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This is the site of the former Kennedy Square housing project where Syracuse University has studied the feasibility of building a publicly subsidized $500 million sports arena. SU officials refused to make their study available to Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner for fear it might become accessible to the public.

(Gary Walts | gwalts@syracuse.com)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - At the request of Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, a taxpayer-funded nonprofit group gave Syracuse University $50,000 a few months ago to help pay for a feasibility study to analyze building a new SU sports arena near downtown.

Despite that contribution, and despite more than $300 million in state and county funds sought for the construction, the university refused to share its study with key decision makers who were asked to support the deal.

Mayor Stephanie Miner

Even Mayor Stephanie Miner, who twice asked to see the document while Mahoney and SU were lobbying her for support, was denied access.

Mahoney and other county officials this week expressed dismay that Miner would not endorse the project in time for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to include it in his upcoming state budget, which he will unveil Jan. 21. Cuomo had signaled his willingness to provide some $200 million in state money for the deal, Mahoney said. The county was prepared to provide $100 million or more.

Mahoney did not want to proceed without Miner's blessing. But Miner complained she was never given enough information to evaluate the project. Twice this month, Miner asked representatives of Syracuse University to show her the feasibility study and was rebuffed, according to the mayor's office and documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request. (See below.)

The first time was Jan. 2, as Miner prepared for a telephone conference with a New York City lawyer hired by SU to spearhead the stadium project. The lawyer, Irwin Raij, a partner at the Foley & Lardner law firm, is a sports industry expert who led Cuomo's effort in 2012 to negotiate the $130 million deal with the Buffalo Bills to renovate their stadium.

County Executive Mahoney

In an email exchange with interim SU Chancellor Eric Spina, Miner asked for a copy of the feasibility study so that she could review it in preparation for Raij's call the following day. Spina declined to provide the document, "which we are working to keep out of public disclosure.''

Spina indicated that giving the document to Miner might make it publicly accessible through a Freedom of Information request, under which government agencies are obligated to disclose most documents. Syracuse.com obtained a copy of the emails through a Freedom of Information request.

Miner went ahead with her phone call Jan. 3 with Raij, who referred to the feasibility study during their conversation, said Tim Carroll, director of mayoral initiatives. Miner asked Raij to see the study, and the lawyer declined, saying he did not want to make the study "FOIL-able,'' meaning publicly available under the Freedom of Information Law, Carroll said.

University officials did not respond this morning to a request for comment.

SU paid half of the $100,000 cost of the study, according to Ben Dublin, Mahoney's chief of staff. The other half was paid for by the Syracuse Convention and Visitors Bureau, an arm of the nonprofit CenterState CEO, the region's most influential business development group. Mahoney asked the Visitors Bureau to provide the $50,000, Dublin said.

The Visitors Bureau receives the bulk of its funding -- $1.65 million this year, according to county budget documents - from Onondaga County. The money comes from the county's hotel surcharge, called the room occupancy tax. The bureau contracts with the county to promote local tourism. As an independent nonprofit organization, the bureau is not subject to FOIL requests.

Asked whether he could supply a reporter with a copy of the SU feasibility study, David Holder, president of the bureau, said he did not have one. His boss, Rob Simpson, president of CenterState CEO, also said he never saw the report.

"The funding was through our organization, but we have not seen the feasibility study,'' Holder said. "In the typical fashion of an economic development organization, we fund these kinds of things. But we have not seen this feasibility study.''

A spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his office did not receive a copy.

Ryan McMahon is chairman of the Onondaga County Legislature, which would have been asked to borrow millions of dollars to fund construction of the stadium. McMahon, who only learned of the project in late December, said he never saw the feasibility study.

Contact Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 315-470-3023 or on Twitter @TimKnauss. Staff writer Michelle Breidenbach contributed to this report.

Mayor Miner Emails to SU