But a senior aide to the governor said Pataki's inner circle met on Thursday and expects to present the stadium plan to the Empire State Development Corporation Board for approval within "the next couple of weeks." That would be an important step for the stadium, but a number of hurdles remain.
Bloomberg tends to focus on single issues and talk about them over and over until he gets his way, and he has made the Jets stadium his choice cause of 2004.
Olympic dreams
Since March, he has held several news conferences in which he mentioned the stadium's potential role in a 2012 Olympics in the city. He has told anyone who would listen that New York's bid for the Olympics is doomed without prompt approval of the stadium.
Bloomberg recently attended a rally with trade unions that support the stadium plan, but Pataki has attended no rallies or news conferences about the stadium since March. The governor's aides noted that he was not invited to the recent union rally.
Further, the Jets have complained to Bloomberg and Pataki officials that the governor has not pushed Peter S. Kalikow, the man Pataki appointed to head the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to compromise on his demand that the Jets or the city pay him full value for the development rights over the West Side railyards, at a cost of up to US$700 million. The city and the Jets had hoped to resolve the issue with the MTA months ago. Officials at the MTA, who are seeking billions of dollars from the state for capital improvements while warning of another fare increase, do not want to face legislators who might complain of a sweetheart deal for the stadium property.
"We can't give away assets for less than full value," Kalikow said. "The governor has done what he's going to do. I don't know if there's a larger role for him than keeping me at the negotiating table."
RSS