Mixed Opinion
Public opinion was mixed. Some citizens of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut were in favor of the stadium because they wanted the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in New York City. In order to host the Olympics, cities typically must build modern stadiums and prove to the International Olympic Committee that they have the resources to support the event.
Many Manhattan and West Side residents did not want the inconvenience, traffic congestion and resource drain that they believed the Olympics would bring to the already overcrowded city. The New York Daily News reported that 59% of New Yorkers were not in favor of holding the Olympics in New York at all. In December 2004, the commuter advocacy groups Straphangers Campaign and Tri-State Transportation Campaign filed a lawsuit which challenged the city's estimate that 70% of stadium patrons would use mass transit or arrive on foot instead of driving. Many Jets fans wanted the stadium built, no matter what the cost.
The stadium was also notably opposed by Cablevision, the sixth-largest cable television company in the United States and the owner of Madison Square Garden (MSG)—home to the New York Knicks and New York Rangers—and the MSG Network, which broadcasts most of those teams' games. A major new sports venue, particularly one on the West Side of Manhattan where MSG is located, would compete directly with MSG and thereby hamper the older venue's ability to secure concerts and other events. Cablevision went so far as to make a $600 million offer to redevelop the stadium site for housing and office space, and joined another lawsuit alleging that the city's environmental study was inaccurate. Cablevision's stance against the stadium proposal was cited as "a factor" in the NFL moving its 2005 college player draft away from Cablevision-owned Theater at Madison Square Garden to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, ending a 10-year run of the event at MSG. (The NFL moved the Draft to another Cablevision-controlled property, Radio City Music Hall, in 2006.)
Read more about this topic: West Side Stadium
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