A: Jets taking another look at Queens

jake · 2005-08-23
A: Jets taking another look at Queens

[quote]Jets taking another look at Queens BY WILLIAM MURPHY STAFF WRITER August 22, 2005, 7:29 PM EDT The Jets return to Queens Tuesday -- but only to talk about whether to return every day. The football team will meet Tuesday afternoon with Queens Borough President Helen Marshall to discuss possibilities for building a stadium in the borough where the Jets first played. A re-formed group of fans, Bring Our Jets Home, plans a tailgate party outside Queens Borough Hall prior to the meeting to show their support for such a move, which is considered a long shot. John Puccio, a spokesman for the fan group, said it had not been active for a few years but started getting back together last week when word of the meeting got out. "We're going to have a tailgate party, grill up the hot dogs and have a celebration," Puccio said. Another Jets fan from Queens, David Oats, said Monday that his group, the Queens Olympic Committee, was adamantly opposed to a reported plan to build the stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, as it would decrease public space. Marshall, who asked for the meeting, said through a spokesman Monday that she has no specific site in mind and wanted to hear what the Jets had to say. Her spokesman, Dan Andrews, said there had been talk of locating a stadium at Aqueduct, Willets Point or Queens West, now that plans for an Olympic Village there have fallen through. "We're not endorsing a site," Andrews said. "She would be remiss if she didn't listen to what the Jets have to say." Oats said he found the way word leaked out about the meeting to be suspicious, and he thought there was a plan afoot to get around a requirement that the state legislature approve the removal of parkland from public ownership. "This is what they tried to do on the West Side," Oats said of the original plan to build a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan. A Jets spokeswoman, Marissa Shorenstein, deflected any questions about specifics but said team executives were looking forward to Tuesday's meeting. The Jets have been noncommittal about returning to Queens and has made it clear their priority is getting a new lease in New Jersey, where they would build a new stadium with the Giants. However, they have until the end of this month to exercise an option from the MTA to buy development rights on the West Side of Manhattan. Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc. [/quote]