Jets still busy after a Giant letdown

BY GARY MYERS and MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

The Jets began working feverishly yesterday on a new game plan for a West Side stadium - refusing to give up even as Giants officials talked of keeping the Jets in the Garden State.

"We have an unprecedented coalition of supporters who are urging us to press forward, and that's exactly what we're going to do," vowed Jets Vice President Matt Higgins, one day after an obscure state panel rejected the stadium.

Although the Jets agreed to purchase the property for $250 million, the team's bid specifically said it could withdraw the offer if the MTA failed to close by June 1. Higgins declined to comment on whether the team will close on the land. "As to exactly how [we proceed], we're still weighing our options and we're not going to give Cablevision a leg up," Higgins said.

Lawyers for Cablevision, the stadium's chief opponent, were in court yesterday appealing Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Herman Cahn's decision affirming the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board's decision to award its West Side railyards to the Jets.

The Jets and the MTA agreed in court not to close on the land transaction until June 23. The court agreed to expedite the appeal, setting a hearing for June 15.

If the Jets don't get Manhattan, they still have New Jersey. Giants Vice President John Mara said he's willing to talk with Jets executives at any time about the team becoming a partner or a tenant in the Giants' new stadium. The Jets' lease at Giants Stadium expires after the 2008 season.

The Giants plan to build a $750 million stadium next to their current stadium in the Meadowlands by 2009, and the Jets' involvement would lessen the Giants' financial burden. "We're kind of letting the dust settle and hopefully we'll sit down with them in the very near future and find out from them what they would like to do," Mara said.