Why Did The New York Jets Spend So Much Money This Offseason? Three Letters: PSL

"PSL" is an abbreviation sports fans (and recently, NY football fans) have been dreading. Usually standing for "personal seat license," PSL's are essentially costly reservations to purchase season tickets for a certain seat, and they've become standard procedure for many owners of pro sports teams when a new stadium is being built. PSL's often cost in the tens of thousands of dollars to purchase, and the high costs refrain the average sports fan from being able to purchase season tickets in newly built stadiums.

Not surprisingly, the New York Giants and New York Jets want to implement PSL's with the New Meadowlands Stadium opening in 2010. When you're an owner who wants to implement PSL's, it obviously helps when you have a good product on the field. The Giants have it easy; their excuse for having PSL's is they just won the Super Bowl. The Jets were faced with a more difficult task of convincing fans to buy PSL's, coming off an ugly 4-12 season. Needless to say, spending around $10,000 for the rights to buy season tickets doesn't sound like a good idea when the team is that bad.

Team owner Woody Johnson realized that he needed to shape up the Jets big time, and that's exactly what he did. After spending around $140 million this past off-season on free agents, the Jets look like a whole new team ready to compete for a playoff spot. By signing Alan Faneca, the best offensive lineman who was available, and Damien Woody, the Jets' o-line has been changed from one of the worst to potentially one of the best in the NFL. Jets also gave linebackers Calvin Pace and rookie Vernon Gholston wealthy contracts. Woody Johnson has not spent this kind of money in years past. In fact, he had been often criticized for spending very little on players. The most reasonable explanation for why the big bucks were spent this year is so they could build up demand for season tickets in the new stadium.

The biggest remaining problem loomed at the most important position: quarterback. Chad Pennington has led the Jets to the playoffs a few times in the past, but many believed is lack of arm strength would hold the passing attack back from being as good as it can be. Kellen Clemens is believed by some to be the future QB, but others doubt if he really has enough talent to be a starter. Neither QB had any star power attributed to their names.

When Brett Favre became a possibility for the Jets' QB problems, Johnson saw it as an attention grabbing, big-time-money-making opportunity. One of biggest names and most popular players in all of sports playing in the biggest city; the Favre trade was the icing on the cake for the Jets' big off-season. Several thousand Favre Jet jerseys were sold within the 24 hours after the trade, but ultimately, Johnson is hoping Favre will further encourage fans to get excited about the franchise and pay up for the PSL's.

If Woody Johnson could speak bluntly to the fans, he would be saying, "We signed some of the best free agents. We got one of the best quarterbacks in football. Now come get some season tickets for our brand new stadium." So Jets fans should remember that even though management improved the team greatly this off-season, it wasn't exactly for all the right reasons.