June 06, 2005

West Side stadium bid shot down by state panel

Plans are all but dead for a West Side stadium that would serve as the home for the New York Jets football team and centerpiece to the 2012 Olympics after a New York state panel quashed the project. At a cost of nearly $2 billion, including public financing, the stadium has been a pet project of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The New York Times explains why Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver refused to back the bid:

Before the vote, Mr. Silver said he opposed the stadium out of concern that new retail and office development planned for the area around the stadium would have hampered redevelopment at the World Trade Center site, which sits a few miles to the south and is part of Mr. Silver's district. He also said that rebuilding at the trade center site had been delayed for far too long, calling it a "moral" issue while dismissing the stadium plan as simple "ambition."

He added that he would not support the plan even if the city is award the 2012 Olympics. And then he kicked the Mayor in the ribs.

June 6, 2005 06:06 PM in Sports

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