Marshall wants Jets to chart a return flight

BY DONALD BERTRAND
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

January 1969: Richard Nixon was sworn in as the 37th President of the U.S. A ticker- tape parade was held on Broadway to honor the Apollo 8 astronauts. And Joe Namath and the Jets vanquished the Baltimore Colts, 16-7, in Super Bowl III.

Yesterday, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall invited the Jets to return to Queens - the place they called home during their glory years.

Shea Stadium was the Jets' home field from 1964 to 1984, and Marshall is convinced it's time they came back to the borough - albeit not to the same venue.

"A new stadium in America's most diverse borough would allow a New York team to return to where Joe Namath led it to victory in Super Bowl III. A new Jets Stadium would complement the new Shea Stadium and the spectacular U.S. Tennis Center and make the borough a regional sports mecca," said Marshall in a letter to Jets President Jay Cross.

The borough president asked Cross to attend a meeting at Borough Hall on Aug. 23 "to discuss specific options for a new stadium for the Jets in Queens." One theory has that new stadium going up in Willets Point, a long-neglected area east of Shea Stadium.

"The Jets are indebted to the many Queens residents and elected officials who have always supported our efforts to come back to New York City," said Jets spokesman Matthew Higgins.

"Although the challenges to building a Jets stadium in Queens remain the same, we have accepted Borough President Helen Marshall's invitation to consider proposals," Higgins said.

"In light of the urgency to identify a permanent home for the Jets, we will continue to pursue all options," he added.

The Jets need to notify the Metropolitan Transportation Authority by the end of the month on whether they intend to proceed with the purchase of the Hudson railyards site on Manhattan's West Side, which they had eyed as a potential site for a new stadium.

At the same time, negotiations with New Jersey and the Giants over a proposed joint stadium have intensified. If negotiations proceed accordingly, all parties expect that an agreement could be reached by this fall.

David Oats, chairman of the Queens Olympic Committee, who tried for three years to convince the city that a West Side stadium would not work, called the latest moves "just what we have been campaigning for."

"Instead of going back to the swamps of Jersey, come to Flushing," said Oats.

"This is where they had their glory days. This is where they belong," said the Forest Hills activist. "It would be absolutely marvelous. It would clean up Willets Point."

Originally published on August 11, 2005