New Meadowlands Stadium Bigger, Not Necessarily Better

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The idea to charge fans just for the right to buy a ticket to an NFL game surfaced nearly two decades ago, when Carolina entered the league based on charging for "personal seat licenses,'' and other teams quickly followed.

Soon afterward, then-commissioner Paul Tagliabue was asked was if the PSLs were pricing the ordinary fan out of stadiums.

"Ordinary fans,'' he replied, "watch the games on television."

That's not quite the attitude of Tagliabue's successor, Roger Goodell. But the league's policies – with new or renovated stadiums in more than 20 locales since then -- seem to reflect it. The newest is the great gray edifice in the Meadowlands, called Giants/Jets Meadowlands Stadium -- or something like that. A new $1.6 billion "palace'' where the fees per ticket go as high as $20,000.

It's more than that in Dallas, but that's ... well, Texas.

Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney, now the ambassador to Ireland, flew in from Dublin Saturday night to watch his Steelers play the Giants at the new facility, then flew back from Newark Sunday -- 8,000 miles or so just to watch an exhibition game. That's one reason why he is so revered by his fans -- he cares. He also cares about the league, so he wanted to see the new stadium.

That's also why I went to game: I wanted to see the new place. Both from the press box and from the stands, where I savored the experience from a $120 seat that's "licensed'' for a "one-time only'' bargain price of $4,000.

My grade? Compared to the old Giants Stadium, which was charging $7 or so per ticket when it opened in 1976: D-minus.
My grade? Compared to the old Giants Stadium, which was charging $7 or so per ticket when it opened in 1976: D-minus.

So it's not surprising that neither the Giants nor Jets have been able to sell out the place -- the Jets are significantly behind, despite owner Woody Johnson's rant that his team now owns New York. His team still had close to 9,000 seats to sell last week, the Giants about 1,000.

Why the lack of enthusiasm?

Because it's just too costly.

It cost $1.6 billion for the Mara/Tisch families and Johnson to provide a place for their teams to share. Yet Giants Stadium, on the same site, had no bad seats except maybe in the press box, which they moved to the roof a decade or so ago in order to turn the old one into luxury suites.

"We're moving you closer to God,'' laughed the late Wellington Mara, who with Rooney was the last of the old-line "football only'' owners. His son John has continued the tradition.

The new place?

Obviously tickets cost too much. They are too much for regular-season games and way too much for exhibitions like the one Saturday night, where most of the time you're watching guys who will play in the UFL, nowhere or spend the season on practice squads.

Worse, the experience has gone from just watching football to "entertainment.'' Even for the Giants' first home game in the new building, only 55,000 folks showed up to sit in 82,000 seats and maybe a quarter of them were Steelers fans who wanted to watch their team and got their tickets in the generous online re-sale the Giants run. Probably half the Giants season ticket-holders are waiting for the regular season, when real players are participating and it matters who wins.

The Giants would be advised to work out a lot of things.

During timeouts, it's not enough to chat with your neighbor (can't hear because of the music) or go to the refreshment stands or restrooms -- the lines at the restrooms will be longer when more people are there.

Just as bad is the tone by what always has been the most professional of operations.

In a direct affront to the late Bob Sheppard, who was the PA announcer for the Giants as well as the Yankees, the Giants were introduced as YOURRRR New York Giants'' when they ran on to the field. And the Sheppard sound-alike calling each play was all over the place -- when Derek Hagan, No. 80, caught a pass for the Giants, he called him Sha'reff Rashad, a safety who wears No. 30 and had already left the game with an injury (learn your own players, please, and used a spotter or binoculars).
For example, in the old stadium, scores of other games were always there, posted on a scoreboard at each end to be perused at any time. So were Mets and Yankees scores when they were in season and so were stats, constantly updated.


In the new joint, you have to be looking at the right time to get them. And no baseball scores in sight.

You also have to figure out the football scores because the format makes it difficult to tell if they run horizontally or vertically.

That is, Baltimore was playing Washington and Tampa Bay was at Kansas City and the scores ran in pairs when they flashed them.

Were they left to right or top to bottom? Baltimore was listed with Washington to its left and Tampa Bay beneath it. Washington was listed with Baltimore to the right and Kansas City beneath it. So if you read left to right, Baltimore was playing Washington and the Bucs were at the Chiefs. That was correct. But if you read top to bottom (why not?) it was Baltimore-Tampa Bay and Tampa Bay-Kansas City.

Simple solution: Leave the scores up permanently, as they did at the old Giants Stadium, where, for the record, they were north to south. Well, it's a NEW STADIUM and let's show fans flashier computer graphics on our MUCH bigger screens.

Same thing with stats. They came and went. In the new era, the graphics just have to keep moving.

Again, that's not big stuff. Nor is the food, which has more variety than the old place (at outlandish prices, of course) but isn't much tastier. And it's just as crowded on the stairwells and when just trying to get around. And the looks? Drab.

But that really doesn't matter to the NFL because ...

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11,Tagliabue got it into his head that cold weather or not, the NFL needed a Super Bowl in New York and possibly Washington, the two cities targeted by the terrorists. Then he started to back off.

At a news conference announcing he was putting that on hold, he said "Giants Stadium isn't adequate for it.''

"What's wrong with Giants Stadium?'' he was asked.

"Not enough common areas; not enough suites; not enough room for all the fans,'' he replied.That's the theme. Unless the average fan wants to shell out far beyond his or her means -- and a lot of people do -- the Super Bowl is for the corporate types.



So now there's this multibillion-dollar facility in the Meadowlands (at least, like Jerry Jones' Dallas Palace, it doesn't have a scoreboard over the field within range of strong-legged punters). Building it got New York a Super Bowl in February of 2014, leaving someone in the league office to scan weather reports four years in advance and pray that it's a nice 40-degree day, as it was when the Giants and Vikings played the NFC title game in January of 2001.

The alternative is a not-so-nice 15 degrees with blizzard.

So one game seems to be the reason they tore down the old place, built the new one and charged Giants and Jets fans what many of them can't really afford to pay.

The NFL is the most popular league in America, by far.

Does it really have to tear down a perfectly good stadium?