Cablevision Systems Corp. gained some momentum in its campaign to kill plans to construct a football stadium on Manhattan’s West Side, as a top state lawmaker said Monday that he would vote against the proposal.
“This plan is, at best, premature,” New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced at a press conference Monday, adding that he would vote against the West Side stadium proposal later Monday at a meeting of the state Public Authorities Control Board, according to news channel New York 1 News.
Silver’s statement is good news for Cablevision, after a court last week threw out a lawsuit that the company’s Madison Square Garden unit had filed against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which controls the land where the stadium would be built.
Earlier this year, the MTA accepted a bid from the National Football League’s New York Jets to build a football stadium on the site. The stadium would pose a competitive threat to Madison Square Garden, which hosts concerts, basketball and hockey games and other events.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been lobbying for the construction of the stadium, which he hopes would compel the International Olympic Committee to select New York as the host of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
Earlier Monday, the IOC said New York, London and Paris were the leading contenders to host the 2012 Olympics.
