Silver Refuses To Support Stadium, Putting Olympic Bid In Jeopardy

[hadrons]

Just hours before a scheduled vote on a funding plan for a proposed West Side stadium, considered crucial to the city’s bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced Monday afternoon that he will vote against the proposal, saying, “This plan is at best, premature."

Silver made the announcement at a news conference prior to a meeting of the state Public Authorities Control Board, which was expected to finally vote on $300 million in state funding for the stadium project following three postponements.

Silver controls one seat on the three-person PACB, with the others controlled by Governor George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. The board needs to vote unanimously to approve the funding plan, but while Pataki is a strong supporter of the stadium, he has faced resistance from Silver and Bruno..

....

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=51330

This basically kills this billion dollar elephant to give the NY Jets a studium to play 8 games a year (not including playoffs, which for Jets fans - I'm one of them - is iffy every year)

[annabanana]

1. Bloomberg must be STEAMED..

He and Pataki (and GW even stuck HIS nose into it) were all hot for this thing, and creating a false deadline, and hollering that it had to be approved TODAY or we wouldn't get the Olympics (which is probably iffy at best) and yada yada yada...

Good.. It's a big fat boondoggle.

[musiclawyer]

2. NYC officials must be delusional

Cheney says we will be in Iraq until 2009--which means we'll be either there or some other place we make wretched in 2012. If there's one thing IOC wants, that is a peaceful venue. And that won't be in the good ole' USA, especially NYC.

[LiberalFighter]

19. You are right!! We would be playing with fire to have it anywhere...

in the United States let alone NYC.

Even if nothing happened if the venue was in the US the athletes would have it in the back of their head that something might happen.

[BronxBoy]

16. Oh the same.............

George Bush who wanted to stiff NY out of the aid money he promised after the 9/11 attacks? I think it was Hastert who commented, upon NY's inquiring where their promised money was, had no problem saying that the request was "unseemly".

F**king Assholes

[geek tragedy]

3. As a New Yorker, let me just say "Thank you Jesus!) (or Allah, or Shiva)

That stadium was a horrendous combination of Jets' greed and Bloomberg's ego. With firehouses closing and the infrastructure desperately in need of enhancement, a $2 Billion baby was the last thing this city needed.

[Walt Starr]

4. From everything I've seen on this subject, I'm glad for New Yorkers

that there was at least one fiscally responsible person on this committee.

[sasquatch]

5. Why don't the Jets just go back to Shea Stadium

It has Grass and it's not named after your cross town rival.

[geek tragedy]

6. And it's not in NEW JERSEY eom

[sasquatch]

8. That too

[davidinalameda]

7. this sucks

the Big East was supposed to have a new bowl game--the Big Apple Bowl, or something like that--in the new stadium

[Danmel]

9. I just got off the phone with his office

Thanking him for his vote. Finally someone shot down a big big corporate giveaway. The whole idea is asinine. The stadium will hardly get used and when it does it will be for big corporate ticket holders. The Jets have a 20 year wait list for tickets. The fans who already have tickets won't be able to tailgate, the traffic will be ridiculous and Robert 'Woody" Johnson can pay for the thing himself. I don't really want to underwrite his playground. He has just a little more money than I do!

Plus NY needs the Olympics like a hole in the head. We have no trouble drawing tourists here- there is plenty to see and do. And I think we are enough of a terrorist target already. Why not just paint a giant bulls eye on us.

Bloomberg must really be pissed. He's used to getting his way.

[Penance]

17. I'd love to thank Silver, but...

He's not saying no because it's the wrong thing for NY, he's saying no because his district (which includes the WTC site) didn't get the same sort of public subsidy priority. We were saved from a multi-billion dollar boondoggle mainly because of Johnson/Bloomberg's arrogance and political inexperience and Pataki's incompetence.

As someone who lives just 5 blocks from the train yards, I am more than pleased to see this deal go down in flames, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. :)

[Danmel]

18. I know he represents lower Manhattan

But he does have a point- there has been no progress in redeveloping downtown and it really is more important than taxpayers subsidizing a stadium for a billionaire. I'm sure living near the rail yards you must REALLY be relieved.

And I'm willing to accept a decent result for a change, even if the motive may not be so pure. I've had enough of allegedly "pure" motive with disastrous results to last the rest of my life with this BUSH crowd.

[central scrutinizer]

10. corporate welfare

all of the major sports run the same scam - there are about 35 cities and 32 teams so they use extortion to squeeze Joe Sixpack: pony up or we will move the team to East Bumfuck. Whichever city doesn't pay the ransom loses their team and the musical chairs are rearranged, then we play again. But of course if you do pony up like the voters in Texas did to keep the Rangers, then maybe one of the minority owners will cash in huge and run for President.

[HockeyMom]

11. NO Stadium - Another New Yorker

[CONN]

12. Good for Silver - better for the people

Shame on Bloomberg for touting this as a some sort of jobs generation thing. Peanut vendors at a few football games a year.

[Bob3]

13. Good - I hope this kills the damn thing.

Bloody Stadium was a disaster waiting to happen - The cost was bound to go well beyond the estimate (which was about a billion dollars if memory serves) money this city can't afford to pay when we are closing fire houses, libraries have limited hours and the schools are falling apart.

And what the hell makes anybody think the Yankees and the Mets wouldn't start making noise about wanting their publicly funded stadium once construction started? Hmmmm? Steinbrener's already starting to whine about how old Yankee stadium is (again).

And God Forbid we got the Olympics - New York city taxpayers would be paying for that mistake for the next fifty years. Not the well connected swine who view public funds as some kind of feed bag but the regular working stiffs that fill the subways and do the jobs and live here.

[FreepFryer]

14. Thank God! No No No No! The stadium plan has got to go!

Worst idea since the last really crappy idea. NYC needs an in-city stadium like Ann Coulter needs testosterone.

[DarienComp]

15. As a resident of the Upper West Side I can't think of a worse idea

than to put a football stadium in our neighborhood. It will completely destroy the atmosphere of the area, which in general, is more laid back than the rest of Manhattan. I'm voting against anyone who supports it in november.