The New York Jets kick off a new pro-stadium push today, as the clock ticks down to a crucial state-board vote on the New York Sports and Convention Center.

The Jets’ noon rally on the steps of the Capitol building in Albany will be the first public gathering of all the more than 30 members of the Assembly who have endorsed the project. It will also be the first time the retired New York Jets football star Joe Namath has traveled to Albany to show his support for the project. Labor leaders representing teamsters and carpenters also plan to participate in the pro-stadium rally.

“Over 60 elected officials from around New York support the project and know it will create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue,” a vice president of the Jets, Matthew Higgins, said.

He said the event is an effort to educate New Yorkers and the Legislature about the importance of moving forward quickly with the project. The team wants to begin playing its home games in the planned 75,000-seat domed stadium on Manhattan’s far West Side in 2009.

“Every day of delay is another day when we could be creating thousands of construction jobs,” Mr. Higgins said.

Mr. Namath and Jets officials are to meet privately with lawmakers today. As part of the run-up to the big vote, the Jets launched a Web site last week, voteforjobs.com. Jets executives are also running commercials statewide, urging New Yorkers to contact lawmakers about the stadium, and they plan a huge labor rally May 17 in Albany.

Today’s kickoff comes just nine days before the Public Authorities Control Board is scheduled to vote on the West Side stadium. The football team needs the unanimous approval of the three member board, which is controlled by Governor Pataki; the State Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno of Rensselaer, and the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver of Manhattan, to move forward with plans for the stadium.

The legislative leaders have indicated they might not allow a vote on the measure until after pending lawsuits against the Jets’ purchase of development rights from Metropolitan Transportation Authority have been dealt with. A judge of state Supreme Court, Herman Cahn, said last week he would rule on those suits by June 2.

Team officials have said, however, that they need to order 17,000 tons of steel immediately to start construction by December for the stadium to be the site of the 2010 Super Bowl.

Mayor Bloomberg, a booster of the project who has pledged the Jets a $300 million city subsidy for the platform the stadium will be built on, has said the city needs the go-ahead before July 6, when the International Olympic Committee decides which city will be named host of the 2012 Summer Games.

Assembly Member Keith Wright, Democrat of Manhattan, who supports the project, said he doesn’t know if the rally will sway Mr. Silver, who says he has not yet made up his mind on the stadium.

“Shelly is a very pensive legislator, pensive speaker. He is very deliberative. I’m sure he’ll file it away in his plus or minus column and look at it appropriately,” Mr. Wright said. “He usually makes the right decision, whatever that decision is.”

He predicted that the presence of Mr. Namath, who was quarterback 35 years ago of the Jets’ only Super Bowl championship team, wouldn’t be a deciding factor.

“The impact will be no more or no less than any other lobbying rally that we have up in Albany. We have teachers coming up, firemen, police officers,” Mr. Wright said. “Legislators are approached by football stars, baseball stars, Broadway actors, stage and screen.”

Assembly Member Michael Gianaris, Democrat of Queens, said the project is the type of economic development the city needs.

“A city like New York cannot grow its economy unless we engage in big, visionary-type projects,” he said.

But he acknowledged that some questions remain unanswered.

“People have very strong opinions on both sides of this issue,” he said. “We need to work very hard over the next few weeks to convince everyone that Lower Manhattan, in particular, will not be neglected as the push to develop the West Side continues.”

Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, who represents the West Side and is one of the Legislature’s most vocal opponents of the proposed stadium, called the project “one of the worst ideas I’ve seen for New York in a long time.”

He said stadium opponents, too, would be ramping up public outreach campaigns in the coming days. This week they plan to release an open letter opposing the project.

He also urged the Jets to provide more details of the stadium’s financing and to say whether the football team or the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center will be in charge of its operations.

As for Mr. Namath’s presence, Mr. Gottfried said: “Making him the center of a rally is almost insulting to elected officials because it implies that our thinking on such an enormous project would be swayed by the presence of a retired football player.”