City officials are pulling out their political playbooks to convince the New York Jets to become a presence within the city’s borders.
The football team announced last month that Jersey City was one of five sites in New Jersey on a short list for the team’s new headquarters and practice facility. The other sites are Florham Park, Wood-Ridge, Berkeley Heights, and Millburn.
The area in Jersey City the Jets are coveting is 15 acres located on Caven Point Road, situated less than a mile from Liberty State Park and the in-progress Liberty National Golf Club.
Carl Czaplicki, Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s chief of staff, is one of the city officials who has been involved from the beginning when the Jets were first seeking out sites for relocation in October.
“We’re still in the mix and I’m pretty confident when it’s all said and done, the Jets will see what a wonderful location Jersey City is and choose us,” said Czaplicki.
The Jets would relocate from their current corporate headquarters and training facility on the campus of Hofstra University on Long Island as part of a joint agreement with the New York Giants to build a new stadium in the Meadowlands. The new practice facility would include an 110,000 square foot building housing 100 employees, three outdoor football fields, and one indoor football field and parking.
Last week, the City Council passed a resolution to allow the city to give consent to the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority (working in conjunction with the Jets) to relocate the Jets to Jersey City. Also, the city’s Board of Education voted 7-0 with one abstention to support the Jets moving here.
The Board of Education owns the 18-acre Caven Point Athletic Complex, five acres of which are being coveted by the Jets. Ten of the acres are occupied by a warehouse currently not in operation.
The Sports and Exposition Authority would purchase the land in question and then lease it to the Jets.
The city’s corporate community scheduled a luncheon this past Friday at the Liberty House Restaurant near Liberty State Park to welcome Jets players and office personnel and as a possible enticement to put Jersey City at the top of their site list.Concerns
But there are concerns by residents and members of the council over the impact of a possible Jets relocation. It would mean the potential loss of a little league baseball field, a soccer field, a softball diamond and part of a parking lot.
And then there’s another problem for the city, as the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is opposed to the potential conveying of five acres to the Jets as it protected under the state’s Green Acres program and can only be used for public recreation or conservation. Jets and Jersey City: perfect together?
Mayor Jerramiah Healy said the Jets considering Jersey City as a potential relocation site further enhances the city’s growing stature as a world-class city.
“I think it’s a great thing for Jersey City. A great opportunity to market our city, it brings us another great corporate citizen to Jersey City,” said Healy.
Healy was asked about the possibility of the city losing some athletic fields at Caven Point that could impact hundreds of the city’s children who play in either the Greenville American Little League, or the Jersey City Soccer Association. He said the Jets, in conversations with them, want to make a good faith effort to replace the fields that would be lost as well as upgrade some current athletic facilities throughout the city.
Ultimately, Healy hopes the Jets will look through the field of candidates and see Jersey City as a viable target.
“If [the Jets] think there are other sites better than ours, I would most respectfully disagree with them 180 degrees,” said Healy, “I think we have so many more things to offer here in Jersey City. The access to New York City by ferry, by PATH and by car. Access to the [New Jersey] Turnpike, access to Newark Airport, access to the Meadowlands. All of the amenities – housing, dining, and everything else -they are right here.”
The criteria the Jets set forth for the new site in October included: at least 20 acres available with minimal impediments to development, located within a 20 mile radius of the Meadowlands and Newark Airport, yet accessible to Manhattan, and proximity to diversity of housing stock, hotel accommodations, and appropriate medical facilities.
Jets representatives visited more than 40 sites in Bergen, Hudson, Essex, Morris, Union, Passaic, Somerset, Middlesex and Monmouth counties before narrowing it down to the five finalists.
Francis X. Dooley, deputy superintendent for the Jersey City school system, said in a month’s time the Board of Education has been “brought up to speed” on the Jets’ intentions, and welcomed the Jets organization to take part in the city’s school system if they choose Jersey City.
“I think it’s good for the Board of Education that the Jets are coming here. [The athletes and coaches] can become role models for the children. We want them to come into our schools,” said Dooley. “They can help by reading and speaking. Kids are so enamored by athletes, who in turn can show young people where they can go in their lives.”
Dooley also said he and other school officials are forming a committee with officials from the city’s Department of Recreation (whose offices are located near the Caven Point complex) to evaluate what the Jets can do to help upgrade facilities at Caven Point and throughout the city. Those recommendations will be passed along to superintendent of schools, Charles Epps, who will then submit them to the board for their approval.
Ed Hazlett, president of the Jersey City Soccer Association, said he was also looking forward to the Jets coming to Jersey City even though they are looking to take over a soccer field they use at Caven Point.
“Right now, we’ve basically outgrown the facility we have at Caven Point. There’s a lot of talk about the Jets coming and taking it as a practice field,” said Hazlett. “That would be great because they pay to build the facility that we need. If they don’t come, then it’s up to the [council] up here to pay the difference to build the facility.” They may be Jets fans but…
Hazlett, along with over 70 parents, children and coaches involved in the city’s soccer programs were in the audience at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. There they heard City Council President Mariano Vega, an admitted soccer enthusiast, announce there are several locations around the city such as the site of the old Colony Diner on Communipaw Avenue and Route 440 for a new soccer field.
Ward A City Councilman Michael Sottolano, a Jets fan for 30 years but also a coach for the Greenville American Little League, said while the city’s soccer league has the ability to move to a new field anywhere in the city, the baseball teams that use Caven Point cannot be easily relocated to another location far away from its present site.
Ward D City Councilman Bill Gaughan has been a Jets fan since the team played in Super Bowl III in 1969. But Gaughan was willing to forgo fan loyalty and oppose the Jets relocating to Jersey City if any fields that are not replaced with other sufficient athletic fields elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Karen Hershey, a spokesperson for the NJDEP, said last week the city would have to put in an application for a diversion, or change in use for the Caven Point property, and receive approval before any transaction can take place. Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com