Newz Forum: FOOTBALL: NYC hopes to host Big Apple Bowl at proposed Jets stadium

NEW YORK -- New York City wants to host a college bowl game in 2010 at the proposed future home of the New York Jets on the West Side of Manhattan.

The Big Apple Bowl would be played at the New York Sports and Convention Center, which is still in the planning stages, sports officials said Sunday.

The $1.4 billion stadium would be linked to the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. It would be designed to house conventions and concerts -- and the 2012 Olympics, if New York is chosen -- in addition to football.

The Jets, whose lease at the Meadowlands in New Jersey expires in 2008, have committed to spending $800 million in private funds on the stadium. The city and state would add $300 million each to build a retractable roof and a deck over the existing rail yards.

But approval to build the stadium hasn't been given, and the plan faces opposition from community groups and many elected officials who are against using tax dollars for a sports facility when schools and city services are facing a budget crunch.

New York City hasn't hosted a college bowl game since the Gotham Bowl in Yankee Stadium in 1962.

If the stadium is built, its completion would be slated for 2009. Postseason bowl games are required to petition the NCAA for certification. That process would begin once the timeline for the stadium is completed.

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this should be interesting if it is build, what bowl would be hosted? and would NYC get its own bowl game.

I think it'd be neat to see a bowl game in the Big Apple, and the stadium sound snice, I don't know what the issues are, for the neighbors, but I guess I wouldn't want a stadium in my backyard either...