Just days after Mayor Giuliani again suggested building a sports stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, the new owner of the Jets said the team is looking for a new home.
“The Jets have never had their own stadium,” declared Robert Wood Johnson IV, whose $635 million purchase of the team was approved unanimously yesterday by the
other National Football League franchise owners.
“Every game they’ve played for the last 39 years has been an away game. They’ve never had the home-field advantage.”
The Jets abandoned Shea Stadium in Queens — home of the baseball Mets — for the New Jersey Meadowlands in 1984.
The Jets’ lease at Giants Stadium — home of the football Giants — expires in 2008.
“Eight years from now, they will play somewhere else,” Johnson vowed.
Asked if the team might consider renewing its lease, Johnson stated flatly: “I don’t think that is going to be one of our options of choice.”
Giuliani, whose administration has been talking for months about luring the Jets back to New York, quickly issued a statement saying he’s eager to chat with Johnson.
“In my State of the City Address, I proposed a sports facility for the West Side of Manhattan, and I am anxious to discuss this with Mr. Johnson,” Giuliani said.
The mayor has long been pushing the West Side as a perfect stadium site, most recently as a venue for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Although Johnson’s language was firm, New Jersey officials indicated they won’t give up the Jets without a fight.
“We expect to be working with them,” said John Samerjan, a spokesman for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.
“Unlike the City of New York, we don’t expect to be zero for the decade in building new facilities [for sports teams].”
The Jets have one of the worst stadium deals of any NFL team.
They pay New Jersey 15 percent of gate receipts — one of the NFL’s highest rents — and while most teams keep over 50 percent of their parking revenue, the Jets keep just 25 percent.
Meadowlands officials have fought to keep sports teams — in 1995, they made a new arena deal with the Devils, thwarting Nashville’s effort to lure the NHL team.
The Devils’ current owner is planning to build a new arena in Hoboken.