Has anybody ever seen any studies showing where most of the Jet fans are concentrated and what the Jets-Giants split is in various areas ? I am sure that the NY Jets formally commissioned such a study yeas ago before MetLife was built. The reason I ask is because I was talking to a bunch of rabid Jets fans I know who no longer can afford the time to goto Jets games because of the distance involved (they live in Suffolk County, Long Island), families, kids activities, etc. I asked virtually all of them if they would be able to goto Jets games if the new stadium was located in Queens (near CitiField) and to a man they all said either YES or much more likely. I had Jets season tickets in 1988. Team went 8-7-1 and had a great finish (knocked Giants out in last game of season, mini-"Ice Bowl" game with last-second TD from O'Brien to Toon). I had waited since college graduation to get Jets season tickets (dad got me on the WL as a college graduation present). I dropped my tickets after that year becuse driving to the games to-and-from my house on the Nassau/Suffolk border was just a killer, esp. for the 4 PM games. Going through 5 or 6 counties....sometimes a 2 hour commute...it was a killer. Sometimes I thought I'd rather go see a 4-12 team play at Shea Stadium than a 10-6 team play at Giants Stadium. Back to my thesis....I always wondered how many Jets fans were lost during the move to Giants Stadium/MetLife Stadium (esp. with the PSL's) because Long Island was such a hot-bed of Jet fans (Hofstra helped too). Giant fans seem to dominate all football fans in the New Jersey area both before and after their move to The Meadowlands in 1977. But the Jets IMO would have had a much easier time selling PSL's and also having a more rabid fan base and 'home field advantage' if their stadium could have been built closer to their fan stronghold in the Queens/Long Island area. Thoughts ?
It's obvious that many of the new STHs treat their seats like a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder.
While it may be true that many Jets fans reside in areas close to Shea (queens/LI), things are way more spread out now. Families have moved to Jersey, Westchester, Manhattan, etc, so I think the lines are much more blurred nowadays. I grew up in Manhattan and there was always a fairly even split here. The only area that I know has a clear Giants majority is upstate NY.
This is just a guestimate on my part but I would say BEFORE MetLife this was the split among jerseys that I would see and my general talks with people at work and social events since I moved around alot in all areas of the NYC area: Long Island: Heavily Jets, at least 3:1 or 4:1. Queens: Ditto, but a bit less Manhattan: 50:50 Jets/Giants, but leaning a bit towards Giants. THis is mostly commuters to work I would ask/survey. Other NYC Boroughs: Giants, 2:1 or so. Northern NJ Counties: Giants, 4:1 or 5:1...very heavily Giants. Rockland/Westchester: Giants 2:1 Upstate NY (before you get into Bills territory): Evenly split, lots of Jet fans from when they used to train Upstate.
I hate the fact that the city is so divided with sports teams. Would be nice to have one team we can all root for.
OMG no....1 football team, 1 baseball team ? 20 MM people within 30 miles of Manhattan, plenty of people to support a team. You don't have 1 MM people within 30 miles of Buffalo.
Tri-split. Knicks & Nets; Islanders, Rangers, Devils. You'd be surprised how many NYC ppl are Devil fans - bandwagoner or otherwise.
not to veer too far away from jets related talk but honestly thats why I'm pissed the nets are moving to brooklyn. theres something badass about the knicks being the only basketball team in NY. the only sport where there is one team ...
I could see in 10 years the Knicks:Nets ratio in NYC going to something like 3:1 or 4:1 if the Knicks stumble and the Nets do good....it's probably 50:1 right now because the Nets are in NJ and the Knicks are better.
Mostly commuters to work from NJ....even in most place of NJ it's 50-50. Go to South Jersey and there it's NJ vs. Philly, fewer NYR fans.
One thing I am curious about is the # of Jet Fans in south florida, it seems like the only new yorkers that are down there are jet fans, maybe it just seems that way because we play in miami every year and the displaced new yorkers flock to sunlife stadium whereas the giants never play there, maybe once a decade.
Only 90 minutes? Sounds like you'd have a pretty accurate estimate if you were to check the weather for the stadium.
That's because most of your trip you won't encounter traffic until you approach NYC or the Meadowlands. The Jets strongest base in Long Island has to fight Long Island traffic....then Queens and bridge traffic....then Manhattan traffic.....tunnel or bridge traffic to NJ.....and then Meadowlands traffic. It wears on you, especially for a 4 PM game. Ironically, the MNF game I went to was pretty good because the traffic had dissipated by midnight. Made it home in like 75 minutes.
