NY Jets Are Coming to the West Side

NEW YORK CITY-Though several items still need to be addressed, the deal to bring the New York Jets to a new stadium on the West Side is expected to be announced today. Plans for the New York Sports and Convention Center would complement an effort to refurbish the nearby Jacob Javits Convention Center. It is possible as many as 111 additional events could be held in the site each year and that it could be used if the city is chosen to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. The stadium venture also dovetails with the city’s 40-year plan to transform the West Side.

“We’re not being too ambitious. We plan for an animated waterfront,” L. Jay Cross, president of the New York Jets, LLC, said previously. “We’ll take our inspiration from the river and set a high standard. It will be multi-layered and exoskeletal.

One key factor causing concern is that the stadium would bring with it traffic nightmares. In a few surveys, 70% of current season ticket holders reported they would take mass transit if the Jets played in Manhattan, a figure comparable to Madison Square Garden attendance. The other 30% represent approximately 7,000 cars and that many go through Manhattan to get to the Meadowlands now, Cross pointed out. “There’s no site like that in the world,” he said. “We have nine modes of transportation to the site.”