New Stadium unveiled for Giants and Jets

colonel_123 · Post by **colonel_123** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 11:04 am

Giants, Jets unveil design of new $1.3 billion stadium

Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants and New York Jets broke ground Wednesday on the first stadium to be jointly owned by two NFL teams and unveiled how architects plan to make two competing teams feel at home in a $1.3 billion stadium.

"Ensuring that the stadium would feel like home to both teams and both groups of fans was our goal and also one of the biggest challenges in the design of the stadium," said Steve Tisch, chairman and executive vice president of the New York Giants.

To do that, the stadium will feature an eight-story mega display, called the "Great Wall," with 400-foot-long by 40-foot-high panels featuring either team's logo or neutral colors for non-football events.

Tisch, Giants President and CEO John Mara and Jets Chairman and CEO Woody Johnson unveiled the design at a ceremony also attended by New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The yet unnamed building, for which owners are still working on a naming-rights deal, will host 20 NFL games each season - more than any football stadium in the country.

Constructed next to the existing Giants Stadium, the new field is expected to open for the 2010 season and seat 82,500 in a bowl-design, where seats in the front row are 46 feet from the sidelines. Fans also will find a 300,000-square-foot outdoor plaza for tailgating.

While Wednesday's event marked the official ground breaking, infrastructure work is already under way on the open-air facility at the Meadowlands sports complex.

Along with the design of the building, planners have been working to make access to the facility easier. Lanes into the Meadowlands will increase to more than 40 from the existing 16 and a new rail facility will connect the stadium to New York's Penn Station through Secaucus beginning in February 2009.

The teams cleared a large hurdle last month when each completed separate $650 million financing deals. CitiCorp is financing the Jets' portion, while investment banks Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers are financing the Giants' deal.

The teams also received a financial boost earlier this year when NFL owners approved $300 million in loans for stadium work.

The teams announced plans to build a stadium together two years ago, after the Jets' plans for a stadium on Manhattan's West Side fell through. The Giants had been planning to build a new stadium themselves.

Now, the Giants also will construct a new training facility at the Meadowlands, while the Jets are building their own in Florham Park, N.J.

The stadium is one of several new major sports facilities opening in the New York metropolitan area. New homes also are being built for the New York Mets, the New York Yankees, the New Jersey Nets and the New Jersey Devils.

The Devils hockey team is leaving Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands for the Prudential Center, opening in downtown Newark in October.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

Photos can be seen here: http://68.72.70.73/

Simmo79 · Post by **Simmo79** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 11:31 am

In substance, it's not a lot more than an updated version of the current meadowlands stadium. Just has more corporate boxes and club seating in the middle deck. Looks alright, not unneccesarily fancy or anything.

colonel_123 · Post by **colonel_123** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 11:36 am

Simmo79 wrote:In substance, it's not a lot more than an updated version of the current meadowlands stadium. Just has more corporate boxes and club seating in the middle deck. Looks alright, not unneccesarily fancy or anything.

Isn't that pretty much what all these new stadiums they're building in the US are about?

I mean with the exception of say the new stadium in Arizona which saw them move into a new high tech domed stadium, most of these new venues are basically the same as the old but with more corporate boxes...

IanRitchie · Post by **IanRitchie** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:22 pm

Meh.

It's just like the current Meadowlands.

Some of the newer NFL stadiums are alright, they aren't really the generic UK flatpack stadium.

britishspud · Post by **britishspud** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 4:31 pm

whats the new capacity?? look a lot smaller...68 - 70k?

oh,... it needs as roof aswell

Timbo · Post by **Timbo** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 3:46 pm

I have to say...For 1.3 billion dollars...I expect more.

Sydney Cricket Ground 12 · Mon May 26, 2008 6:36 pm

There is a webcam of construction http://www.giants.com/fan_zone/ConstructionCam.asp[/url]

spinDr · Post by **spinDr** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:38 pm

for $1.3bn i would have expected it to be in New York.

Timbo · Post by **Timbo** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:46 am

Hell, the more I think about that, the more it doesn't compute.

Stade de Oz was what, three quarters of a bil? Aussie dollars?

Seriously what a bland and boring looking stadium for what their paying.

The Colts new stadium, however. That's a nice looking venue.

anthony · Post by **anthony** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 10:05 pm

Was in Nashville last week & went & looked at LP Field (home of Nashville Titans). Beautiful location by the river across from the city, with extensive parking & new pedestrian bridge. 9 years old & typical NFL stadium - holds 67,000. Was surprised that there is hardly any roof, tho. Gues it never rains there!

anthony · Post by **anthony** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 1:00 am

Just back from Cleveland. Took a look at the Cleveland Browns stadium & was amazed there was no roof whatsoever. It would be very wet & cold in December!

redback_original · Post by **redback_original** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:23 pm

interestingly, the NFL has a stated preference for football to be played in natural conditions, on natural grass..

.. in the elements..

but i'm sure they don't have a policy that the spectators also have to be pelted with wind, rain and sleet..

speaking of the new meadowlands -

Giants detail personal seat license plan for new $1.6 billion stadium
Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- More than 80 percent of the New York Giants' current season ticket holders will be charged between $1,000 and $7,500 for the right to buy tickets for the team's new stadium under a personal seat license plan announced by the Giants on Thursday. Licenses for some of the best seats will cost as much as $20,000.

Mike Derer / Associated Press
The new home of the Giants and Jets, under construction in front of the current Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands sports complex, is scheduled to open in 2010.

The plan gives the first detailed breakdown of the costs season ticket holders will incur and their options to downgrade.

The Giants announced two weeks ago that they would be imposing seat license fees, which have become a common means of helping sports team owners finance new stadiums.

Giants chief executive John Mara noted that revenue from the one-time fee will raise $371 million toward the cost of the $1.6 billion stadium being built and paid for by the Giants and Jets. It is scheduled to open for the 2010 season.

Mara said half the money raised by PSLs would have to be paid in taxes.

The Jets have not announced whether they will require season ticket holders to buy PSLs, but Mara said he would be shocked if they did not, knowing the debt the Giants have incurred.

"I don't particularly like to come out with a PSL program, but I also know that it is in the best long-term interests of this franchise," Mara said in terming the PSL decision one of the toughest of his life.

Realizing that current longtime season ticket holders who are sitting in some of the best seats cannot afford the top PSL prices, Mara said the team is offering 10 PSL plans, ranging from the top fee of $20,000 to a low of $1,000.

One-third of the 78,448 seats covered under the PSL plan will have $1,000 licenses. All of those seats will be in the upper bowl of the new stadium, which is being built adjacent to the current Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands sports complex.

Other licenses will cost $4,000; $5,000; $7,500; $10,000; $12,000; or $20,000, depending on location.

Mara said he has received some complaints, including a few from fans who insisted that his late father, Wellington, would never have required PSLs.

"And believe me, I feel that," John Mara said. "But my father was not faced with this kind of debt on a new building like this either, and we thought that we had to make this tough decision."

Mara noted that PSLs will allow season ticket holders to pass their tickets from one generation to the next.

Some 1,600 season ticket brochures outlining the PSL plan were mailed this week to people who currently hold 5,000 midfield seats in Giants Stadium.

Mara said the team plans a series of mailings through February 2009 to inform season ticket holders of PSL options. About 21,000 interests control all the Giants seats, Mara said.

Fans will have 30 days after receiving the literature to decide whether to buy the PSL at the level offered, to downgrade or to reject the offer, which would free up the seat.

The team said it has lined up financing for the PSLs for season ticket holders who may need it.

Mara expects the team to be able to accommodate anyone who wants to move their seat.

"We are not interested in getting new blood," Mara said when asked if the PSL concept might result in the loss of present season ticket holders. "We have a very loyal fan base who have been there for a long time, and we want to keep them in the building."

Any season ticket holder who opts not to buy a PSL will be able to keep the tickets for the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

The Giants also announced that the average individual 2010 season ticket price of non-Club seats will be $112.

Capacity at the new stadium is expected to be 82,500, which includes approximately 9,300 Club seats. With the inclusion of those Club seats, the average season ticket price is projected to be $157.

Simmo79 · Post by **Simmo79** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:01 am

Egan · Post by **Egan** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:59 am

It really is a boring stadium

But I think that of Emirates and Wembley as well...

Simmo79 · Post by **Simmo79** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:01 pm

It's boring because it's nearly identical to the one it's replacing.