TRENTON, Aug. 11 - New Jersey officials on Thursday applauded a proposal for a huge new football stadium in the Meadowlands sports complex to house the Giants and the Jets, urging the teams to consider a retractable dome that would allow bigger events, including the Super Bowl, at the site.
The Jets, apparently intent on staying in New Jersey, presented an ambitious plan on Wednesday that would expand the $800 million stadium that the Giants proposed just four months ago when the Jets were still planning a move to the West Side of Manhattan.
Under the Jets proposal, given to the Giants and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and first reported in The Star-Ledger, the two teams would evenly split the cost of a 90,000-seat stadium, said L. Jay Cross, the Jets president. It suggests changes in the site plan that would connect the stadium more closely with the Xanadu retail and entertainment complex now rising on the other side of the Meadowlands.
If built, the new stadium would be the second-largest in the National Football League, behind the Washington Redskins' home, the 92,000-seat FedEx Field stadium, which is also considered the league's most profitable.
The sports authority president, George R. Zoffinger, said in a statement that with the new megastadium, the Meadowlands "will be transformed into the most attractive sports and entertainment destination in the country."
If the stadium has a retractable dome, Mr. Zoffinger said in an interview, "you get Super Bowl, the Final Four, political conventions, all the things that can stimulate the New Jersey economy."
"It's not in the proposal, but it's something we're going to push for," Mr. Zoffinger said. "This is the one opportunity in the next 50 years to get it right."
The Jets are hesitant, however. "If the state wants to explore funding a retractable roof, we will consider it," said Matthew Higgins, a team vice president.
For now, the team, which has been playing in the Meadowlands since 1984, has not ruled out a move to New York. Mr. Cross said team officials had accepted an invitation from the Queens borough president, Helen Marshall, to look at a site at Willets Point.
The Giants' chief executive, John Mara, declined to discuss the proposal. "We've been in discussions with the Jets for quite a while now," he said, "and our agreement with them is that we would keep these discussions private."
The Jets and Giants have been negotiating since the Jets' plan to move to the West Side of Manhattan fell through in June. While the Giants had always wanted the Jets to remain in New Jersey as a partner in the privately financed new stadium, the prospect has complicated talks involving the Giants, the Sports Authority and the Xanadu developers.
The sports complex's future has been rewritten many times in the last few years, and James E. McGreevey, then the governor, charged the sports authority with getting the state out of the sports business. To revitalize the site, on prime real estate within sight of Manhattan, the authority approved the five-million-square-foot Xanadu project, surrounding the Continental Airlines Arena, home of the New Jersey Nets and the New Jersey Devils.
The Giants' plans for a new stadium raised even more questions, now under negotiation, about how the sports complex would accommodate the construction and the additional traffic generated by Xanadu.
Mr. Cross said the Jets proposal would retain the 75,000 seats now available in general seating at the Giants Stadium, expand luxury suites and add 8,000 club seats, while there are only a handful now. He said he had no estimate of the total cost.
Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the football league, said it would contribute $150 million to construction costs, provided the stadium meets certain criteria, but that is the maximum even if two teams play there.