IMO it's a game of chicken that Cohen can't win because his rope has less slack.:
He is 1 of 11 bidders for 3 casino licenses.
His bid, plus the Bronx golf course, face legal obstacles other bids don't face because they sit on NYC parkland.
If he doesn't get enabling legislation before the Albany session break in June, he probably can't get it until next January.
But casino bids and other intermediate steps in the casino bid process are likely to move forward before next January, and his bid is crippled if he hasn't cleared those hurdles. As the anonymous quote says "not a death knell but certainly a body blow."
Plus he needs a positive City Council vote before the Albany vote can happen. Few politicians seem to be strongly supporting his bid, in part because he's an easy target of scorn (rich, rulebreaking so and so) and partly because the neighborhood probably figures a baseball stadium, soccer stadium and tennis center - plus the other promised iron triangle development - are enough.
He can force the NYCFC project to proceed with a decidedly inferior parking solution (patchwork neighborhood garages) but he can't stop it outright because it is still a solution that meets code.
If the (probably) March vote approves Phase 2 with the stadium, Cohen loses most of his leverage that comes from the parking dispute. He could still refuse a deal out of spite, but wouldn't get much out of it otherwise.