Rockies land in Jersey

The new owners of hockey's Colorado Rockies are moving the club to New Jersey next season, not New York. Let there be no doubt about that.

Two other franchises, football's Giants and soccer's Cosmos, have relocated to the Meadowlands complex in recent years only to continue calling themselves New York teams. There's some logic here, since they were New York teams to begin with and haven't moved outside the New York metropolitan area. But the new tenant comes with no geographic strings attached. Consequently, the Meadowlands has stipulated that the words ''New Jersey'' or ''Garden State'' appear in the team's new name. New Jersey, after all, has an identity, too.

The yet-to-be-renamed Rockies will play in the Patrick Division alongside the NHL's two New York teams, the Rangers and champion Islanders.