Jets fans have been calling the team's offices ever since the team's owner, Woody Johnson, announced on March 25 that he would invest $800 million in a new stadium on the far West Side of Manhattan.
The fans were not asking about the striking design for the proposed glass-and-steel stadium with a retractable roof, but they were voicing a fear that they, and not Johnson, would be picking up the tab in the form of sharply higher prices for tickets, parking, beer, hot dogs and sweatshirts.
L. Jay Cross, the president of the Jets, said that the team would build its stadium on the backs of "high rollers" and advertisers, not on the average season-ticket holder. But George Zoffinger, the president of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and the Jets' landlord at the Meadowlands, contended that the new stadium would be so expensive that only "75,000 investment bankers and no fans will be able to afford it."
The Jets' investment would not only be the largest put up by a professional sports team, but the stadium itself would also cost $1.4 billion. That sum is two to three times more than was put up for any of the four N.F.L. stadiums — for Detroit, New England, Seattle and Houston — that opened in 2002.
Taxpayers would provide the other $600 million, though the Jets would be responsible for any cost overruns, a common feature of stadium projects.
Jets executives contend that it is possible to finance the $800 million in a Manhattan market that is home to many Fortune 500 companies and many wealthy people.
Many investment bankers and sports consultants agree, although they say it will not be easy. But they part ways with the Jets on just how much of it would come out of the fans' wallets. They say the trend in professional sports is toward increasing class stratification through high ticket costs, premium seating and luxury suites.
"In this market, we should be able to exceed the highest numbers to date for corporate suites, naming rights and advertising," Cross said. "We don't intend to finance the stadium on the backs of taxpayers or loyal seat fans. It'll be financed through corporate buyers and high rollers."
The Jets complain that their current share of the parking, advertising and concessions at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., barely keeps up with the $7 million a year they pay in rent. The Jets want what other teams are getting, a stadium cash machine that generates 25 percent to 40 percent of their revenue.
The Jets have struck an agreement with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. George E. Pataki that taxpayers are to pay for 43 percent of the projected cost. That contrasts with Detroit, where government subsidized 25 percent of the Lions' new $500 million domed stadium, Ford Field.
In laying out a possible financing plan, the Jets are walking a tightrope between telling bankers how lucrative a Manhattan site might be and telling government officials that they need a subsidy.
Team executives said that the cornerstone of the Jets' financing would be the sale of 240 luxury suites, about double the number at Giants Stadium. Suites at the Meadowlands sell for an average of $137,500 a season, but they hardly compare in prices or luxury with those in the N.F.L.'s most recently built stadiums. The Jets say they should be able to get top dollar, and investment bankers say the team should be able to average $220,000 a year per suite, or roughly $52.8 million. The bankers say that would enable the team to easily raise about $400 million in bond financing, or half of what the Jets need.
"We should have the most expensive suites in the N.F.L," Cross said. "It's not a question of what the Meadowlands does, but of what New York does relative to other sports markets."
But the question remains whether there is demand for 240 high-priced suites in New York. Nine of the Jets' 117 suites at the Meadowlands are vacant.
The Jets also plan to whittle down their financing costs by borrowing $150 million from the N.F.L.'s stadium loan program.
Bankers and sports analysts estimate that the Jets could easily raise another $125 million and reduce their borrowing requirement by selling what is for many fans the most onerous of charges: personal seat licenses. If the stadium were to be built, a fan would be offered a license for, say, $1,000 to $10,000, which provides the right to buy season tickets for a particular seat. The Bears raised $70 million with seat licenses, but the Lions avoided them.
"Seat licenses are a conventional way of raising equity for stadium projects," Cross said. "However, they're never popular with fans. I'd like to find a way to raise equity without them, but I can't rule anything out."
The loan program and licenses would reduce the Jets' borrowing from $800 million to $525 million. And the suites could generate enough income to cover the cost of borrowing $400 million, leaving $125 million more to go.
The team also plans to auction the naming rights to the stadium and at least match the deal that the Houston Texans signed with Reliant Energy, for an average of $10 million a year. Advertising and corporate sponsorships could bring in another $15 million to $30 million, the Jets say.
"Our view is that in this market we should be able to exceed the highest number to date," Cross said.
The team is also looking at designating up to 11,000 of the stadium's 75,000 seats as plush club seats, although that would reduce the number of tickets once available to season-ticket holders. At an average of $3,000 a seat, that kind of premium seating could generate another $33 million a year.
But the Jets have other expenses, including an estimated $100 million for team operating costs, league dues and a capital improvement fund. That is where ticket prices come in.
"I suspect that a big chunk of this will come from fans, one way or the other," said Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp Ltd., an industry consulting firm in Chicago.
At New England in 2001, a family of four spent an average of $285 to see the Patriots play and to buy hot dogs, sodas and two ball caps. Last year at the new stadium, that same family paid an average of $405.22, according to Team Marketing Report's fan cost index.
Zoffinger has estimated that Jets ticket prices would have to jump from an average of $72 to as much as $130.
Cross said that regular ticket prices would keep pace with the Meadowlands prices rather than soaring.
Dean Bonham , a sports industry consultant based in Denver, doubts that it will be that easy for the Jets.
Manhattan "certainly offers the opportunity to bring in higher levels of revenue, but to overcome a debt load of $800 million, when presumably you're still dealing with the debt from the purchase of the franchise, is an almost insurmountable obstacle," he said. "Of course, that assumes that the owner wants to make a profit. He could be willing to sacrifice short-term profit for long-term stability."
The Jets could also face a number of risks, ranging from cost overruns to lawsuits from opponents who would rather the Jets choose Queens for a new stadium instead of the West Side of Manhattan.
"Financially, I don't think the rewards are that much lower in Queens," Ganis said. "But some of the psychic gains might be higher in Manhattan. But you wouldn't have the expense of building over a rail yard."
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