If the Giants and Jets won’t move back to New York, then they had better accept New Jersey.
That is the latest demand from the silly $6 billion class-action lawsuit filed earlier this year in Manhattan federal court. If you recall, the initial suit called for the NFL teams to abandon MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford and move back across the Hudson River.
That is not going to happen, of course. So plaintiffs Abdiell Suero and Maggie Wilkins have lowered the bar: They just want the teams to drop the “New York” from their names and call New Jersey their home.
“New York City is the Big Apple, home of the Statue of Liberty, … Wall Street and the stock market, Broadway musicals ticker-tape parades …,” says the amended Manhattan federal court complaint filed last month.
“MetLife Stadium is located in the swamps of East Rutherford, NJ … , which has a population under 10,000, the 116th largest city in New Jersey. It’s not exactly an exciting and romantic destination[,] and the Giants, Jets and MetLife Stadium have absolutely no connection whatsoever with the city, county or state of New York.”
Obviously the teams do have a connection. The Giants played their home games in New York (at the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium) for nearly 50 years. The Jets also played in New York (at the Polo Grounds and Shea Stadium) for almost 25 years. Google is a good thing, folks.
Suero — who filed the initial complaint on his own — and Wilkins are arguing they were tricked into thinking the teams actually played in New York (due to their names). They argue they suffered harm because they spent money to buy tickets, only to learn they had to go to New Jersey instead. The horror.
“Not only isn’t the Meadowlands in New York, it was the site of one of the country’s biggest garbage dumps for decades before defendants’ stadiums were built on top of it,” said the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Evan Spencer, in the complaint.
The Giants and Jets motioned to have the lawsuit dismissed in late April, arguing it is a bogus complaint designed to generate headlines, not a legitimate legal win. It will almost assuredly get dumped in the trash eventually. But in the meantime, the show rolls on.
Newsflash: It’s tough to just build a stadium in a big city. That’s why various teams’ homes aren’t located where their names suggest. The Los Angeles Rams and Chargers are actually in Inglewood, California. The Washington Commanders are in Landover, Maryland. The Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington, Texas. It’s not that absurd of a concept.
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