Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey is again pushing to ensure a prominent role for sports at New Jersey's sports complex, where the entertainment and shopping center known as Xanadu is rapidly taking shape.
Mr. Codey is prodding the developers to build the minor league baseball park that they prominently listed among amusements promised for Xanadu; it has since been set aside, with no architectural plans or lease produced for the resident team, the Bergen Cliff Hawks.
"It wasn't getting off the dime, much to my displeasure," Mr. Codey said in an interview. "And it's something I'm committed to doing."
The owner of the Cliff Hawks, the state senator who represents the Meadowlands and officials of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority are also expressing impatience, putting pressure on the Xanadu developers while they are trying to strike a deal with the Giants over traffic and parking at the complex.
Administration officials plan to meet today with the Xanadu developers, the Mills Corporation of Virginia and Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, to demand a schedule for work on the ballpark.
The developers insist that the plan for a ballpark has not been shelved but will be ready for the 2007 season.
The flare-up is the latest between Mr. Codey and the Xanadu developers. Since taking office last November, Mr. Codey has been pressing for a revitalized sports complex in the Meadowlands. But he has been rubbing up against the developers' plan for a Disney-like shopping and entertainment center, a legacy of former Gov. James E. McGreevey, who wanted to ease the state out of the sports business.
Of the five resident teams at the Meadowlands complex, two, the New Jersey Devils and the MetroStars soccer team, are leaving soon, while the New Jersey Nets have made plans to move to Brooklyn. The New York Jets also made plans to move - to Manhattan - but the stadium that was to be their home was vetoed in Albany this week. But Mr. Codey helped secure an agreement in April for the New York Giants, the prime tenant, to build a new 80,000-seat stadium.
Now the increasing demand for elbow room in the 750-acre Meadowlands complex is raising other concerns.
The Giants are in bumpy negotiations with the Xanadu developers over parking and traffic, now complicated by uncertainty over the Jets' plans. The Giants' new agreement with the state requires the team and the Xanadu developers to negotiate an agreement.
The actual construction of Xanadu has been under way for several months, with builders now sinking the foundation.
The project is also under challenge in court by the neighboring borough of Carlstadt, the Sierra Club, and Hartz Mountain Industries, the biggest real estate developer in the Meadowlands; Hartz Mountain competed with Mills and Mack-Cali for development rights to the site surrounding the Continental Arena. The lawsuits have not stopped the Xanadu construction but are among many contingencies that could delay or pare down the project.
The ballpark is supposed to house the Bergen Cliff Hawks, a new team in the independent, fast-growing Atlantic League, which has nine teams in the Northeast. The Cliff Hawks' principal owner, Steven B. Kalafer, is also an owner or partner in three other Atlantic League teams.
"I thought I'd have a ballpark by 2006," Mr. Kalafer said after a meeting in the governor's office this week, "and we have to date never received any plan, design or lease."
The 6,500-seat park, wedged between buildings in the 5-million-square-foot Xanadu complex, is tiny in comparison to Giants Stadium, and the team is to be Mills's tenant, not the state's. It was a big selling point, however, when the Sports and Exposition Authority was reviewing competing proposals for the development site.
A spokesman for the developers, Bob Sommer, said there was no question that the ballpark would go forward. "It's queued up to be built, but we've got priorities first based on the existing tenants," Mr. Sommer said, especially the construction of parking for the Giants.
When Mills's proposal was submitted to the sports authority in 2002, Mr. Sommer called the ballpark a "signature component" of Xanadu.
Some critics of Xanadu say, however, that they do not believe the ballpark will materialize. "They just used this to sweeten the deal," said Jeff Tittel, the director of the state chapter of the Sierra Club, which contends in its lawsuit that the state improperly granted permits for the project. State Senator Paul A. Sarlo, a Democrat who represents the Meadowlands district and who sat on the advisory committee that reviewed proposals for the arena site, said: "The ballpark was important to the overall scheme of things, a strong family entertainment component. It lent a lot of credibility to the Mills Corporation's proposal."
Mr. Sarlo said he was not accusing Mills of reneging. "The frustrating part is the timeline, " he said.
It is not clear whether Mills and Mack-Cali are legally required to build a ballpark.
Their agreement with the state provides only that the park would be built "assuming favorable economic and marketing conditions." Mr. Sarlo said the developers obligated themselves by including minor league baseball in the original proposal. Mr. Codey, too, said Mills and Mack-Cali "don't have much choice."
George Zoffinger, the sports authority president, said he expected construction on the ballpark to start in the spring. "It's part of the plan," he said. "It's been approved."
Joseph Forgione, the sports authority board member who is representing the authority in the talks on the ballpark, said he planned to ask Mills today for "a drop-dead date on finalizing this."
"I was on the selection committee," Mr. Forgione said. "The sports authority approved the plan, including the Bergen Cliff Hawks, and we want it done. End of story."