The apparent collapse of the Jets' quest to build a stadium on the Far West Side of Manhattan raises the question of whether they will try to make a deal to be the Giants' partner in their proposed new stadium.
Less than two months ago, the Giants emerged from a tortuous political process with a plan for a $750-million stadium they would finance on their own.
"I'm sure the Jets are very disappointed, and I have a great deal of empathy for them," said John Mara, the executive vice president of the Giants. "I don't know if this is the final straw, but New Jersey seems to be their most compelling fallback position. Still, who's to say in the future that they can't build a stadium in New York if that's what they want? They're welcome here."
Mara said that he had not talked to L. Jay Cross, the Jets' president, since last week, and that they decided to meet sometime after Monday's vote by the state Public Authorities Control Board, which derailed the project.
"Our preference all along has been that they remain here with us," Mara said. "The vote may have changed their perspective a bit."
For the Giants, sharing the cost with the Jets would minimize the risk of financing the stadium's construction. Whether the Jets would want to split the cost equally would be up for discussion, Mara said.
Richard J. Codey, the acting governor of New Jersey, said he had not spoken to Jets officials since the vote Monday. But he said: "It's time for the Jets and Giants to build a brand-new stadium. And I'd want a long-term agreement, so we don't have to negotiate this again for a generation."
The Jets and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority have a tentative agreement that would let the team extend its Giants Stadium lease through 2018, with a penalty to be paid before the team could escape to a West Side stadium. The deal, first negotiated in April, has encountered some snags and remains unsigned.
The Jets are not ready to concede that their West Side quest is over and that they should examine options in New Jersey and in Queens, near Shea Stadium, a location the Jets have resisted discussing with the Mets. "We are weighing all our options," Matthew Higgins, a Jets vice president, said in a statement. "We have forged an unprecedented coalition that is encouraging us to press ahead, and that's exactly what we plan to do."
Codey suggested that the Jets' public position was a way for Cross to thank Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for his unswerving support of the stadium, which was to have been the centerpiece structure of the 2012 Summer Games. "I can see Jay holding out hope," he said.
But Charles Carrier, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver - whose representative's vote against the West Side stadium on the state Public Authorities Control Board on Monday derailed the project - cautioned that it "would not make sense at this point" for the team to continue to pursue the Manhattan option.
Carrier added that no one with the Jets had contacted Silver since Monday's vote about the site in Queens next to Shea.
George Zoffinger, chief executive of the sports authority, said he was aware of the Jets' hope of having their own stadium after sharing Giants Stadium for 20 years.
"The Jets' desire to leave the Meadowlands has nothing to do with the stadium, the field or the management," he said. "It's always about having their own home. We respect that, and I think if we can find a way to make any new facility in New Jersey accommodate both teams, I think we can do it."
He added that he believed that Queens was a "viable alternative" for the Jets.
If the Jets decide that jointly financing a new stadium with the Giants is worthwhile, new and evolving technologies can make it look as if it is the Jets' home one week and the Giants' home the next.
"You can transform a venue pretty dramatically with LED videoboards that can show one team's sponsors, and then change to another team's," said the architect Ron Turner, who has worked on the sports authority's master plan for the Meadowlands complex and the renovation study commissioned by the Giants. He said also that some premium seating could be shifted to satisfy any changes the teams want.
"A stadium in New York for both teams could definitely be over the top from a design standpoint," Turner said. "You can have interactivity with the fans both inside and outside."