A few days before Thanksgiving, as the city still reeled from Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg convened a meeting at Gracie Mansion to jump-start talks for a project he considered part of his legacy to the city, a new soccer stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.

Executives from Major League Soccer were joined by investors from the United Arab Emirates, the owners of the Manchester City Football Club, who were willing to build the stadium for a new American soccer team they hoped to buy. They were at odds with another group in the room: Jeff Wilpon and his cousin Scott, who represented the Mets and who were demanding more than $40 million from the Abu Dhabi investors as compensation for allowing soccer fans to park at nearby Citi Field.

The mayor entered the room and, to break the tension, joked that he would visit the park if there were a golf course there rather than a soccer stadium. Then he cut to the chase: The stadium “would be good for the city,” he said, according to people at the meeting.

“Reasonable people can work this out,” Bloomberg added before leaving the room minutes after arriving.