Queens Tribune
 
....October 6, 2:13 PM
 
 
   
Jets Fly Out Of Queens In Giant Deal

By ANDREW MOESEL

Ending any possibility of a Queens stadium, the Jets signed a deal with the Giants to keep both teams in New Jersey for the next 99 years, evoking strong response from Queens elected officials, some of whom were already skeptical of the franchise’s intentions.

The two teams agreed Thursday night to become equal partners in a new 80,000-seat, $800 million stadium—the first agreement of its kind in NFL history—with other specifics to be worked out through binding arbitration at a later date.

After failing to acquire state funding for a new stadium on Manhattan’s West Side, then almost reaching a stalemate with their sister team at the Meadowlands, the Jets began publicly contemplating building a venue in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

Many community members believed, however, that the Jets’ flirtation with Queens only served as a bargaining tool to broker a better deal in the Garden State. The sudden decision to abandon the notion appears to have reinforced that impression.

“It was a nice play action. They faked a run to New York, but completed the touchdown pass in New Jersey,” said Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria). “We got ‘played.’”

Calling the situation “top-down leadership at its worst,” Councilman Hiram Monserrate (D-Corona) in a strongly worded statement accused other borough leaders of jumping onto the Jets bandwagon without fully considering the consequences.

“I think that at the end of the day, the elected officials that went out and supported this project became nothing more than leverage for the Jets to play in New Jersey,” he later said.

Jets officials did not return repeated inquiries seeking comment.

The Jets had run into some local opposition, with many local residents voicing their complaints about the fact that the stadium would be located on parkland – and more specifically that it would cause the demolition of the Fountain of the Planets, a relic from the 1964 New York World’s Fair.