

"What [the e-mail] shows is that [Cablevision] not only paid RPA to come up with results they thought would be helpful to them, but they got the RPA to change what they thought their appraisal of the property would be."

RPA spokesman Jeremy Soffin blasted Boies' claim.

"That's hogwash," Soffin fumed. "We lost a lot more money than we gained by taking a principled stand on the stadium. It's not even close."

Soffin said Cablevision contributed $10,000 to the RPA during its 2004 fund-raiser, the same amount as the Jets. But while Cablevision gave another $10,000 this year, the Jets did not.

The RPA study was released last December and found that a combination of housing and commercial buildings over the West Side rail yards would produce a "significantly larger rate of return" to the city than a stadium.

The e-mails came to light during a hearing on Cablevision's motion to dismiss a federal antitrust lawsuit by the Jets. The team is accusing the Long Island-based company of using its monopoly on cable stations to block the Jets' stadium bid.

Boies said the e-mails, showing that Cablevision wanted to boost the value of the 13-acre parcel, proves the firm wasn't really interested in developing the rail yard for housing, as Cablevision claimed after attempting to outbid the Jets.

"If you're a buyer, you don't try to double the price," Boies quipped.