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Real estate developer Donald Trump has proposed building an...

NEW YORK -- Real estate developer Donald Trump has proposed building an 80,000-seat domed football stadium in New York City if the city and state lease him the land and build access roads to the facility, officials said Tuesday.

Trump, who owns the New Jersey Generals of the U.S. Football League, has had several discussions the last few weeks with state Urban Development Corp. Chairman William Stern generally outlining his proposals, said Toni Jones, UDC spokeswoman.

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He 'would construct it with private money' if the state and city obtain the property, lease it to him and provide access to the arena, Jones said.

She said Trump proposed selling all the seats in the stadium in a cooperative- or condominium-type plan to finance the arena's construction. The seat's owner could lease it whenever he or she was not attending a game.

The first official disclosure of Trump's offer came Tuesday when Gov. Mario Cuomo said in an interview with several newspaper officials that he had asked Trump to put his ideas in writing and present them to the UDC for official consideration.

Another private developer has expressed interest in building a football stadium and met Tuesday with Queens Borough President Donald Manes, a spokesman for the borough president said.

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Sam Samuels, spokesman for Manes, declined to identify the developer or discuss his proposals.

A plan for a $258-million open-air football stadium to be located in Flushing Meadows near Shea Stadium was advanced two months ago by Sportsplex, a division of the UDC.

Trump, who was a member of the Sportsplex board, argued strongly before the board presented its recommendations to Cuomo that the city needed a domed facility rather than an open-air stadium.

Though no estimates have been made public on the cost of Trump's proposed stadium, when Sportsplex' analysts initially looked at the Flushing Meadow site, they estimated $100 million would be needed to acquire the site and build access roads and parking ramps.

Deputy Mayor Robert Esnard said the city was interested in Trump's plan.

'It certainly seems like a good idea,' he said. 'We will look at it.'

Esnard was quoted in this week's issue of Crain's New York Business as saying Sportplex' proposed open-air stadium was 'too expensive for us.

'For that kind of money, we could build schools and repair our infrastructure, which would be much more beneficial to the entire city,' he said.

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