EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If the trend in baseball stadiums is intimacy, in football, it is grandeur. And the New Meadowlands Stadium, the home of the Jets and the Giants, is certainly imposing.
New Stadium, a Football Palace, Opens Saturday With Lacrosse
By KEN BELSON
Published: April 8, 2010
Michael Falco for The New York Times
A look inside one of the club rooms at the New Meadowlands Stadium.
The latest news, notes and analysis as N.F.L. teams explore off-season roster moves.
N.F.L.
Giants
Jets
Michael Falco for The New York Times
A view from the upper deck of the New Meadowlands Stadium, the home of the Jets and the Giants.
With 2.2 million square feet, it is twice the size of Giants Stadium, which is being demolished next door. It is 30 feet higher and has about 6,000 more seats. The suites are more opulent, the 118-foot-long scoreboards are larger and the construction cost is lavish, at $1.6 billion, equal to the gross domestic product of Lesotho.
The first football game is not until August, but the stadium will open on Saturday for the Big City Classic collegiate lacrosse tournament.
Most days, the stadium will look vast, gray and generic. But when the main tenants are at home, lights and video screens will change colors, concessions will sell Jets or Giants gear and decorations will be added to “blue it up for Giants games and green it up for Jets games,” said Mark Lamping, the president of New Meadowlands Stadium Company, which was formed by the teams to build the stadium. Fans will add to the palette with their team jerseys.
The stadium has sumptuous quarters for the well-heeled, including suites that cost $1 million a season, and clubs with leather seats and marble counter tops. Views from the Coach’s Club and other premium spots are intimate.
Fans in the nonpremium seats will have a more spartan experience. The seats are less than two feet wide, space that will be easily filled with fans in their winter coats. The pitch of the top deck is such that fans should have little trouble seeing over others in front of them. And once your eyes adjust to the height, the game below should be, appropriately, fully visible.
