New York Jets

New York Senator Wants Jets to Return to Queens

The Jets spent 20 seasons in Queens from 1964-83 before departing for New Jersey

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New York senator wants the Jets to return to Queens originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Could the New York Jets make a return to Queens?

One New York senator is holding out hope that it can happen.

Joe Addabbo, a democratic senator for New York's 15th district and chairman of the state's racing, gaming and wagering committee, wants the Jets to call Queens home once again after the franchise departed the Empire State for New Jersey nearly 40 years ago.

“The Jets coming back to New York would be monumental," Addabbo said, via Legal Sports Report.

A 25,000-seat stadium for the MLS club NYFC is set to be built in the Willets Point neighborhood of Queens. The venue, which is expected to be completed by 2027, is part of a development project that will include a hotel and affordable housing.

Addabbo sees that area, located near the New York Mets' Citi Field, as a potential site for a new Jets stadium as well.

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“If you’re building a stadium -- and I know it’s only 25,000 seats -- but if you’ve got that kind of incentive to build a stadium, if the opportunity is there with the land and the expiring leases, we can connect the dots, why miss this opportunity?” Addabbo said. "They’d have their own stadium, a newer, more technologically-advanced stadium, with all-new amenities and everything. To go into a brand-new stadium as the New York Jets and the marketing behind it, that just blows it out of the water."

As Addabbo alluded to, the Jets do have an upcoming opportunity to get out of their 25-year lease at MetLife Stadium. The Jets and Giants both have the option to opt out of the stadium lease in 2025 as long as they give the state of New Jersey 12 months' notice. Both teams will then have the same opt-out option every five years after.

“Personally, it pains me to see the Giants and Jets called the ‘New York Jets’ and ‘New York Giants,’ -- even with the Giants having ‘NY’ on their helmets -- playing in Jersey,” Addabbo said. "It pains me."

The Polo Grounds in Manhattan was the Jets' original home from 1960-63 before they moved to Shea Stadium, the former home of the Mets, in 1964. After 20 years at Shea Stadium, the Jets left New York for Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. in 1984.

The Jets and Giants formed a joint agreement in 2005 to construct MetLife Stadium, which wound up costing $1.6 billion and opened in 2010. The Jets also opened a $75 million practice facility in Florham Park, N.J. in 2008.

It's unclear how much interest, if at all, the Jets have in a move back across the Hudson River. Addabbo admitted that he sees it as a longshot, but that won't stop him from dreaming.

"This is a huge, Herculean longshot, I get that," Addabbo said. "But I hate missed opportunities.”

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