Picture-perfect opening for $200M Red Bull Arena in Harrison

red-bull-arena-opens-harrison-nj.jpgMarcos Geleski of Brazil holds his 3-year-old son, Joshua, as they head into the opening game of Red Bull Arena in Harrison.

On a picture-perfect night many fans longed for, the New York metropolitan area finally got its own

soccer stadium

today. The long-suffering

Red Bulls even got a win

, and Major League Soccer ensured five years of labor peace by signing a

new collective bargaining agreement

before the match.

The sky was cloudless blue, and the first evening of spring felt more like early summer. A sellout crowd of 25,000, many in shirt sleeves on a 73-degree night, filled long-discussed and much-delayed Red Bull Arena in Harrison and watched the Red Bulls roll over Brazil's Santos — Pele's old team — 3-1 in a chippy exhibition.

red-bull-arena-opens-harrison-nj-2.jpgNew York Red Bulls' Sinisa Ubiparipovic, top, jumps on teammate Mike Petke after Petke scored a goal during the first half of an soccer match against Santos FC tonight at the new Red Bull Arena in Harrison.

Joel Lindpere scored off the rebound of his own free kick in the 11th minute, Mike Petke added a goal in the 43rd and Dane Richards made it 3-0 two minutes later. Germano headed in Santos' goal in the 90th, just before the lights were cut and a fireworks display was shot off from the center circle.

Fans filled the $200 million, two-deck oval, and league officials immediately proclaimed the nation's eighth soccer-specific stadium its finest.

Franz Beckenbauer, a World Cup champion as player and coach, was on hand to mark the moment. When Der Kaiser played for the Cosmos from 1977-'80, the team filled up Giants Stadium in nearby East Rutherford with crowd of nearly 80,000. But with MLS mostly lacking the biggest stars, the Red Bulls averaged just 12,491 fans for league home games at Giants Stadium last year, 12th among 15 teams.

And they were forced to play on artificial turf on a field that was slightly too narrow. Now they're in a gleaming stadium that looks like it could have been transplanted from a wealthy regional club in central Europe, with a translucent glass roof over the seats to protect fans from rain.

"Thirty or 40 years ago, almost no one in the country played the game, and it takes time," Beckenbauer said. "Also, it's a question of tradition. So it takes time to get used to, to compete with the best teams in world, which you are doing now."

In a league that will miss its biggest draw, Los Angeles midfielder David Beckham, for most if not all of this season because of his torn Achilles' tendon, the Red Bulls hope to add a star later this year. Barcelona's Thierry Henry and Real Madrid's Raul Gonzalez often are mentioned as possibilities.

"It should be the beginning of a new era in New York soccer," Red Bulls sporting director Dietmar Beiersdorfer said. "For sure we are also working on one other player maybe to strengthen our team."

The biggest stars were missing from this match because of injury — Santos' Robinho and New York's Juan Pablo Angel. Beiersdorfer knows what sells, especially in the Big Apple.

"New York has a lot of big clubs — not in soccer but in other sports," he said.

While PATH commuter trains go directly to the stadium, allowing fans to travel in the same manner as most European supporters do, those who took shuttle buses from Newark's Penn Station were caught in a 45-minute bottleneck to the nearby stadium, which looks like a silver spaceship on the shore of the Passaic Rivers.

"We would have been better off walking," Suzanne Becker of Bethlehem, Penn., said.

Now that there won't be a strike, up ahead is the first official match, New York's MLS opener against Chicago next Saturday. At $272 to $3,000 for 15 home games, season tickets are relatively affordable. But the Red Bulls were 5-19-6 in the league last year and 6-21-7 overall. Now that they have a top ground, they need to build an equal team.

Red Bulls open their new arena

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