http://neverforget69.metsblog.com/blog/_archives/2008/6/5/3730113.html
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New York City desperately wanted to land the Olympics for 2012. In order to do so, the city would have to build an Olympic Stadium. Plans were laid to build a stadium in the heart of Manhattan over the west side rail yards, a site that, at one time, George Steinbrenner wanted to build a new Yankee Stadium. The Olympic stadium would be grandiose in scale and ultimately would become the new home of the New York Jets who still shared a stadium with the NFC Giants in New Jersey. One problem, the opposition to such a facility by those who have businesses and live in the area was enormous. Even though the Jets were to invest 850 million of their own money, it would still cost the city half a billion in infrastructure including a huge slab to cover the rail yards. Lawyers were hired and the fight was on. The odds of New York landing the Olympics were a long shot to begin with. Many felt the purpose was really nothing more than for billionaires to become even richer. To make a long story short, the stadium referendum was voted down. New York had no stadium and its chances of landing the Olympics now became more remote.
Another announcement was made prior to the 2005 baseball season. The Yankees planned to build a new ballpark at their own expense next to the current stadium. The only money needed from the city would be for improvement of roads, parking, and a new Metro North rail station. The Yankees would pay for the rest. The Mets who planned a new stadium for almost 10 years were strangely being ignored or at least it seemed that way. The Mets stadium group had performed site work including environmental impact studies, had architectural plans that were revised time and again yet the city was hot to build a stadium on the west side of Manhattan for the Jets and build infrastructure for the Yankees in the Bronx.
After the West Side Stadium deal was voted down, a week later in June of 2005, the Mets brass and Mayor Bloomberg put together a plan that guaranteed the Mets would get a new stadium. The Mets committed to paying for a new stadium and the city of New York would commit to pay for infrastructure and the cost of converting the new Mets yard to an Olympic size (80,000 attendance) stadium in a last ditch attempt to land the Olympics. The Mets would build the new ballpark next to Shea Stadium. The one stipulation to the deal was that the Mets would get their infrastructure money regardless of the Olympic committee’s decision. And it was a one time offer. In other words, if the Olympics were not awarded to New York for 2012, the Mets would not be obligated to renovate their baseball only yard years later for some future Olympic bid. New York was running out of time, building a new stadium with no plans anywhere else in New York was simply not feasible. So the Mets who had plans for a new park longer than any other New York team since 1998, and were overlooked as the Jets and Yankees got all the attention leaped in front of the pack.
Three weeks later the Olympic Committee awarded the Olympics to Paris. New York would not need an Olympic Stadium. The Mets got the money they would need for infrastructure improvements and shortly would announce final plans to replace aging Shea Stadium. In the early spring of 2006, the New York Daily news published a rendering of the new Mets stadium temporarily named Mets Ballpark. The press conference to reveal and announce the new ballpark occurred in the first week of the 2006 season at Shea Stadium. By the middle of summer, work had already begun.
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Wikipedia seems to have different stories in the same article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citi_Field
It has been designed by HOK Sport. The $850 million Citi Field is being subsidized with $450 million in public funds <1>
The Olympic stadium project was estimated to cost $2.2 billion with $180 million provided by New York City and New York State. If New York had won the bid, the stadium would have been expanded to host the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as other sporting events.
The projected cost of the new stadium and other infrastructure improvements is $610 million, with the Mets picking up $420 million of that amount. The agreement includes a 40-year lease that will keep the Mets in New York until 2049.
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