NEW YORK -- NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue met with Jets
owner Robert Wood Johnson and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to
discuss a proposal that would bring the team back to New York, the
Daily News reported Friday.
According to the newspaper, Tagliabue hinted that the league
could possibly help pay for construction of a domed stadium on the
West Side of Manhattan that would become the Jets' new home.
"If the governor and mayor would like to do it, we know
(Johnson) would like to do it," said Tagliabue, who met with
Johnson and Giuliani on Wednesday.
The Jets played at Shea Stadium in Queens, N.Y., until 1984,
when they moved to East Rutherford, N.J., where they share a
stadium with the New York Giants.
The Jets' lease at Giants Stadium expires in 2008.
Tagliabue said talks to bring the Jets back to New York were
held several years ago between Giuliani and former team owner Leon
Hess.
"Mr. Hess, before he died, indicated to the mayor that if the
mayor wanted to do it, the Jets would be interested," Tagliabue
said. "Woody Johnson said the same."
Giuliani has long supported a stadium project on the West Side
of Manhattan as a possible future home for the New York Yankees.
According to the Daily News, a Yankees spokesman said this week
that the team would be open to sharing a stadium in Manhattan with
the Jets.
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