Jets Open To Queens Touch Down

The New York Jets, despite earlier denials, are willing to listen to ideas concerning moving the team out of the swamps of New Jersey and back to their old home, The Queens Courier has learned.
Team sources said Tuesday that while the Jets are negotiating a deal to stay in New Jersey, they would still love to come across the Hudson and East rivers to Queens.
“Our door is always open,” said Jets vice president Matt Higgins. “If someone were to approach us with an idea, we’d be willing to listen. But the clock is obviously ticking.”
Time is of the essence now because the team’s negotiations with the Giants and New Jersey have “intensified,” according to Higgins, and a deal could be in place within a few months that will keep the Jets in the Garden State for another generation.
Higgins acknowledged, though, that the team’s biggest block of supporters is still from Queens, where the Jets played their home games until 1983.
“A lot of people have urged us not to give up on New York and we appreciate that,” Higgins said. “We are the New York Jets…that alone makes us willing to listen.”
“We’re happy to hear that,” said Dan Andrews, spokesperson for Borough President Helen Marshall. “If there’s room for movement on their part, then we’re going to ask them to look at some options other than New Jersey.”
Andrews indicated that Marshall might have more to say later this week.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, who was a strong advocate for the West Side site, said he was in favor of building a Queens home for the Jets and that momentum for such an endeavor was growing.
“I think the Borough President is going to take the lead and things should be happening sometime in the near future,” Meeks said. “My hope is that we enter into a dialogue and figure this out as a team and work together on a plan.”
The Mets are already in the midst of designing a new baseball stadium to be built next to the current Shea Stadium.
Perhaps now, two stadiums could be in the offing for Willets Point — an area dead-set on redevelopment and expansion.
The Jets also said they were willing to work around obstacles that they previously indicated would be dealbreakers.
“The same challenges that existed then still exist now,” Higgins said. “There are challenges in terms of raising finances to build a stadium and issues about location. But we’re willing to listen.”
“[The West Side] was a lost opportunity,” Jets owner Woody Johnson said Monday. “We were willing to invest $1.6 billion in jobs and construction in this city.”
If Queens has anything to say about it, don’t count those dollars out just yet.
editrich@queenscourier.com