fter months of vigorous efforts to persuade lawmakers and the public that the city needs to build a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's decision to sell the Jets the right to build the stadium had been made without political considerations.

"When you see a 14-0 vote, which included the mayor's representatives and the governor's, but also representatives from Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties and then another vote split by four upstate counties, it's pretty hard to argue there was any politics here," Mr. Bloomberg said during his weekly radio show on WABC-AM.

Opponents of the stadium plan have contended that the voting process was rigged, pointing to a larger bid made by Cablevision that the authority rejected. In addition, the Jets bid would require the city and state to pay for a $600 million platform over the West Side yards to hold up the stadium, while Cablevision's plan would use no taxpayer money to pay for the platform, which would support a housing and commercial complex.

But Mr. Bloomberg disagreed yesterday with any suggestion that the agency board members were reflecting political rather than financial considerations, saying the board members had reached a consensus on their own about "what is best for the M.T.A." after evaluating the details of the competing bids. Several board members said the Jets plan would ultimately bring in more money for the authority through the sale of development rights, though the initial cash payment was smaller.

Mr. Bloomberg said his next step would be to sell the stadium to state officials in Albany. If the plan is to be carried out, it must be approved by a state board controlled by Gov. George E. Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno.

Fernando Ferrer, a Democratic mayoral candidate who opposes the stadium, held a news conference yesterday on the steps of City Hall to assail Mr. Bloomberg's comments. "I know a farce when I see one," he said of the stadium decision. "I've been to more M.T.A. board meetings than I still have hair."

He added that he would urge Mr. Silver to block the stadium.

On yesterday's radio show, Mr. Bloomberg rejected a suggestion that he might well pay a political price for pushing the stadium.

The mayor said that even if New Yorkers did not agree with him on a particular project like the stadium, they would still find him a leader who was trying to do new things rather than just sitting back and finding fault with everything.

"That's not the kind of leadership people want, so I think it will be a very positive thing," he said of the stadium. "But in any case, I'm not doing it for the election. I was not hired to run for re-election by the voters. The voters put me in office to do what was right, and to work hard, and that's what I'm going to do."