EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) - The New York Giants say they are close to deals for a new football stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex to be owned and operated jointly with the New York Jets.

The announcement Thursday came as the Giants submitted a revised plan for a new stadium to the Jets and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which runs the Meadowlands. The Giants and Jets are now tenants at Giants Stadium.
The plan was delivered a day before the sports authority is to consider whether to recommend that New Jersey walk away from its agreement with the Giants on a new stadium.

That opinion could hinge on whether the Giants reach an accord with the Jets, who have proposed a design of their own for the Meadowlands.

On Thursday, the Jets appeared to have a different view of the status of negotiations.

"I think at this point we are far apart," spokeswoman Marissa Shorenstein said.

The 80,000-seat stadium and adjacent practice facility proposed by the Giants would cost $800 million US and be paid for by the teams, said John K. Mara, the Giants' chief operating officer. It is designed to accommodate a retractable roof, at a cost of about $200 million more, which Mara said he hoped the state and NFL would help pay for.

It could open in time for the 2009 season.

"That's still our hope, but that's very ambitious at this point," Mara said.

In addition, the new plan attempts to make peace with the developers of Xanadu, a retail-entertainment centre rising across Route 120 from the stadium around the Continental Airlines Arena. The Giants, who have tried to derail Xanadu, now envision a retail centre of their own that would include a pedestrian walkway connecting it to Xanadu.

The agreement between the Giants and the state, reached in the spring, calls for a new, privately owned stadium to replace the state-owned Giants Stadium, one of the oldest in the NFL. The agreement allows the state to opt out if the Giants do not have a deal with the Jets by 5 p.m. Monday, said sports authority Chairman Carl J. Goldberg, although that step would not be taken lightly.

"The sports authority remains committed, as we were in April, to building a new stadium at the Meadowlands," Goldberg said.

He said the Giants have already missed the deadline for an agreement with Xanadu developers, but Mara said such an agreement appears close. The alternative would be renovating the existing stadium, which could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars, but provide little additional revenue, Mara said at a briefing for reporters.

The Jets had been trying to build a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, but after that effort failed in June, the Jets proposed building a 90,000-seat stadium with the Giants that would be integrated with Xanadu.

"We're very close to concluding a deal" with the Giants, Robert G. Sommer, a spokesman for the Xanadu developers, said Thursday evening.