Football Stadium Plan Is Thrown for a Loss

The city’s high-stakes plan to build a stadium on Manhattan’s far west side has run into a fiscal roadblock, raising fresh doubts about the $1.6-billion project, as well as New York’s ability to secure the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Officials for the New York Jets -- who offered $100 million for development rights to build a National Football League stadium on rail yards near the Hudson River -- had been expecting to negotiate exclusively with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which owns the land.

But transit officials decided Tuesday to open the process after Cablevision Systems Corp., the leading opponent of the stadium project, offered $600 million for the right to build housing and office towers on the site.

As a result, the stadium plan, which has faced opposition from community groups and has caused political headaches for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, could get bogged down in a protracted bidding war.

“Don’t be fooled,” Bloomberg said Wednesday, charging that Cablevision was mainly interested in killing the Jets’ development proposal. The company owns Madison Square Garden, which would be three blocks from the proposed stadium.

“These people are not in the development business,” Bloomberg said. “They know nothing about real estate. Do you really want the company that owned the Wiz [a failed chain of electronics stores] running major development on the west side?”

Cablevision officials had no comment Wednesday.

Under the original plan, the Jets would pay $1 billion to build a domed stadium -- a crucial element in New York’s bid for the Olympics. The city and state would contribute $600 million to the project, which officials hoped would spur housing and commercial growth on the largely underdeveloped west side.

Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, who has been intensely involved in the stadium proposal, said Wednesday that he was confident the MTA would choose the Jets’ bid over Cablevision’s -- which he dismissed as a “PR stunt.”

But the Jets have indicated the team may be unwilling to budge from its $100-million offer.

The uncertainty arose as city officials were preparing to entertain members of the International Olympic Committee next week in New York, trying to sell them on the merits of having the Summer Games in the Big Apple.

Bloomberg “certainly doesn’t need this,” said veteran political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “At the very least, it tells the Olympics officials that New York may have more trouble putting its final bid together than people originally thought.”

Others said the MTA’s move would, if nothing else, delay a project that was racing against the clock. Bloomberg has said the stadium plan must be underway by the time the International Olympic Committee awards the games at its July meeting in Singapore. New York is competing against several cities, including Paris, London and Madrid.

Recent polls have shown that while a majority of New Yorkers want the Olympics, they oppose the stadium, a problem Bloomberg has yet to overcome.

But Cablevision also has taken heat.

Soon after the company offered to pay more for the rail yard property than the Jets, the NFL retaliated. It pulled the upcoming 2005 draft out of Madison Square Garden, where it had been held for the last 10 years. League officials said the stadium controversy was a factor.

“This whole thing is going to play out longer than some people expected,” said political consultant George Arzt. “It will get awfully close to that July deadline. And I don’t think anybody right now could give you a decent guess as to the final result.”

In a statement Tuesday, MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow said all bids for the 13-acre parcel must be submitted by March 21.

The transit agency has valued the land at $300 million. MTA officials need to increase revenue to finance new subway lines, and riders bracing for a fare increase “have every reason to expect that the agency will seek the highest possible price,” said former Mayor Edward I. Koch, who supports the stadium.

Bloomberg and other city officials remain confident that the stadium plan will succeed.

“When I come to Singapore on July 6, there will be a shovel in the ground; and it could be a symbolic shovel but nevertheless a shovel,” the mayor said. “And it will show that we are committed, and people are behind this.”

Even if the MTA accepts the Jets’ bid, it must clear hurdles in the Legislature. Two of the state’s most powerful officials, state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, a Republican, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, have yet to support the plan.

Cablevision has spent more than $8 million on television ads criticizing the proposal. The project also has been resisted by community groups that fear congestion. Most of the Democratic candidates lining up to challenge Bloomberg, a Republican, in this year’s mayoral race oppose the stadium.

“It’s good to see that the MTA has decided to stand up to Mayor Bloomberg and open up the bidding process,” said Fernando Ferrer, a former Bronx borough president and a likely mayoral candidate. “This is a victory for good government.”

Times staff writer Alan Abrahamson in London contributed to this report.