Neil Best Reports Jets Won’t Be Blacked Out
While it’s recently been reported that the Jets ticket situation might cause a blackout, Neil Best of Newsday reports that it’s not going to happen … that the Jets will eat whatever doesn’t get bought.
With thousands of seats still to sell, the Jets could face the prospect of a stadium speckled with empty, gray seats when they open against the Ravens Sept. 13.
There is one thing fans need not worry about, though: Whatever the state of personal seat license sales four months from now, they will be able to watch their team on ESPN that Monday night.
The Jets have no intention of allowing their home games to be blacked out, even if it means writing a check to make the problem go away.
A person familiar with the team’s plans said Wednesday if they have to the Jets will employ a loophole in the blackout rule that allows a team to pay the NFL the visiting team’s share of unsold tickets.
That figure is 34 percent of the face value – a potentially expensive bill but one the Jets are prepared to pay.
The question, of course, is whether it will come to that. And on that point, the Jets are adamant. They insist it won’t.
While it’s good news that games won’t be blacked out, I just don’t see how the Jets are going to sell the remaining tickets in time. That’s a lot of tickets that the team has yet to sell.
71 Responses to Neil Best Reports Jets Won’t Be Blacked Out
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Dave TN says:
Of course, it will be 34% of the face value, not including the obnoxious PSLs. Which will mean that the Jets won’t be shelling out nearly as as they expect the fans to for those premium seats.
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Eddie DiGio says:
I really think that the closer the opener gets, if there are an obscene amount of seats empty, they will individually sell them and the seat will be gone in less than 5 minutes…
Unless Al Davis buys the Jets in the near future, Id never even think that a game will ever be blacked out
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I don’t get it. If you sold the empty seats per game, the PSL would eventually sell, and the team would pocket the coin from a packed house. What is the problem here? If you have empty seats…sell them like the good old days where a middle class low-life like myself could afford to go to a game.
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James says:
They still have to sell 34% of the remaining tickets? Wow.
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WW85 says:
Jets being highlighted by CNN SI YET AGAIN!
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/don_banks/05/13/jets/index.html
This team is flavor of the month! Let’s make sure our actions match the hype!
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Pdubbs says:
Ohh gee how could we ever solve this problem. ?!?!?!?
The FO has to feel like complete jerks knowing that even with the team that is ready to take the field, it’s still too much money for most fans.
Just swallow your pride woody. Seat will be gone by tomorrow.
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Hootch68 says:
Is the visiting team’s share of tickets 17,000 seats? I doubt it.
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Jets-Fan-4-Life says:
Well good for the team….Hope the PSL’s come back and bite them in the butt!!
I have no problem dishing out my hard earned money for seats, but there is no way I’ll ever pay for a PSL.
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C Low says:
BTW….who says the ESPN WON’T be black-out’d in the NY area???
They do it all the time for baseball in the NY area when a local team is on.
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mole57 says:
Assuming 10,000 unsold seats at an average price of $150 per ticket, the team would have to shell out a little over half a million dollars per game, or a littel more than 4 million for the season. The price of PSLs for those 10,000 seats at an average of $4000 per seat is 40 million dollars. That’s why they won’t offer up single game tickets to the public.
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brian311 says:
they are posturing now, but when its all said and done, they will sell single game tickets. i highly doubt they pay for the seats to go empty.
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NamVetJet says:
I got a question. Just heard on the Fat Man’s show that parking won’t be general this year. That where you park will be dependent on your PSL. The higher your PSL the closer to the stadium. Is this true?
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Never mind got the answer on Jets site. It is true and it surely sucks.
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jets talking extension with revis
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/news/story?id=5185484
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charleyjet says:
See the NY Post today 5/13- article on Woody threatening blackouts for home games-. He has already issued a denial he said it. The stiff still has 17,000 unsold PSL seats. The Jets are calling people and threatening over the phone to black out the games. The networks, as Best points out, will never allow this to happen. Woody is desperate to sell these things. And they are offering people free parking (permits are $250 for the season and you can’t get into the stadium without a permit). But for people already foolish enough to pay the PSL they will not give them free parking. They are also making a class structure out of parking. The big PSLs park close, next the lower price ones and if you are in the upper deck without a PSL, start walking now.
I gave up my season tickets that I had since 1965 when they announced the PSLs and I am so happy to see him squirming.
I couldn’t be happier to see this guy get it in the pocket. He was a fool to go into this deal with the Giants and now he is getting his comupance.
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Nam Vet- it is completely true. I have a copy of the parking guide. There are three color coded lots, based on price of PSL or no PSL.
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fans love complaining. if the west side stadium went through, there wouldnt even be parking. and the PSLs / ticket prices would be way more. people can stick it to woody but if you look at it rationally, PSLs are simply a fact of life with a new stadium, and 1/2 of the seats are PSL free. it really isnt that bad a deal
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Mark Sanchez says:
A New York Team will never be blacked out. He has to stick to his guns, or else he won’t be selling any. If you want season tickets, just hold out. Woody will eventually cave in. He can have 35% of the stadium empty or eat his pride.
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Charleyjet, does the map indicate where you can tailgate in the orange section. I hear that is restricted also.
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JesusRevis says:
I work in Advertising/Marketing, and I can say with 110% confidence that there is NO CHANCE in hell the Jets will be blacked out. The advertisers and the NFL would never allow that to happen in such a big market.
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NamVetJet says:
Jesus
The jets wont be blacked out but not because they sold their seats. It’s embarrasing that we cant get our seats sold.
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Jesus
We wont be blacked out but not because we sold our seats.
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charleyjet, i couldn’t agree with you more. this fiasco is all due to woody blowing off the jet fans about building our OWN stadium,which he promised he would do when he bought the team. i too was a long time season ticket holder, and would have continued to be one, and made the two hour drive from ct. if it wasn’t for the extortion that they call psl’s.
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Randy says:
Im not worried about being blacked out.Im confident that will never happen.
One thing that does worry me though is the stadum being packed.If we have a ton of empty seats after the high expectations with this team, what does that say about our fan base?When you go to Foxburo or any other game for that matter, The crowd is all over the road team.WE HAD BETTER HAVE THAT IN OUR STADIUM.We need home field advantage, not a half empty stadium like Citi Field is now.
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ED says:
I hate to say it – but I hope the lower bowl is half empty on opening day. Teach the greedy bastards a lesson. We didn’t need this new stadium, and they’ve priced the common folk out of the venue.
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Vince says:
I think once they get on Hard knocks and Camp starts up they will be fine. They’ve had arguably the most exciting offseason for any NFL team. It’s going to take a while to play out but people start shelling out and buying the PSLs, even if that means they sell half the tickets to friends and family to recoup some of the cost.
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Merc20 says:
C Low… those are different dynamics to 2 different sports. They black out the espn due to the local NY teams having their team owned broadcast stations. I think there a rules or a schedule of when ESPN has the game that they actually play it.
The same thing use to happen with TBS that played the braves games. When the mets played the braves, you couldnt see the game on TBS b/c WPIX or SNY now had the game also, so they don’t compete against the home teams local station.
All that gibberish said… they’ll never black out a NY market game. They need to reduce the prices of PSLs and refund those that have paid already to the new lower price. Make up for it in the future with higher ticket prices if you have to. -
BTW – Gillette Stadium has NO PSLs.
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Dylan says:
DWAZ73:
More on this later, but #Jets NT Kris Jenkins says he’s 390 pounds _ 30 more than listed. Wants to drop 45 by training camp.WOW 390 is inane! I guess he couldn’t work out when he was injured. He is going to need to lose a lot of weight!
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Dylan
He got up over 400lbs in Carolina during the last injury so at least he learned his lesson…. lol
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starz31 says:
I read it as not 34% of all the stadium’s seats but that the Jets would have to eat 34% of the face value of those remaining seats. It wont be 17,000 by opening night, but it could be a few thousand. That said, they will try every last option they can before having to do so, meaning individual game tickets will open up. They’re reluctant to do that obviously, b/c people that already pay PSLs then get screwed.
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Nam Vet- I’m not sure about the tailgating situation but another neat feature is special marked interior roadways depending on the color status of your lot. I suspect this means an expressway out for the higher priced swells. It is a shame that this is turned into all about status and class. It was always, get there early and get the best spot.
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vbsiena says:
New York teams get blacked out. The Yankees are blacked out on ESPN for upstate NY. Jerks.
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Brian 311- I’m glad you are flush and can help a needy billionaire with his mortgage. The PSLs at this stadium are unique in that they aren’t really even seat licenses. At previous stadia where they have employed this rip-off, the PSL gives you a license to buy a ticket FOR ANY EVENT. So if there is a hot ticket concert or soccer game you can buy the same seat and go or put the ticket up for re-sale to get a little of your “investment” back. But because this is uniquely a two-team stadium you don’t have that. It is total double-dipping. They are selling two licenses for the same seat. Did they build the stadium twice?
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Hootch, thats cause they built it 30 min away from Boston in a desolute area, threatened to leave the area, had offers to leave, but couldnt get any town to approve to pay for it, but they eventually got Mass to pay for it along with Kraft. Orginially wanted it in Boston, but the mayor who once was with it, went against it. Same thing happened in Hartford where they had an agreement but it could shot down by the townspeople. And it only cost $325 million to build in Foxboro.
IOW…building in foxboro is not the same as building in the NYC-metro area.
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Rob R says:
pats stayed in mass because contamination issues involved in the area where they wanted to build the stadium. Due to old dry cleaning places chemicals contaminiated the water and delayed what was already a drawn out process. Kraft couldnt deal with all the set backs and basically went oh screw it i will just stay in foxboro. Ironiclly few years later the area was cleaned up and Renchler field, a very nice stadium no occupies the place
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BKWRXWgn says:
I know everyone for the most part is upset at the ticket prices, but can you imagine the ticket prices if the deal to build the Jets stadium on the West side went through!? I can see the logic of cost efficiency in continuing to share a new stadium with the NYG but aside from the West side deal why didn’t they look into Queens or Brooklyn to build a new stadium? Could it be that there’s more Jersey NYJ fans than there are in NY?
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Thanks for the info Charleyjet. We were able to move to the upper deck this year. We’ll check it out for a season and see how it goes. We’ve been tailgating for 27 years (Shea and the Meadowlands). If it becomes a pain or we have to walk two miles to get the the stadium I think we will probably give up the tickets. I think from the get go Woody has wanted a suits only fan base—hey may get what he wanted but will lose the passion of the current fan base.
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firstdown77 says:
Woody is alienating the classic jets fan base and bring new temporary fans to watch the games…this is gonna come back 2 bite eventually.
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SackDance99 says:
The new stadium seats around 4,000 more people and press reports put the number of unsold PSLs at around 15,000. Given the fact that all of the non-PSL tickets have been sold (that’s 27,897), the remaining PSL seats number around 55,000, of which, easily a third (if not more) are in the endzone. So, given the economy and the larger stadium, it’s not that hard to believe that the Jets are having trouble filling up all the PSLs. But, a stadium with over 65,000 fans in attendance will not seem empty or sound empty. I think the Jets should sell remaining seats a few days before each game to try to fill the joint up. But, I can’t get down on the Jets because, as I’ve said before, the season-ticket holders at the old stadium were not all Jets fans. I’d say only 2/3 of the crowd was die-hard Jets fans, the rest were Jerseyites, ticket brokers and Giants fans that wanted seats for an NFL team. So, the Jets had a bigger uphill battle to fill up the new stadium and, IMO, even if there were no PSLs (but higher ticket prices), the Jets still would have had problems filling up the stadium. Last season, tons of these folks gave up their seats, probably to save up because they were on the Giants waiting list.
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Um says:
Just wait till some brainiac guy comes up with a way to scheme more money from people. Soon you will need to buy a yearly food vending permit too. Or you’ll starve the whole game.
Oh, and maybe a beer permit. If you’re a drunk retard, you can get it revoked.. no more beer for you. To get back your beer permit, you have to clean up the parking lot debris left from the drunk retards who didn’t get caught. And scrub the portapoties clean lol ;p
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By the way, it doesn’t appear that the non-PSL parking areas are that far away. I remember having to park in a different zipcode and cross this wooden bridge to get to the stadium, it doesn’t look that bad, just get there early to tailgate!
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miketaliaferro says:
The wages of greed is… Irrelevance.
They opted to build a MegaStore. On their own dime. Fine. But to pay for it, they have to charge $1,000 for a paper clip.
Just as the economy tanks.
Lots o’ paper clips to be had now, at a bit less than $1,000.
Now, TV, they’re looking at showing a massive pile of paper clips. Not good. Black it out.
So, the folks who walked away from overpriced paper clips don’t get to watch them on TV, either. Oh, OK.
Half of those folks will sit rabidly around the radio, gaining what info they can…
The other half will tend the lawn on Sunday, spend some time with the wife and kids, maybe see the highlights later, maybe read about it in the papers on Monday.
And more and more people will end up intensely following the Jets less and less. On any given Sunday.
Until Price in no longer the issue causing all those empty gray seats; Irrelevance is.
Until the only burning question NYers have about the Jets is: “…The Jets? Oh… yeah… how’re they doing this year?”
The only good thing about a blackout is that Woody wouldn’t have to be embarrassed in front of the other owners by that unseemly sea of gray seating.
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They’ll probably just sell off seats a week before each game as they need to – regardless of what they are saying now.
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“A sea of grey seating?” More like a stream.
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juunit says:
It completely ASTOUNDS me how stupid the New York sport franchises have been with their new stadiums. The Mets and Yankees both screwed up as well, having ticket prices that were literally more than double what they had been at the old stadiums. I don’t know how much more expensive the tickets to Jets games have become because I don’t attend games with any regularity. But I know in the case of the Mets, the tickets for my box went up from under $100 a ticket to nearly $250 a ticket. I don’t think the new football stadium has 10,000 less seats like Citifield does compared to Shea… I don’t understand that move either. But if the Jets don’t realize their mistake soon enough, then they’ll be selling tickets on game day for $10 just like the Mets and Yankees are.
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seth says:
A source said at least 8,000 of the available PSLs are for seats in the lower bowl but not in club sections or suites.
That is the most important part of the article that everyone seems to be missing. They only need to sell 8000 psls to avoid a blackout. The other seats available are in the luxury boxes which do not count towards a blackout. Granted it is located in the most expensive area of the stadium, but if they were to sell them at a individual ticket price i’d imagine they would get it sold. I think it’ll be sold out for the ravens game.
However with the lack of revenue and the amazing debt due to the stadium.. signing our players could be incredibly difficult.
More thing listening to that blowhard on the fan.. Woody Johnson never said he would black out the games… And Woody johnson has worked a day in his life, he is the CEO of Johnson and Johnson and the owner of the Jets,you fat piece of crap. Trust me there is a lot of work involved there. Really your boy Mara, the Wilpons and Hal Steinbrenner im sure worked a day of their lives…
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TruJetFan says:
I took my upper deck seats and happy to do it for no PSL. But the Jets made a terrible mistake making those upper deck seats free. The Giants we’re much smarter charging at least $1,000 for each seat.
Not that I want to pay, but I gladly would have paid $1,000 for my upper deck seats. The Jets would have raised an additional $20,000,000 and could have lowered the price of the $4,000 and $7,000 PSLs to make them more sellable. I love this team, but boy has this business side turned into a circus.
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dakar says:
when the fans see what the jets have on the field is something very special then the fans with money will stop complaining,stop being cheap and they will buy the tickets…just sayin…
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TJBfan (twitter @infresco4) says:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=Avxn7QuD5HhOuaWD7JZyZ0NDubYF?slug=ap-jets-ellisfuture
News seems to be getting worse and worse! Looks like this truly is the last year as a Jet for Ellis…..if he makes it on the roster at all :(
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The Ed(itor) says:
No PSLs for long term season ticket holders would be the sensible thing to do, but whoever said Woody was sensible. First he charged fans PSL fees which will be worthless in 30 years when they build another new stadium. Woody granted fans in the upper deck no PSL fees, but ticket prices and parking fees were increased. And you have to walk a mile from your parking spot to the stadium. It is rumored that the JETS have over 10,000 PSL seats still to sell.
And of course Woody was too cheap to pay for a dome for inclement weather especially in the winter when the NFL schedules games at 9 PM. Woody is clearing an additional $75 million a year and 2 years would have paid for his portion of the dome. The fans will freeze while Woody is warm and toasty in his owner’s box. The more seats that are empty the better. And anyone who paid a PSL fee is a sucker. -
Woody is not the CEO of J&J. If he was, I would sell my J&J stock in a second.
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he’ll make the roster dont worry tjbfan.. i mean who is going to replace him.. vernon gholston?
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Foxboro was built without PSL fees.
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Actually if you read Wikepedia, it would appear that Woody hasn’t worked a day in his life.
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WOJF says:
Woody has never been remotely connected to JNJ, he inherited his shares but never earned a paycheck there or anywhere else. His occupation on his tax return is probably philanthropist or political contributor.
Good guy, nothing personal, but he has no clue about business or real life. He has ruined any home field advantage not that it was great to begin with.
He got taken for a ride here by Bloomberg and his buddies, told he would get a West Side Stadium and make a huge killing if he bought the team. It didnt materialize and now he is stuck with the embarrassment of empty seats on national TV for his opening day, and the bill for all the PSL’s and seats he has not sold.
I have stated from day one that once he got his PSL money the team was going on the market, I see him selling the team in 2011 hopefully to someone that actually cares about football.
And before you all tell me how great an owner he is for opening the check book spending the last two years was all about selling the PSL’s, its called marketing. LT and Taylor is marketing.
In a year when he should be spending like Jerry Jones to try and put a winner in his new stadium he is pinching pennies.
I hope I am wrong but I firmly believe this offseason is going to blow up in Woody’s face. Empty seats, underperforming team, boos galore, out the door.
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As much as I hate the Pats their owner did the right thing.
Woody should have built Jets Stadium in Flushing or near the Nassua Colliseum.
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Jcjets says:
So there could be thousands of empty seats?? I can’t see that happening. That would be really sad.
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iJets!!! says:
I vaguely remember “the plan” for building a football stadium in Queens.
I am really upset that it fell through. The Jets belong in Queens.
Sad to see that Woody’s real intentions did not incorporate all Jets fans, not just the affluent / him.
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Uh-oh… Shaun Ellis is toast.
Damn.
“General manager Mike Tannenbaum said he anticipates Ellis staying put this season.
‘We appreciate Shaun’s contributions and it’s our expectation that he will be with the team for the 2010 season,’ Tannenbaum said.”
That’s Tanny’s famous Fredo kiss. Someone’s gonna be taking Shaun out on the lake real soon now…
But Ellis, it seems, has also been paying attention to the FO contract chicanery.
“Ellis is skeptical, though, after seeing so many veterans jettisoned.
‘They talk good and then go do something else, but it’s all a business,’ Ellis said. ‘For me, I definitely want to be here. I love playing here and I love the fans, and love the whole idea of being a Jet. I really can’t picture myself playing for anybody else.’
I do think Tanny’s lost the element of surprise on handling his contracts.
Seems the whole room’s been watching.
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WesleyWalker Was Awesome says:
If you haven’t bought a PSL and still want to go to Jets games, wait until they sell them for single games…….I just called to try and get my free parking since I paid for a PSL earlier this month (bought the $7500 PSL)…. They told me “no” as the free parking is only for new people going forward……..This is Bull****!!!!……If you wait long enough, I am sure you will be able to buy single game tix and the PSL people will be screwed again…….
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majasko says:
Miketaliaferro,
LMAO! but soo true
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Green Goblin says:
Woody gets what he deserves because he could have had a stadium built in Queens…He was offered Willets Point,(near Shea Stadium and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park) but feared that it might take until 2009 or 2010 for the city to condemn the property, relocate the 150 businesses that were there and clean up the environment. The team wanted a new stadium by the end of 2008 (when its Meadowlands lease expired) so they came up with a proposal for the Fountain of Planets site (a remnant of the 1964 World’s Fair, now stands in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park). The city didn’t like the Jets plan to take parkland because they thought it would be too controversial, but still wanted to work with the Jets and offered Willets Point…The Jets should have just put the stadium in Willets Point…Their New Jersey stadium took a couple of years longer than expected to build so they would have only had to rent another stadium for 1-3 more years before their own one in Queens was built….It’s a joke that they are in Jersey..Many of the fans that went to the games in Giants Stadium were Giants fans who couldn’t get tickets to the Giants games…Jersey is the Giants capital…Queens/Long Island is the Jets home base…That’s where they should be…Anyway they can get out of this deal without it costing them a fortune?? Woody was a fool because if he had built a stadium in NY, the Jets would have easily passed the Giants as the more popular team in NY because New Yorkers would say the Jets are the real NY team while the Giants should be called The New Jersey Giants because that’s where they are located….The Jets would finally be the only “true” NY team…Now they’re second class citizens once again, sharing a stadium with their big brothers (trying to convince themselves that it’s equal) while the closest NYers have to a true NY team are the Bills!!!!!!!! Thanks a lot Woody!!!! You should have just waited a little longer but now we all suffer…….
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GG,
They tried to. Woody was somewhat duped by the local Congressman in that district. Losing support in his district, the Congressman basically got Woody to propose a deal for Willets Point which he then had condemned by the same people who urged him to propose it. It was a political ploy and was never going to happen.
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And the only way you replace the Giants as the #1 team in the area (in other people’s eyes, not ours) is to win. Win in LI, Staten Island, NJ, CT, wherever, and you get the following and notoriety. It has nothing to do with where the team is playing its games, it’s the results of those games.
And “we all” aren’t suffering. Long Island fans have to drive all the way to the Meadowlands. Oh poor you! It’s much more difficult for the majority of Jets fans to get to Long Island than the ones from Long Island to get out to Jersey. The Bills are a Canadian team. And I’m sorry but Jets games aren’t filled by “Giants fans who couldn’t get tickets to Giants games”. I go to every Jets game, that is not true at all.
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Lots of misinformation here. First, Woody Johnson HAS worked in his life. As the NYT article below states, Woody’s part of the family was not involved in J&J management, so Woody set out to do something else and made his fortune developing a cable TV company, which he sold in the early 90s at a tremendous profit. Since then, he has a private investment company and has been very involved in philanthropy and politics. Plus, he owns the Jets and that sounds like a pretty full job to me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/sports/football/28owner.html?pagewanted=all
Second, the alleged deal to build a stadium in Queens was never fully proposed. To get the land necessary to build a football stadium near CitiField means that eminent domain would have to be used to purchase the factories and chop shops that are next to CitiField. This week, there’s been talk that the Mets owner might buy the Islanders and put a hockey arena (which is far smaller than a football stadium) on the Willets Point sight. Good luck, with the law suits and political hassles, that could take a decade. Look how long it’s taken just for the ground breaking for the Nets arena in Brooklyn at a site that’s been talked about for a stadium since the 50s (the Dodgers wanted to build a domed stadium there, NY’s politicians wanted the Dodgers to move to what became Shea Stadium…that worked out well).
Third, according to wikipedia, 13 NFL teams, besides the Jets and Giants, have PSLs. These include the Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee Titans and Green Bay Packers. All of these teams have pretty good front offices and have generally been in the playoffs the past 10 years. Sure, the Pats don’t have PSLs and neither do the Lions. The PSL issue has nothing to do with the quality of an organization’s management. IMO, the Steelers are the gold standard for a top quality franchise and their fans pay PSLs.
Fourth, stadium revenue is not the big money maker for NFL owners. It’s TV revenue. Most teams only have 10 games and a payroll of well over $100 million. Ticket revenue and concessions, even with 100% sellouts, would likely not cover player salaries in most cities. So, the Jets likely don’t care all that much about up to 15,000 unsold PSLs for the lost ticket revenue. They likely (and IMO correctly) view selling the PSLs as more important than the lost season ticket revenue. The Jets can afford to wait.
Fifth, when Woody bought the Jets, Bloomberg was not the Mayor of NY. Rudy was still mayor and I doubt that Woody bought the Jets with the idea of moving them to a West Side Stadium. When NY made its bid for the Olympics, Woody joined in with Bloomberg because the stadium was going to be part of the Olympic bid. I think it is true that Woody wanted his own stadium, but I think revenue and a better fan experience were in his mind. As a season ticket holder since the early 90s, Woody tried more in his short ownership tenure to make Giants Stadium more fan friendly for Jets fans than Hess ever did. The green bunting, Jets Fest in the parking lot, port-o-potties in the parking lot…all happened under Woody. So, Woody failed to secure a West Side stadium because the Dolans (who own MSG and were out-bid for the Jets) went all out in scuttling the plan. If Woody had wanted to move the team to LA, he could have done what the Dodgers did when they were blocked by NY politicians. Instead, the Jets are in the Meadowlands in a stadium that won’t say “Giants” on the outside anymore.
Lastly, the Jets are now co-equal owners of the new stadium. This fact alone has likely raised the value of the Jets franchise to well over $1 billion. Woody has tried to brand the Jets, like Steinbrenner has branded the Yankees. The Jets have a stake in SNY, have cheerleaders, etc. Sounds like an astute businessman. Remember, the reason Sonny Werblin is in the Hall of Fame wasn’t because of his football mind, it was his marketing genius in building a team (and the entire AFL) around Joe Namath. I’m glad that the “bottom line” is more important to Woody. Maybe that’s why under his ownership, the Jets have had more success than Leon Hess ever did.
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Again, nice piece, Sack.
Read the Times article from March you offered. Some interesting points in there.
Here is another Times article, from 2004, which is a smidge less of a puff piece than the March 2010 article is. It gives a bit wider angle on who this man might be.
One interesting issue therein was the differing descriptions of Woody’s handling of the loss of a daughter in the 2010 piece and that of how he responded when a former partner lost his own daughter, mentioned in the 2004 article.
Oh, and it seems that his approach to the cable industry was as a deep-pocketed financier in the late ’70s when banks wouldn’t touch the fledgling cable industry yet.
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mike t,
I thought the 2004 article was tinged with the NYT’s anti-Bush posture. I wonder if he had been a big Democratic Party donor whether the shading of the article would have been more flattering. But, even the article described Woody’s early business dealings as somewhat more than just a passive investor:
“During an entrepreneurial decade as a young man in Florida, Johnson showed qualities that might surprise his friends among New York’s elite. He was unorthodox. He took risks. He stepped in when banks would not finance fledgling cable systems. He flexed power. He made good money. And he could be tough.”
I agree, the part about his former business partner not returning his calls when his daughter died seems harsh in retrospect, but it also seems like there was lots of turmoil in that relationship and the partner did have some serious quasi-criminal problems.
What is more interesting is that Woody has somewhat come out of his protective shell. The 2004 article described him as insular and somewhat paranoid. The 2010 article emphasized how much more open and public he is. Heck, if you can’t enjoy owning an NFL franchise, then what can you enjoy? Geez, if I ever hit Powerball, Mega-Millions and discover a copy of a Da Vinci under a “Dogs Playing Poker” print, I’d love to own the Jets!
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Lending money to a fledging enterprise shows good investment judgement, but it does not qualify as work.
Woody invested his inerited money well, good for him, but he still had never truly worked a day in his life prior to buying our Jets.
I will concede that Giuliani was mayor when he bought the JEts, my bad, it was Guilianis boy who came on board in the Jets management promising a new West Side Stadium.
It was always a part of the strategy, I believe he referred to it in his first press conferance after buying the Jets.
The PSL thing ruins all credibility with the fans regardless.
As for other teams having PSL’s correct, but they also have their own stadium. The purchasers have rights to the other events held in that stadium, and I believe except for perhaps Dallas the PSL’s were less costly in those other markets.
The JEts and Giants sold the same seats twice.
Sack, to state they do not care about selling the regular season tickets is patently absurd. A little basic math.
15,000 unsold seats per game, ten games, 150,000 seats at an average of $150 per ticket equals $22.5 Million per annum. They care about that money, if they do not then they should have just built the stadium without the PSLs or built a smaller stadium.
I agree that selling the PSL’s is a bigger hole in the budget but trust me they do care about selling those seats, in fact if they do not than they do not care about the teams on field performance since all those empty seats are going to hurt their home field advantage.
Lastly, somewhat off topic, I agree the Steelers are the gold standard for successful long term franchises, which was my major concern regarding obtaining Holmes who was flat out cut by that team. What do they know that we do not?
Two good things the Jets could do here:
1. LOWER THE F-ing TICKET PRICE!!
2. Pay for the excess tickets, then run a raffle for those seats. Empty seats are a morale killer. Fill them! Offer free seats to the game to past season ticket holders to try and move those grotesque PSLs, but fill out the rest of those seats with rough and ready Jets fans who will be bring the noise because they are PUMPED to see their team in action.