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Football was in the air around Borough Hall Tuesday. Small children wearing Curtis Martin and Chad Pennington jerseys threw around a pigskin and imitated the moves of their idols. Councilman John Lui (D-Flushing) arrived wearing a Bayside Raiders Football team shirt.

Chants of “J-E-T-S, JETS, JETS, JETS,” erupted periodically from a throng of green-clad tailgaters.

The scene played out as Queens officials met with members of the Jets organization to discuss bringing the team back to New York. While the proposal remains in its earliest stages, both sides took an important step in developing trust and agreeing on a possible location for a new stadium.

Representatives from Queens seemed to have reached a consensus with Jets officials that the area near the former location of the Fountain of the Planets Flushing Meadows Corona Park would be the best place to put a stadium, according to team president Jay Cross. Other possible homes for the Jets, including the Sunnyside Rail Yard and the Shea Stadium parking lot, would likely not be as feasible, he said.

Borough President Helen Marshall ruled out using Willets Point, which she said already had been designated for other future developments.

Cross rejected speculation that the organization’s sudden interest in Queens—coming only after plan for a West Side venue fell through—is only meant to serve as a bargaining chip to leverage a better deal with New Jersey and Meadowlands during upcoming lease negotiations. The Jets’ current least expires in 2008.

“It’s clear that we do not do business that way,” Cross said. “That was not the objective of this exercise. We wouldn’t waste New Yorkers’ time like that.”

Several councilmen were skeptical about the Jets’ intentions earlier in the day, but were encouraged following the roughly hour-long meeting.

“We had a very update and enthusiastic conversation. Clearly the Jets are sincere in their proposal and desire to move to Queens,” said Lui, who represents the district where the stadium would be constructed. “They understand that we’d love to have the Jets come back here, but were not going to give the whole store away.”

Outside Borough Hall, members of a group called Bring Our Jets Home held a rally in support of the project, passing out free T-shirts and hot dogs. Though many described the day’s proceedings as a last-ditch effort to rescue the team from New Jersey, the fans were not ready to give up hope that the Jets could return to the home of Joe Namath.

“We’re in the fourth quarter, inside the two-minute mark,” said Tom McMorrow, who runs westsidestadium.org, but now supports the Queens plan. “But teams do win games in the final two minutes. Just because its tough and its going to be difficult doesn’t mean it can’t happen.”