The International Olympic Committee will consider allowing New York to alter its Olympic bid after the political defeat of its planned stadium, an I.O.C. spokeswoman confirmed to NYC2012 officials in a letter yesterday, perhaps letting the city salvage its bid for the 2012 Games with a stadium someplace other than the Far West Side of Manhattan.
The possibility of resurrecting the West Side plan was not gaining traction yesterday, despite NYC2012's attempts to get its supporters to urge Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, to change their minds. Charles Carrier, a spokesman for Silver, said that neither the Olympic organizers nor Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had approached Silver about reopening negotiations.
Jets officials met with Giants officials Wednesday about a joint venture for a new Meadowlands stadium, although neither team would comment on the discussion.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is also in a holding pattern. Peter S. Kalikow, chairman of the M.T.A., said yesterday that he had talked to Jets officials this week and that they intend to go through with the $250 million deal for the development rights for the West Side stadium, but he acknowledged that the negative vote by the Public Authorities Control Board was a significant hurdle.
The Jets have to walk a fine line between exploring all possibilities to keep the West Side stadium plans alive and not waiting too long to make a deal with the Giants, who will most likely expect an answer this summer. If the Jets want to play host to the 2010 Super Bowl, the National Football League has said approval of a new stadium would be needed by the end of this year.
But NYC2012's timeline is much shorter, with the I.O.C. set to select the 2012 Olympic city on July 6 from among New York, Paris, London, Madrid and Moscow.
According to people with knowledge of the options NYC2012 is exploring, its emphasis has switched to considering alternate sites. That is why the bid founder, Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff, asked the I.O.C. if NYC2012 would be allowed to present a new plan. By I.O.C. rules, no changes are allowed after a visit by its evaluation commission, which concluded Feb. 24.
The letter, signed by the I.O.C. spokeswoman Giselle Davies, said, "In such an exceptional circumstance as this, a bid city has the right to address the issue in front of the executive board." That means bid officials would take their alternate plan to the executive board before making its presentation to the membership on the day of the vote.
There is no guarantee the executive board would allow the alternative, and NYC2012 officials would not acknowledge they were pursuing one. But the letter leaves the option open for now.
"There was some confusion about what the rules allow," said the NYC2012 executive director, Jay Kriegel. "It was useful to get that point clarified."
Options for an Olympic stadium site are few and may be forced to include something as revolutionary as a temporary stadium.
Giants Stadium is not large enough to hold a 400-meter track, which is necessary because an Olympic stadium is the host for track-and-field events, plus the opening and closing ceremonies. The new Yankee Stadium being devised for the Bronx is also too small.
The last real option NYC2012 explored besides the Manhattan site was in 2002, when the United States Olympic Committee required a backup plan as part of the process for the United States' bid city. At that time, organizers presented a blueprint of Shea Stadium, retrofitted to accommodate the Olympics.
Doctoroff and Kriegel said that plan was never attractive or realistic, and once New York became the bid city, all mention of it was scrapped. But now they are left with few options.
NYC2012 officials refuse to say when they will detail what they are considering, but they are supposed to file a report with the I.O.C. on Monday to respond to the report by the evaluation commission that was released this week. They will most likely address the stadium issue in that report.
NYC2012 , meanwhile, continues to prepare for its final presentation in Singapore, including composing a short film this weekend containing scenes and interviews with New Yorkers at three locations in the city: Wall Street, Battery Park and Brooklyn Heights.