Someone once said, "Sometimes you don't see the forest for the trees." We're driving into the stadium on Sunday, looking at all the Xanadu construction and hoping it won't be too hard to find our usual spot near Gate C. The construction is a reminder of what will be coming soon with the construction of our new stadium. Then my wife asks, "Why do we need a new stadium, anyway?" You know, for the life of me, I couldn't come up with a decent answer. "Because this one will have a dome," could have been a legitimate one. Or perhaps, "It'll hold a lot more." Or maybe, "Because it will be used for a lot more than this stadium is capable of." But none of the above applied. After all the consternation, all the bickering back and forth between LI'ers and NJ guys, all the posts over the West Side Stadium, the last-minute, last-ditch effort to keep the Queens idea alive, the heated, ad nauseum posts concerning whether or not the stadium should be in NY, the sharing of the stadium... I mean, you remember it all. In the end, the Jets and Giants settle for a shared stadium, which we have now. True, we don't "own" half of it, but that's easily resolved with a buy-sell agreement with the state of New Jersey for 50% of the rights. No big thing there. You change a few colors, add a few lights, and you're in for 5% of what the new one will cost. Capacity? The current stadium holds close to 78,000. The new one will hold 82,000... a 5% difference is not a big enough difference to warrant the expense. Retractable Roof? Nothing going on there with the new one... so no, no change there. More amenities? Build the same free-standing "themed restaurants" and gift shops near the old stadium like you're going to build near the new stadium. Nothing earth-shattering about that idea. Rail head? Bring it in. Still room to do that. No difference there. "Old stadium" too old? Come on. The structure is fine. My friend, Carmelo Lattore, the mason, even poured all the concrete for the new addition above the stadium club not 10 years ago. It still looks brand new. Honestly, sitting there in the parking lot and looking up at the "old" building, I couldn't come up with one damned reason why we needed a new stadium.
Because Giants stadium is a depressing, concrete, shithole that offers nothing in the way of character or anything resembling a home-field advantage. At least they hang up some Jets stuff on saturday night to make us feel a little home-y on sundays.
You can be sure it has in some way to do with the almighty buck and not so the fans will have a nicer experience!! I am sure they see a need for some additional luxery boxes and just wait til they send the bill for your PSL. I think the look of the new stadium is horrible. We'll see.
I, for one, am tired of playing in "Giants Stadium". Even though I call it The Meadowlands, some smarmy Giants fan always reminds me of the real name of the stadium.
We can only do that when we get there by cheering and such. There is very little at Giants stadium to make a Jets fan feel at home, I feel. I'm not saying we need gimmicky pirate ships or anything, but I don't think the stadium contributes anything to whatever atmosphere the fans can muster.
Why a new Stadium??? Simple, Money. As in, the OWNERS aren't making enough. The ONLY reason for a new stadium is so that the owners can have more LUXURY BOXES to rent. The revenue from them is not divided with the opposing teams, as is the money form regular tickets sold, thus they are total, 100% profit for the home team aka the team owner. What's really amazing about all this is not only are taxpayer dollars being used to build the new stadium and the supporting infrastructure, but that the Corporations that rent the Luxury Boxes can write that off as and "Entertainment" expense thus the Taxpayers also end up paying for their tickets to go to the games. God Bless America!!!
The Jets need a new stadium because they need a home. They have not had a real home at any point in their existence and that's had a lot to do with how their history has gone. They need a place that only they can call home so they can go about the process of creating an environment that is really hard for other teams to come in and play in. The Meadowlands, as a shared facility, is just never gonna be that place, nor will its successor.
This statement embellishes my point, if true. If it's so that a shared facility still doesn't scare the be-Jesus out of an opposing team, then it's also true that the new stadium doesn't supply that. Case closed on that one. "We can't fill up 78K, good luck with 82K!" Good point! As far as Scruggy's argument, the "Giants Stadium," name will change with the new stadium to something else. So why not change the name of the existing stadium now, after we acquire 50% ownership? Simple, yet so complicated for some to understand. Jixxjr gets close to the answer: Money.
Bingo! The new stadium was going to be called the WSS. No, I can't let it go! Anyway, as far as the new construction, I am looking forward to the Cabela's.
I don't get why we need our own stadium to have a homefield advantage. The crowd is what creates that. Green seats isn't going to make teams intimidated to come play here. And I don't see how the stadium being called Giants Stadium keeps people from staying from start to finish and making noise. The stadium is fine imo. Nothing special about it, but I don't see a big need for a new one
$$$$$ If Woody gave a damn about the fans, he would have given a half-assed effort in regards to Queens (which was no guarantee, but was rolling out the red carpet for the Jets compared to Manhattan). Another good idea: refurbishing Giants Stadium to include the Jets more. It wouldn't be as nice as this new stadium would be, but it would keep ticket prices down and preserve current sight lines, which are terrific. Instead, he took the easy money--a totally unnecessary new stadium with the Giants, continuing our exile. Now Woody and the Maras will get rich off of what's essentially an unnecessary stadium that they built for no reason other than to fatten their own pockets. Edit: I'm not hating on Woody for high ticket prices in particular; every owner is guilty of that crime. My beef is with his use of Queens as mere leverage with the Giants, rather than as a viable alternative. Many will disagree with me, which is fine...just how I feel.
We don't need a 'New' stadium so much as we need our 'Own' Stadium... We have been Road rats since our existence and It's a damn shame!
That's ridiclous, when we have really good teams that Stadium gets as loud as any in the league. In '98 that stadium was great, in '02 late in the year i was the loudest I ever heard it. As long as we have a really good team the building will be loud. I don't get this quote.
Yeah, the only reason has already been mentioned repeatedly. It's the money. Luxury boxes are all that matters. They bring in more money for ownership, and that's all that matters in the end.
PSLs for both JETS fans and Giants fans. Is that still going to happen? The name of the game nowadays for most owners building new venues is not only Luxury Boxes and Club Seats but financially screwing the ordinary fans. At least the Kraft family here in New England realized that you don't charge PSLs, but expand the Luxury Box and Club Seats for the Corporate types to generate the revenues needed but leave the ticket prices for the non-corporate fans affordable.
