By Matthew Monks
The illustration, which was drafted within two weeks after the city's West Side stadium plan was derailed, shows a triple deck affair with old-fashioned awnings and seating for 80,000.The city's bid committee, NYC2012, said the preliminary scheme is an overlay on the designs for the new Shea Stadium, a $600 million project the Mets will build by 2009 with or without the Olympics. “Our planners worked around the clock with the Mets to get that done,” said NYC2012 spokesman Laz Benitez. “It was a tremendous team effort.” New York is competing with Paris, London, Madrid, and Moscow for the Olympic Games. Paris is considered the front-runner and the International Olympic Committee will choose the host city on July 6 in Singapore. If New York wins, the city and state will spend $100 million expanding the new Shea Stadium with 35,000 temporary seats and a 400-meter track. The rendering depicts a blue and white facility with a warm-up track outside and several plazas and walkways. As the centerpiece of the city's Olympic plan, the stadium, which will be built next door to the old Shea, would host the opening and closing ceremonies, track and field events and the soccer finals. Flushing Meadows-Corona Park would become the heart of the games and get an extensive makeover as host to five other events: tennis, rowing, water polo, archery and canoe/kayak. It is far different than the city's first choice for an Olympic stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, a waterfront spectacle of glass and steel with a retractable roof that looked like a high-tech aircraft hanger. That plan fell through earlier this month when an obscure New York State panel rejected $300 million in public funds for the project. In the aftermath of that decision, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYC2012 reversed course and opted to put the stadium in Queens after roughly a year of saying the option was unrealistic and would damage the city's bid. Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, founder of NYC 2012, said New York's stadium hardship might even improve its chances.”We have come back really strongly,” Doctoroff said during a press conference at City Hall Tuesday to send the city's delegation to Singapore, where the host city will be selected. “People cannot believe that after everything we went through with this stadium on the West Side that literally in three days we turned around and produced what is a great plan. What the Olympic movement is looking for is a great partner, someone they can work with who can be trusted, who can be creative. Who will come up with solutions to the inevitable problems.” Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
