2 Groups Sue to Halt Action on Jets Stadium

Correction Appended

The battle over a proposed $1.4 billion football stadium on the West Side of Manhattan entered the courtroom yesterday when Cablevision, community groups and transportation advocates filed two lawsuits that could tie up the project.

The lawsuits, which challenge the stadium on environmental grounds, could succeed in thwarting the plan even if they are thrown out of court, if they manage to delay construction for a significant period. Stadium opponents said they hoped that the litigation would push back the beginning of construction until July 6, when they expect the International Olympic Committee to skip over New York and pick Paris for the 2012 Olympic Games. Opponents predict that the stadium effort will then lose momentum and die.

The 75,000-seat stadium for the Jets is the centerpiece of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's effort to transform the Far West Side of Manhattan and win the city's bid for the 2012 Summer Games. City officials have said they expect to defeat any legal challenge to what they have described as one of the most rigorous environmental reviews in city history.

One suit was filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan yesterday by West Side residents, a small-business owner and Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden and views the stadium as competition. It challenges the city's recently completed environmental review, saying it was a process "characterized by manipulated data, baseless assumptions, incomplete disclosure and a distortion of the project's significant environmental impacts." The other suit more narrowly focuses on the city's finding that more than two-thirds of fans will take public transit or walk to Jets games.

In a statement, City Hall dismissed the broader lawsuit as the work of "lying monopolists," referring to members of the Dolan family, which controls Cablevision. The statement called the suit an "ill-disguised and frivolous attempt" to rehash earlier allegations.

The Jets and their supporters say they are confident of winning in court, whether victory comes before or after the International Olympic Committee meeting in July. If the suits are thrown out, the Jets can immediately start work on the project, because they expect to have obtained all the necessary political approvals by that time. Under the terms of their deal, the Jets would invest $800 million in the project, while the city and the state would contribute $300 million each.