Jan. 19, 2000 SportsLine wire reports

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The New York Jets will have a place for a stadium if state Sen. Nick Spano of Westchester has anything to say about: in Yonkers.

	Related Links: New Jets owner wants Parcells as coach Jets owner promises coach soon, new stadium later Coleman reaches agreement with Jets, kind of Forum: Should the Jets move to Yonkers?
	T O P   N E W S

Spano, a Republican, wrote new Jets owner Robert Wood Johnson on Wednesday and asked him to think about moving the team up the Hudson River to the Yonkers Raceway when its lease is up at the New Jersey Meadowlands.

The Yonkers facility has 97 acres of land just waiting for someone to do something with it and "Jets Stadium" would be the perfect fit, the senator said. "It's feasible, it's accessible and it's available," Spano said.

And it already has an NFL connection. Yonkers Raceway is owned by the Rooney family, who own the Pittsburgh Steelers, Spano said.

"I think Yonkers, for sure, is ready for the big time," Spano said of the city of 180,000 located 17 miles north of Manhattan.

New York Jets spokesman Frank Ramos refused to comment, saying he had not heard about Spano's offer.

Yonkers Mayor John Spencer cheered the proposal, saying it would be great if all of the details could be worked out. "You're talking to a lifelong Giants fan, but I'd gladly be a Jets fan if they moved to Yonkers," Spencer said.

The Jets still have eight years to play in New Jersey but jockeying for the football team has already begun. Johnson noted in his first news conference that the Jets have never had their own stadium.

After starting in the Polo Grounds, former owner Leon Hess moved the Jets out of Shea Stadium in 1984 and since then they have shared Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

"They have been in the Mets' stadium, Shea Stadium, and now this since 1984, and we want to do everything in our power to provide them with their own stadium," Johnson said.

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has raised the possibility of constructing a stadium on the West Side and Newark also could be a possibility for the nomadic team. The Meadowlands also wants the Jets to stay but is feeling pressure with all the speculation.

"The only thing that's changed about your call is the place," New Jersey Sports Authority spokesman Dan Emmer said. "Yesterday, it was Mayor Giuliani with a stadium on the West Side, then it was Newark, and now it's Yonkers."

Spano thinks he has the best idea, however. "Geographically, there's no better place" than Yonkers, Spano said. "It's located just eight miles from the George Washington Bridge, less than five miles from the Tappan Zee, and it's easily accessible to several major highways."

And "let's face it, are there sites in New York City that are accessible, that are available and that are feasible?" Spano said. "I don't think so. Let's not lose the Jets to New Jersey again."

Spano is trying to recruit Gov. George Pataki to his cause, forwarding him a copy of his letter.

"There are a number of communities in New York that would love to be home to the Jets," Pataki spokesman Michael McKeon said. "We would love to put the New York back in the New York Jets."

If his plan works, Spano would draw the line at a name change to the Yonkers Jets.

"Let's keep it the way it is," he laughed.

Broadway Joe