From NY Newsday:
The Jets are expected to win MTA approval today to build a West Side stadium, according to a key authority board member, but the team still would face steep obstacles before its long-awaited home field rises along the Hudson River.
Legal and political challenges confront the $1.9-billion stadium -- including lawsuits from Cablevision, environmentalists and neighborhood groups.
I live essentially one big neighborhood away from the proposed stadium and find this to be one big, amusing political battle with the sides somewhat randomly picked.
The republican mayor wants it. The republican gov. and state officals don't or at the very least are unlikely to give upstate money for downstate fun. Al Sharpton and the big labor unions support the mayor. The police, fire, teachers and city unions don't. It might help NYC get the Olympics, we won't get them without a new stadium, but that is a Bush lie, because the Olympics are going to Paris anyway and an Olympic stadium could just as easily be in Queens or Jersey. The Jets owner wants it to show off to his Manhattan friends, but the Jets are traditionally a Long Island team and tailgating would be impossible at the games. Oh, but the view, and the traffic!
For those of you into sports, here's a quick Mike and the Mad Dog take, from yesterday, very divided:
Mad Dog (aka Chris Russo, as ignorant a republican as there is when it comes to politics, IMO, and a reactionary in all matters) believes that the MTA deal is a home run, the stadium is going to be on the west side and the mayor will spend whatever it costs to reinsure re-election next year.
Mike Francesa (not a dem perse, I don't think, but more of a Catholic liberal and a lifetime NYer with a sense of the place) thinks that the MTA bid was "the fix is in." However he thinks that there will never be a stadium on the west side, that the residents in Chelsea (he kept saying "those people" but perhaps that was inadvertant), Hell's Kitchen and on up the west side are organized, well funded and tenacious, and will stop the stadium.
A year from now, he thinks Woody Johnson will be reassessing Queens, and Bloomberg will be too busy running (in a heated race) to worry about the Jets.
I may be biased by location, but I tend to agree.