By Matthew Monks
“We need a stadium and we have been made assurances that the stadium will be there,” Nawal El Moutawakel, chairwoman of the 13-member evaluation commission, said during a news conference in Manhattan. “It is important. This is an important component of your bid.”But mayoral hopeful U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Kew Gardens) said the bid began “unraveling” two weeks ago when Madison Square Garden threw a wrench into the Jets' exclusive negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which controls the West Side rail yards. After the Garden made a $600 million bid to purchase the land – the New York Jets football team offered just $100 million – the MTA opened the bidding up to other developers. “It is not too late to salvage the bid by shifting focus to a site that would not engender the opposition, would save money and already has the transportation infrastructure necessary to host a world class event and a championship football team: Willets Point,” Weiner said in a statement. Advocates for a stadium in Queens have proposed putting the venue on the industrial site known as Willets Point near Flushing Bay in the shadow of Shea Stadium.City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan), another likely mayoral candidate, concurred with the congressman, saying during a Feb. 14 speech at Columbia University that Bloomberg was “misleading” the city by marrying the Jets stadium with the Olympic bid. “Winning the games for seven years from now does not hinge on building a Jets stadium tomorrow,” Miller said. “If and when we build an Olympic stadium, it doesn't have to be in Manhattan. Our city has other terrific venues and available space, like in Queens, on which to build.”Bloomberg said that Queens lacks the grandeur of Manhattan and would fail to draw corporate sponsorship for a stadium. The IOC also prefers the Olympic stadium in Manhattan, the mayor said.”They want the venue in Manhattan because around the world they think about Manhattan, its access to the media, its access to transportation,” Bloomberg said. “The difference between a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan and a stadium in Queens – it's an economic thing. It's not that I don't love Queens.”But when asked if he would consider a backup Olympic stadium in Queens if the West Side plan fell through, Bloomberg said: “I will consider anything,”Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, the architect of the city's bid, said Miller was too out of touch with the Olympic movement to criticize the mayor's plan. “Without being overly critical of Speaker Miller, we don't think he's ever met an IOC member,” Doctoroff said during a news conference last Thursday. If the city loses out on its 2012 bid, he said it was too soon to say if his bid committee would pursue the Games in 2016. The later games would be harder to get, he said, because many of the proposed venue sites, such as the expansive Olympic Village in Hunters Point, would be too expensive to develop. “We have sites that are available today, including the Olympic village, that will not be available for long,” Doctoroff said. Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156
