It’s a Queens issue – it even has political overtones. But to many of us it’s sports – a sports story rooted in those wonderful and rocky early days of the nascent American Football League.

Those of you not into sports, stay with me, it comes home to Queens quickly.

The New York Titans – you may remember them — became charter members of the AFL in 1960 naming former all-time great quarterback Sammy Baugh as their head coach. The shaky league trying to challenge the powerful NFL needed a successful New York franchise to succeed – but did not have one. They found what they sought when in 1963 the team was sold for $1 million to a syndicate headed by the former president of MCA records, sports and theatrical entrepreneur Sonny Werblin.

Under Werblin’s leadership, the team acquired Joe Namath – now, you remember him — and put together a team that won the American Football League Championship in 1968, achieving the greatest upset in the history of professional football: defeating the NFL champion Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

Werblin made one other significant move, in 1964 he moved the team to its new stadium next to LaGuardia Airport and renamed the team the “Jets” because of the proximity of Shea, their new home, to the New York airports.

In 1983, under the leadership of Oilman Leon Hess – part of Werblin’s original syndicate — the Jets moved to the Meadowlands of New Jersey – but “of course,” retained their name as the “New York Jets.”

After Hess’ death, the team was put up for sale. In 2000, Robert Wood Johnson IV, chairman and CEO of Johnson and Johnson, the company founded by his great grandfather, purchased the team for $635 million.

“Woody” Johnson became embroiled in the West Side Stadium debate last year, when he agreed to return the team to New York, buy the Hudson Yards and construct a new stadium complex there which would also serve as the 2012 Olympic Stadium.

You can ask any two New Yorkers whether the West Side stadium ever made any sense; you’ll get two very different answers. Sure, just about everyone wanted the Jets to return home, that was never the issue. But right or wrong, the City was divided over the idea of the Manhattan stadium. The carpet bombing of the airwaves – both pro and con – only inflamed the controversy.

Now, with the West Side Stadium on life-support, and the Jets talking to the Giants about a new joint stadium at the Jersey Meadowlands, we think back to the Broadway Joe days. We wonder if before the Jets flee perhaps forever into the clutches of New Jersey, can you ever go back home?
Isn’t it time we dusted off a proposal that always enjoyed widespread support – to bring the Jets back to Queens, where they belong. We always preferred Queens but the Jets had their own reasons for believing that Manhattan was the right location for their stadium. You might blame them, but business is business and it’s a free country. They were prepared to invest more than $1 billion of their own money to build a new stadium on the West Side. But that was before Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver blocked state funding for the project.

That was then. What now?

The Jets – you remember how they got their name – should look anew at Queens, the borough they once called home. Of course nostalgia alone is not enough to lure the Jets back, but there are many sound reasons why both the team and the City of New York should want the Jets to land in Queens.

Let’s consider the team’s interests. The Flushing Meadow area is easy to get to, even from New Jersey. It sits at the crossroads of a major highway system, the number 7 line and the Long Island Rail Road. Those fans who insist on driving – and tailgating – will find ample parking at Shea Stadium. If fans from the other side of the Hudson don’t want to make the trip, the team will discover plenty of fans from NYC, Westchester and Long Island to fill those stadium seats. After all, the memory of Broadway Joe at Shea is still fresh in the minds of many metro area residents.

Finally from the team’s side, what about the sale of Manhattan-centric luxury and corporate boxes that seems to drive the economics of stadium placement? Well, year after year attempts at drawing the corporate and beautiful people from Manhattan has met with resounding success at Flushing Meadows’ United States Tennis Open. They’ll come for two weeks of tennis, they’ll come for 10 Sundays of championship football.

A Queens Jets stadium would also be a smart investment for New York City and State, while producing an economic windfall for our borough. Since the team plays all their home games at the Meadowlands, all the tax revenue generated by the team on everything from hot dogs to player salaries goes to pay for teachers and police officers – in New Jersey! New York doesn’t see a dime – in spite of the team’s New York name. Worse yet, if the Jets forsake New York altogether and make New Jersey their permanent home, we stand to lose their training camp at Hofstra University, which generates about $10 million a year in tax revenue for our State and local economy.

But if the Jets come to Queens, they would bring at least an additional $20 million a year in new tax revenue with them, along with thousands of constructions and permanent jobs. It would transform Flushing Meadow and Willets Point into a sports Mecca, with a new football stadium, baseball stadium and tennis center all within walking distance of each other, the Long Island Railroad, the number 7 and plenty of parking.

So far, the Jets have been unwilling to consider Queens because it would be significantly cheaper to build a new stadium at the Meadowlands. That’s because New Jersey seems willing to do whatever it takes to keep the team, and the Giants have offered to split the cost of a new stadium. Meanwhile, the Jets have had little choice but to negotiate with New Jersey, since there is no viable alternative in New York at the moment.

But these obstacles are not insurmountable. We’ve seen what an aggressive Bloomberg administration can achieve. They are committed to smart development of our City. They are committed to the redevelopment of Willets Point.
Considering the potential new tax revenue and jobs at stake in luring the Jets back to New York, our borough’s elected officials should demand that the City provide the same financial support for infrastructure for a new Jets stadium in Queens that was given to the Yankees and Mets.
With the clock running out, it’s time for a concrete Queens proposal be put on the table to bring the Jets back before they’re gone forever. In return, the team needs to give Queens another hard look and recognize that:
“You can go home again!”

At the announcement on March 25, 2004 of a New York City’s Convention Corridor including the creation of the New York Sports and Convention Center, a new multi-purpose facility that will serve as both a 75,000-seat stadium and a 200,000 square foot exhibit hall - home to the New York Jets, and possibly the Olympics, (l-r): NYS Economic Czar Charles Gargano, Jets owner “Woody” Johnson, Governor George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg. With the idea of a West Side Stadium collapsing, can the Jets be lured back to the borough that served as their first home and gave them their name?