Now me personally I can’t stand Metlife stadium I think it’s awful and the old meadowlands was so much better. I never went to a Jets game at Shea stadium but compared to the old meadowlands which one was better overall including tailgating and crowd atmosphere? Would the Jets have been better off just staying at Shea back in the 80s?
LOL....not sure if I qualify as an old timer being a fan since 1980 as a kid but even never have being at a Jets game at Shea I can tell you what their answers would be .... MetLife is not very popular amongst the fans it’s basically considered an albatross. As crappy as Shea was it did have it’s “coziness” and opposing teams hated playing there. I remember hating seeing them leaving Shea ......and especially playing in Giants Stadium.
In the seventies when I had my seats at Shea I remember very little tailgating but we always parked in the smaller east lot and never saw the larger lots to the north and west. It may have been going on but I was with people who always managed to get there from the LIE and Main Street in Flushing about a half an hour before game time and bailed out down College Point Boulevard when it was over. Later, going to Giants Stadium was the disaster requiring arrival hours early and time to cook dinner before leaving because there's no decent way in or out of the swamp from the east. I have never felt anywhere near the excitement or crowd involvement in New Jersey as I did at Shea.
Getting to Met is so much more convenient. I myst say, when im at the game i never think about questions like this. Aa a player i perferred certain fields over others but as a fan viewing, my focus is usually on the action and the unified passion of complete strangers. Fandom/ sports is proof that human beings can set aside differences and come together for common causes. As a fan i enjoy the action, wheher its 6 year old pop warner kids on a piece of field in somebody's back yard or the best venue you could imagine.
I will say, after living in PA and gone to a few events there, NY should have followed the Philly model. They built an entire sports complex using 3 bldgs housing the 7 6'ers, Eagles and Philles all within walking distance of each other adjacent to several interstate highways and rail/bus access. I went to Shea for games and it was challenging in the winter to say the least. The Meadowlands could have been renovated as they abandoned any dome proposals as too expensive. Shea was perhaps the easiet to get to via Rail and Highway. The old Fair Grounds would have been a perfect place for the Philly model too. Mets and Jets could have had seperate stadiums and simply shared parking. They could have upgraded the access to the Meadowlands for about the same cost as building Metlife. Added rail extensions (NJT), perhaps an additional route into the area as well.
I'm someone whose family had season tickets to the Jets at Shea and then Giants Stadium. Shea Stadium was the best because it felt like real football. It was cold, windy, rainy & muddy. Not only that, the placed was filled with rowdy drunk fans who smoked TONS of weed. Everyone would hang out on the ramps and smoke. Some even passed around joints in the crowd. First time as a kid I smelled pot and wondered what it was. At Shea is where the J-E-T-S chant began. The upper deck in the corner one guy with the beer helmet (first time I ever saw a beer helmet) and his buddy. Fireman Ed was not there. People tailgated in the parking lot, however, it was not as extensive as it was at Giants Stadium. Aside from the drive from Long Island, I grew to like Giants Stadium because every seat in the house felt like you had a great view. The tailgating was great Giants Stadium. But Shea is still the best overall because it truly felt like old school football. However, it could be very miserable when the Jets were losing and it was cold and rainy, especially if you had seats not under the cover of a deck. I once sat in endzone seats which were bleachers (benches with no backs) when they played Seattle. I think the final was 19-3 Seattle. Jets did nothing and it was a cold rain all game long. Miserable!
I have never been to Met Life and will be surprised if I ever go, been to the Meadowlands many times, getting tickets from season ticket holders forMonday night games was very easy, unfortunately living three hours away combines with the nightmare of getting out of the place made for a tough Tuesday at work. As I fast approached my 60s I stopped going to any games. Shea was not a bad place to see a game but it was a baseball stadium there were some sections where you were farther away from the field than you should have been, Meadowlands was for football and was great in any section. When you think about how stupid this sounds NY State has two football stadiums one in Syracuse and the other in Buffalo, I never blamed Hess for going to Jersey. With prices the way they are the fact that two teams and the state of Jersey split the bills on Met Life the fact that it doesn’t have a retractable roof is a crime. December tickets are always available up here in the Saratoga area, the weather the prices combined with the Jet logo never being portrayed when the TV networks talk about teams in the hunt for the playoffs causes no interest at all.
My experience at the old meadowlands stadium was a good one. Liked my seat mates most from Pelham NY. Great group. That all changed with the new stadium and the PSL. The PSL upcharge made attending games at the new stadium unaffordable for so many Jet fans who were loyal to the team and filled the stadium. The PSL tore the heart out of the stadium experience. PSL changed the fan base attending the games. In the new stadium many PSL owners don’t attend and sell the tix to clueless non Jet fans or non football fans. I was lucky enough to find most of my Pelham buddies in the new stadium and got My PSL seats with them. Then the Jets made my section non PSL and to prevent a law suit gave me the option to move down to a field level seat. I like the view but the seats around me are a constant rotation of clueless non Jet fans and tourists to NYC. The new stadium was designed to provide and sell higher priced box seats and squeeze the outside less expensive seats into smaller areas. The great minds expected the economy to keep advancing and fuel the PSL investment or PSL GOLD as it was touted by their paid online trolls...then the 2006 to 2008 economic downturn occurred... The PSL killed the stadium experience for so many.
As several have already said they could've have done such a better job with the Meadowlands. The physical pant/area that is the Meadowlands is so big that the two teams working with the state of NJ should've made this a shrine to fan experience and enjoyment. Instead they took the lazy route and we get this concrete, cold, uninspiring shithouse called MetLife. They could've put more transportation/rail options in too. I gave up my seasons three years ago and couldn't be happier. If I want to go to a game it's easy to get tix and I only live a few miles from the stadium. The whole area, the dumb American dream disaster, just so poorly thought out. It could've been so much better.
I remember that game....the Jets went into the game on a winning streak and primed to end the Seattle jinx. Todd hit Walker on a long screen pass TD for 75 yards to open but it was called back on a penalty and it went downhill from there. I was switching back and forth between that game and the Yankees Dodgers WS game ....
Saw two Jet losses to Baltimore and Pitt at old Shea Stadium during the 80s...meh Is the Giant Worlds Fair Globe still standing across the street?
63,000 maniacs at Shea every Sunday, great experience not like that shithole in NJ, we actually had a home field advantage, but we just had bad teams but we didn't care because we loved our NY Jets
Loved Shea Great atmosphere but not a football stadium and had some shitty sight lines. Didnt like the move but at least Giants Stadium was great to watch game not a bad seat in the place Metlife is an abomination
Never been to Met Life, Meadowlands was good, but Shea was classic... saw Joe Willie as a kid there...
The Unisphere is still in Flushing Meadows Pak but it is closer to the LIE and south of the Tennis Center which is truly "across the street." Actually sightlines at Shea were great but some were long due to the circular structure of most of the seating. What made it "meh" to you other than the outcome of the couple of games you saw?
