01:00 AM EDT on Monday, May 10, 2004

When the team's not playing at home, its stadium is dead space. That means that most of the time it is dead space. The island of Manhattan should be the last place on which a planner would want to create dead space.

Yet New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Gov. George Pataki are seeking to build a football stadium on Manhattan's West Side. The stadium would be home to the New York Jets, now domiciled in New Jersey -- and would cost the taxpayers $600 million.

Moreover, the mayor and the governor have paired the stadium proposal with another one, expansion of the nearby Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Total price tag: $1.5 billion.

Fortunately, a large contingent of New Yorkers does not want a stadium covering a big chunk of Manhattan, and they're not shy about speaking up. The group comprises both residents and businesses. And they have put forth some good arguments, along with the one about dead space.

First, the city has enormous infrastructure needs, and the stadium's $600 million could be better spent on them. One place would be Lower Manhattan, still scarred by 9/11.

As taxpayers elsewhere have asked, many New Yorkers want to know why they are being asked to subsidize a 75,000-seat football stadium that would serve the business interests of a National Football League team. Professional sports have never been a significant economic engine for New York. The city is already host to two Major League baseball teams, a National Basketball Association team, and a National Hockey League team -- yet professional sports account for only 0.7 percent of New York's annual gross economic product.

Meanwhile, Broadway theater owners worry that their businesses could be hurt by traffic congestion increased by the stadium. (They do want the Javits Convention Center expanded -- which is probably why the stadium's backers have put the two projects together, as a package. But they can be separated.)

Another concerned enterprise is Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden, the Knicks basketball team, and the Rangers hockey team. A new stadium could end up bidding against the Garden for ice-skating shows, the circus, and other events. There's only so much entertainment business to go around.

Who wants the stadium? Hotels, real-estate developers, and the tourism industry say that they do. What's more, they want the city to bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, so that the stadium could serve as an arena.

The logistics of a Summer Olympics in New York would be a nightmare. We can see it now: For several steamy weeks, the Olympics -- complete with elaborate security arrangments -- bring the capital of the world to a standstill.

If New York City truly wants a new sports stadium, then the Borough of Queens would seem the appropriate place. Its density is well below that of Manhattan's.

We hope that average New Yorkers win this battle. If they do, maybe other cities being asked to swell the profits of sports businesses could take heart that they, too, could say no.