A bunch of Jets fans paid for a plane to carry a “Fire Adam Gase Now” banner across Manhattan’s West Side on Friday afternoon.

The cash would have been better used as kindling.

Current view from the top of the GWB #FireAdamGaseNow pic.twitter.com/Gly9KfXm2y — NYSF Magazine (@NYSFmag) November 8, 2019

This entire charade was put together via GoFundMe. The chief executive officer of New York Sports Fans Magazine, Jason Koeppel, is the ringleader.

In his explanation of the “movement” – a laughable label, given the truly inconsequential stakes here – to drive the Jets’ head coach out of town, Koeppel admits off the bat that this entire thing is misdirected.

“While Adam Gase’s name was on the back of the plane, this movement is actually about holding ownership accountable for their actions over the past decade,” Koeppel wrote. “In reality, that plane should have read “SELL THE TEAM!” but we know that they have absolutely no intention of doing that.”

So, just to be clear, Koeppel and his brethren spent thousands of dollars to ... intentionally aim low? To shout about what they view as a minor problem by comparison?

What a principled “movement” we have on our hands here.

That absurdity alone makes this stunt pointless. If you’re going to waste money trying to “send a message to ownership," you might as well go all the way and make ownership – Woody and Christopher Johnson – the direct recipients of your ire.

But, more than that, this notion of paying money to incentivize the Johnsons to make a change is utterly foolish.

Want to get ownership’s attention? Then. Stop. Spending. Money.

Professional sports franchises thrive on a captive audience of ravenous fans. Owners are betting that their fans will never tune out their teams. In the most cynical interpretation, owners are preying on your emotional connection to a logo – and some strange sense of “loyalty” that fans have decided they must uphold, through good times and bad, in order to become “real fans.”

But in reality, that’s exactly what owners – particularly the crappy ones – want. They want people who will keep pumping hard-earned dollars into their ever-expanding coffers, whether the team is worth watching or not.

The only fix is a dose of apathy.

Want to ding the Johnsons? Want them to take notice? Want them to “sell the team?”

Then don’t keep spending money on the Jets – even if that money doesn’t feed their wallets. All stunts like these do is show ownership that fans still care. And that’s exactly what they want.

If Koeppel and Co. really want to get their point across, they need to stop. Entirely. Stop buying tickets. Stop purchasing jerseys. Stop watching games and make a dent in those ratings, too.

It’s a lot tougher for billionaires to shrug off a struggling bottom line than one rogue sign drifting overhead.

Of course, staging a mass boycott of everything New York Jets is a lot more challenging than cobbling together 168 dopes willing to waste their money. So, maybe it’s unfair to put that entire burden on Koeppel and his friends. But if they really want to achieve their stated goal, it’s going to require convincing an overwhelming majority of the fanbase to take action – and that this hard-line stance is the right one.

After all, the reality is that firing Gase now accomplishes nothing. That’s not to say he’s done a good job. He certainly has not. He absolutely should be on the hot seat if the Jets’ dreadful showings continue. And Jets fans have every right to be upset with Gase for how horribly this season has gone. Their anger with the Johnsons is warranted, too.

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But how does canning him now and making Jim Bob Cooter the acting offensive coordinator help Sam Darnold? How does giving him the boot now, after half of one injury-plagued season, help convince up-and-coming head coaches to come work in Florham Park?

It doesn’t. In fact, the move makes about as much sense as dialing up a pilot to help fix your favorite football team.

Matt Stypulkoski may be reached at mstypulkoski@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @M_Stypulkoski. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.