| Dwayne Smith. 8th June, 2005 - 5:08 am
 In what may be the final chapter in a long political battle in New York, the Public Authorities Control Board (PACB) rejected the plan to spend $300 Million to build a platform for a stadium for the New York Jets. The three-member committee was the final approval for the State funds needed to build a platform over the West Side Railyards. The Railyards, owned by New York’s Mass Transit Authority, were to remain underneath the Stadium making the construction of the platform necessary. The Jets had purchased the air rights, allowing them to build above the land.
Although, the vote officially was one for and two abstentions, the two abstaining votes were essentially decisions against the approval of State funds to build a platform for the new stadium. The rejection is a major defeat for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration, which put a Herculean effort toward winning the 2012 Olympic games and developing the West Side of Manhattan.
New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, one of the board members, came out as the final opponent to spending taxpayer money on the project. His explanations for the abstention are that not enough evidence has shown that new stadiums benefit the greater community and the development of the West Side takes away from the re-development of Lower Manhattan, an area decimated and slowly recovering from the attacks of 9/11. This shifting in development may have also been seen to threaten to move the financial center of New York City from Lower Manhattan to the West Side, as complimentary commercial development was also planned to go along with the stadium.
The latter reason as it turns out is the primary reasoning for Silver, himself an Assemblyman that represents Lower Manhattan. Silver has made it clear that the commitments made to him by Governor George Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg to rebuild the area around the World Trade Center have not been met. Without the confidence that these projects will happen, Silver felt like he couldn’t sign off on supporting the development of a different area of Manhattan. This is an act that he compared to “selling out” his constituency and not fulfilling a “moral obligation” to the victims of September 11th.
Without State funding to build the platform and assist with developing the area around the stadium it is unsure what will happen to the project and the hopes of the Jets to return to New York City. Jay Cross, New York Jets President defiantly stated the vote “is not the final chapter to be written in our quest to build a home for the New York Jets in Manhattan. Four years of hard work and planning will not be washed away in a single day.”
Whether this means the Jets have a plan B that will raise private funds to build the platform remains to be seen. What is apparent is that if a new stadium is to be built in New York City for the Jets, it will have to be privately funded. If not, the Jets are expected to agree to a new lease with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority that will extend their current agreement, which expires in 2008, through 2018.
If the Jets do wind up in New Jersey, the city of New York stands to lose more than the 2012 Olympics, which they still have a legitimate possibility of winning. The NFL has committed the 2010 Super Bowl to New York City, an annual College Bowl Game has been set and International Soccer matches are scheduled for the new stadium. All of these commitments will be canceled without a stadium in place and of course potential large conventions, which do not come to New York City will also be lost.
While the rejection of the State funding is not the exactly the nail in the coffin of this project, it certainly puts it on life support and needing a financial miracle. It may take a combined, amazing effort by the Jets and Mayor Bloomberg that would make even Joe Namath’s 1969 Super Bowl upset seem pedestrian. |
