By RICHARD SANDOMIR
New York Times
Published: September 5, 2007
The new stadium the Jets and the Giants are scheduled to occupy in 2010 will be distinguished by an outer skin of aluminum louvers and by interior lighting that will switch colors depending on which team is playing at home.
The changing colors green for the Jets, blue for the Giants reflect each teams desire to individualize the look of the 82,500-seat stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The teams current home, Giants Stadium, opened in 1976, but the Jets have long felt like a second-class tenant there since arriving in 1984. The louvers in the new stadium, which are arranged in various densities, may also reflect the teams colors.
Although construction has been going on at the site north and east of Giants Stadium since April, groundbreaking on the $1.3 billion stadium will take place today, with officials from both teams; the N.F.L., including Commissioner Roger Goodell; and the state expected to attend.
It is the newest local sports project after decades without construction: the Devils Newark arena will open next month; the Mets and the Yankees are building ballparks that are expected to open in 2009; construction of the Red Bulls stadium is underway in Harrison, N.J.; and the Nets still anticipate building an arena near downtown Brooklyn.
Since Giants Stadium opened, 22 stadiums have opened in the N.F.L., including the new Soldier Field, which involved building a new stadium inside the exterior of the old one.
Eight facilities are older than Giants Stadium. One of them, the Dallas Cowboys Texas Stadium, is to be replaced by a $1 billion facility in 2009. Another, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., had a $295 million modernization that was completed without compromising its essence in 2003.
According to renderings of the Jets-Giants stadium obtained by The New York Times, giant red pylons at the north and east entrances will display videos of each team, depending on which one is playing.
A signature feature of the stadium which will be built in the shape of a rounded rectangle will be the massive Great Wall that will be partly visible through the louvers at the main entrance.
The wall will be 400 feet long and 40 feet high, showing panels of images that will rotate between photographic murals of the Giants and Jets on game days and different pictures for concerts and other events.
Inside, four 40-by-130-foot scoreboards will hang from each corner of the upper deck.
The sight lines will be similar to those at Giants Stadium, which seats a little over 80,000, but in some cases seats will be farther away because the new facility will have more than double the square footage. The stadium complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it will have four restaurants, nearly double the current 117 luxury suites, and 9,200 club seats, two club lounges, wider concourses and at least one hall of fame.
Just outside the stadium is the location for a railway station which connects the Meadowlands to the Pascack Valley Line of New Jersey Transit that is expected to be completed in 2009. The addition of the rail station is similar to the plan to bring a Metro-North stop to the new Yankee Stadium.
There will be numerous tailgating zones, and myriad options to buy food and merchandise in the plaza that will ring the stadium.
The Giants and the Jets are the only N.F.L. teams to share a stadium, but there was never a guarantee that they would build the new one together. For a time, the teams were on parallel tracks to the future.
The Giants planned to renovate Giants Stadium at a cost of $750 million. Meanwhile, the Jets stood fast to a $2.2 billion proposal to construct a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan that would have been an extension of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and the main Olympic stadium if New York City had won the bid to play host to the 2012 Summer Games.
The Jets politically sensitive plan was attacked by Cablevision, owner of nearby Madison Square Garden, and was eventually spurned by the Public Authorities Control Board.
In September 2005, the teams signed an agreement to jointly develop the stadium in New Jersey, which was then estimated to cost $800 million.
The $1.3 billion cost to finance construction of the new stadium has the teams considering whether to require season-ticket holders to buy one-time personal seat licenses. The teams have already obtained a loan of $300 million from the leagues G-3 stadium financing program that must be repaid over 15 years from club seat revenues.
JETS SET PRICES FOR SEAT LICENSES
September 4, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
East Rutherford, N.J. - Jets fans must pay between $4,000 and $25,000 for the right to buy
season tickets at the new Meadowlands stadium, team officials said.
The team hopes to raise $170 million by selling the personal seat licenses, owner Woody
Johnson said during a Meadowlands press conference. They would be necessary for all seats
except those in the upper bowl, which holds 27,000.
Jets fans have been bracing themselves for the news since the Giants announced in June they
would sell personal seat licenses, or PSLs.
The Giants are charging $1,000 to $20,000 for the licenses. The team is charging $1,000 fee for
the upper bowl seats.
The PSLs will help fund the $1.6 billion stadium under construction.
The Jets seat licenses will cost $4,000 to $20,000 for the 37,500 seats in the lower bowl and
mezzanine. The club seats in the lower bowl and mezzanine will cost $5,000 to $25,000.
Seat licenses for the 2,000 coach's club seats will be auctioned off this fall. It is located behind the team bench and has views of the glass-enclosed walkway to the locker room.
Fans can pay for the seat licences in five installments over five years. But the team will charge
interest.
The PSL fees will be in addition to the price of tickets, which will range from $120 to $700 in
the new stadium.
Tickets cost between $80 and $115 in the current stadium.
The Jets will be the NFL's first to hold an auction for tickets. This fall, fans will bid over the Internet and by phone to buy 2,000 licenses for the most exclusive section of the stadium, the Coach's Club.
The Jets' members-only club provides unlimited food and soft drinks, a patio 20 feet behind the
home team's bench and views of post-game interviews. (Newark Star Ledger)
JETS-GIANTS CONSIDER NAMING RIGHTS DEAL
September 11, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
East Rutherford, N.J. - The Giants and Jets are negotiating with a German financial titan for
what could be a record-breaking sponsorship deal at the new Meadowlands stadium.
The naming rights deal with Allianz would put $25 million to $30 million a year in the teams'
pockets for the next 10 to 20 years, said two people close to the negotiations who requested
anonymity because the talks are confidential.
Allianz also had strong ties to the Nazis during World War II, providing insurance to death
camps such as Auschwitz and denying payments to Jewish clients, instead allowing the German
government to collect the funds.
The firm's past could evoke strong reactions, especially among Holocaust survivors and their
families, but it has made efforts to atone for its crimes, according to Jewish leaders.
"Allianz has a history, and not a very noble history," said Rabbi Andrew Baker, director of
international Jewish affairs for the American Jewish Committee.
But "based on what Allianz has done to address its history it should be no more and no less
entitled to such a designation than any other company," Baker said.
Allianz participates in the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, which
has paid about $300 million to some 50,000 individuals, among other restitution programs, said
Peter Lefkin, a spokesman for Allianz.
Alice McGillion, a spokeswoman for the Giants and Jets, said the teams' researchers "found
that Holocaust experts, former government officials and leading Jewish and survivor groups
believe that Allianz has made determined efforts towards restitution and continues to do so today."
Carl Goldberg, chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which owns the
land where the stadium is being built, said he understands that not everyone would welcome
Allianz as a stadium sponsor.
"For members of the Jewish faith, this is always a very personal kind of decision," said
Goldberg, who is Jewish. "I remember when I was a child my father came to the conclusion that it
was not appropriate for our family to buy a German car. But that was in the 1960s. Now it's 2008."
The Tisch family, which co-owns the Giants, is "hugely invested in Jewish philanthropy, not
only in the United States but around the world, and they're very sensitive to these kinds of issues,"
Goldberg said.
The sports authority can bar a naming rights deal with an alcohol or tobacco company or a firm
of "questionable repute," but Allianz does not qualify as such a firm, Goldberg said.
Munich-based Allianz, the world's largest insurer, with $125 billion in revenues and 167,000
employees already sponsors a PGA tournament in Boca Raton, Fla., as well as Formula 1 and an
arena in Munich. (New York Daily News)
JETS/GIANTS TO LOOK ELSEWHERE FOR NAMING DEAL
September 18, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
East Rutherford, N.J. - The name of a German firm with past Nazi ties will not appear atop the
new football stadium being built in the Meadowlands.
The Giants and the Jets broke off naming rights negotiations with the Munich-based Allianz,
Mark Lamping, president and chief executive of the teams' new stadium, said.
The announcement came amid a storm of controversy over the firm's World War II activities,
which included insuring concentration camps and refusing to pay claims owed to Jewish clients,
instead turning the funds over to the Nazis.
The world's largest insurance firm, Allianz was in talks to pay $25 million to $30 million a year
to sponsor the teams' $1.6 billion stadium, due to open in 2010.
A spokesman for Allianz, Peter Lefkin, confirmed the breakdown of talks, but declined to
comment further.
Lefkin earlier noted the firm participates in the International Commission on Holocaust Era
Insurance Claims and other restitution programs.
The teams weighed business factors - such as the status and likely future of negotiations - as
well as the reaction to Allianz's previous Nazi ties, Lamping said.
"It's fair to say that the reaction was strong and we certainly noticed that and it may have been
a little stronger than we had expected," Lamping said.
Steven Korenblat, an attorney who represented Citigroup in the Mets' naming rights deal,
predicted the Giant and Jets would end up landing a similarly record-breaking sponsorship deal.
The Mets and the Nets have each signed naming rights deals valued at $20 million annually, the
current record. Barclays Bank is to sponsor the Nets' new arena to be built in Brooklyn.
"I believe the Giants' and Jets' new stadium is going to be a magnificent venue and will attract
a top tier sponsor, I have no doubt about that," Korenblat said. (Newark Star Ledger)
JETS TO AUCTION PRIME SEATS
September 18, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
New York - The New York Jets will use StubHub to auction off personal seat licenses to the
2,113 Coaches Club elite seats behind their bench at the stadium they are building with the Giants.
The Giants are selling the same seats for $20,000 a license.
The Jets are requiring that potential buyers bid on a minimum of two licenses and that their
floor bid start at $5,000 a license. Bidders will be authorized through credit cards, although winners will not have to pay with their cards.
StubHub will be running a series of small auctions, from Oct. 19-27, during which various lots
of licenses will be bid on.
"It's going to be an assortment," said Sean Pate, a spokesman for StubHub. "Some front row,
some middle row and back, to keep a wide swath of seats available."
The auction of the 2,113 seats sets the Jets apart from the Giants' plan. The Giants are selling
licenses to the entire 82,500-seat stadium, starting at $1,000 in the upper deck.
The Jets exempted the upper deck from licenses and have priced their licenses in other sections
from $4,000 to $25,000. The licenses are up-front fees for the right to own season tickets.
The Coaches Club seats - which will cost $700 a game above the price of the license - will
entitle winning bidders to stand on the field 5 yards from the Jets' bench, eat free food and drink nonalcoholic beverages in a private lounge, and have access to free parking.
The Jets are not predicting how high the bidding might go on the auction, but, presumably,
they would like the prices to exceed the $25,000 they are charging for Great Hall Club seat
licenses along the opposite sideline and for the best seats in the mezzanine.
Jets officials do not know if the earliest batches of auctioned licenses will set high or low
ceilings that bidders on ensuing lots will follow, or if the fans shut out of one auction will overbid on other ones to secure spots in the new stadium.
"When you sign on for this process, you sign on for everything," said Matthew Higgins, a Jets
executive vice president. "We're willing to take the risk." (New York Times)
JETS CONFIDENT ABOUT PSL SALES
October 16, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
East Rutherford, N.J. - New York Jets owner Woody Johnson says fans won't pass up the
chance to buy personal seat licenses for the team's new stadium even as the global credit crisis
threatens the economy.
The National Football League team and the New York Giants announced months ago that they
will sell the licenses, which require fans to pay a one-time fee for the right to buy season tickets, to help finance the $1.6 billion stadium scheduled to open in 2010.
"People who buy PSLs and suites are looking over the long term," Johnson said. "I know they
realize, because I've been talking to a lot of them, that this is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to buy something that hasn't been available ever."
While the sport isn't immune to declines in the economy as corporate partners and fans trim
budgets, it tends to maintain its popularity in difficult times, Johnson said.
"I don't think you want to be presumptuous and say anything's recession-proof," Johnson said.
"But I think people would be apt to keep those tickets probably longer than other things."
On Oct. 19, the Jets begin auctioning 2,000 licenses for club seats, which include access to the
field area behind the team's bench, using the online ticket marketplace StubHub.com. Fans will
buy the right to purchase $700 tickets in the Jets' "Coaches Club," which includes a private bar,
food service, parking and access to tickets for other stadium events.
The team will also charge between $4,000 and $25,000 for other seat licenses at the stadium.
The team will not require licenses for about 27,000 upper-deck seats.
Other stadium revenue appears secure, according to an Oct. 8 report by Moody's Investor
Service Inc. that gave a Baa3 rating to about $650 million in project revenue bonds the Jets sold to pay for its share of the stadium.
The 19 million-person market remains supportive of both teams, Moody's said, and 80 percent
of revenue comes from sources such as sponsors and suite-holders with contracts at least six years long. Even the risk of escalating construction costs is “sufficiently mitigated," Moody's said. "We had a one lump-sum, design-build where we transferred all the risk of building to the
contractor," Johnson said.
The team has no plans for immediate changes in its business operation because of the
economy, Johnson said.
"We're running the business side of the New York Jets the way we have done in years past,"
Johnson said. "If a potential downturn in the market affects our business, then we'll have to make those adjustments." (Bloomberg)
JETS START STRONG WITH SEAT AUCTION
October 23, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
New York - The first day of the Jets' auction of 2,028 personal seat licenses at their new
stadium yielded the highest winning bid, $65,100, for two front-row seats in a five-section,
field-level area called the Coaches Club. Those that waited may have saved up to $30,000.
Sean Pate, a spokesman for EBay Inc.'s Stubhub, said an oversupply of the licenses on the
auction's first day depressed prices before the on-line ticket auction site cut the number available by two-thirds.
Seats 1-4 in the first row of Section 113 on the 50-yard line sold for $35,000 each on Oct. 20,
according to data from another on-line ticket market, Seasonticketrights.com. Seats 25 and 26 in
the same row brought $55,000 each the next day. Stubhub held 50 auctions on Oct. 20, selling
hundreds of seats. The next day, that number was reduced to about 15-20 auctions, for about 75-80
tickets.
The elite seating is behind the Jets' bench and carries amenities like club membership, free
parking and access to a patio just behind the team.
According to the auction site, some of the seat licenses received at least 30, sometimes more
than 50, bids.
Just below the two licenses that sold for $65,100 each were others that sold for $61,100,
$42,400, $40,500, $38,800, $38,500 and $37,500.
The auction put up seats throughout the Coaches Club's five sections, from 111C to 115C,
which have from 30 to 34 rows each.
Besides the license fees, fans must pay $700 a ticket starting in 2010, when the stadium opens.
The Giants, who are sharing the $1.6 billion-plus stadium, will have a similar section of seats
behind their bench, but they are being sold for $20,000 each.
The auction - actually a series of miniauctions - ends Monday. (New York Times, Bloomberg
News)
JETS AVERAGE $26K IN AUCTION
October 30, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
New York - Jets fans paid an average $26,000 for the right to buy tickets in the exclusive new
Coaches Club, but the team got bookings for one-third of the available seats, team owner Woody
Johnson said.
The team earned $16 million by auctioning off 620 personal seat licenses on Stubhub.com,
Johnson said. Nearly 1,200 of the 2,000 Coaches Club seats are still available. Licenses for those seats will be sold at fixed prices within weeks, Johnson said. The fixed prices have not been set, team officials said.
The licenses grant the right to buy tickets for a particular seat in the new Meadowlands
stadium opening in 2010, and they can be sold like liquor licenses or taxi medallions. The
eight-day auction ended Monday, with a top price of $82,000, according to the team.
Johnson said the team is pleased with the results of the bidding, which he called the largest
auction ever on Stubhub.com.
"It was an amazing process, it was kind of unprecedented," Johnson said. "It was a turbulent
economic time, and people recognized the value of these seats as being the best seats in sports....
By any stretch of the imagination, that's positive."
The Jets' and Giants' $1.6 billion stadium is due to open in 2010.
In addition to the Coaches Club, the Jets will sell 45,000 seat licenses in the mezzanine and
lower bowl, at prices from $4,000 to $25,000. In the spring, the team will sell season tickets for the 27,000 upper bowl seats with no license fees.
The Giants are selling licenses for all 82,500 seats, at prices from $1,000 to $20,000. (Newark
Star Ledger)
GIANTS/JETS STADIUM AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
December 4, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
East Rutherford, N.J. - Giants co-owner John Mara and Jets owner Woody Johnson say they
believe the new stadium they are building will meet fans' needs. The $1.6-billion facility, which
will feature 40,000 square feet of video screens and displays, an adjoining rail station to
accommodate fans and a capacity of 82,500, will serve as home to both the Giants and the Jets and
will change its complexion to reflect the home team.
The construction is "not only ahead of schedule, but on budget," according to New
Meadowlands Stadium CEO Mark Lamping.
With the project under way and more than 1.3 million work hours spent, however, Mara and
Johnson both addressed many fans' biggest concerns - the increasing financial burden they must
endure to attend games, exacerbated by a struggling economy.
"It's certainly something we're concerned about and we're very sensitive to. That's why we try to
come up with as many different pricing options as possible and we're trying to be flexible and work with people in terms of payment scheduling," Mara said. "I think at the end of the day, we'll be successful in keeping just about everybody in the new building, and that was one of our goals going into this process and a goal we're going to be able to achieve."
Johnson said that despite the financial crisis, he believes fans will look past the immediate
problems and try to find a way to make it work.
"We are in a situation, economically, that we're reading about every day. There are serious
problems, however. People who are purchasing these, they're looking over this," Johnson said.
"This country's going to get back on its feet again. It's going to take a couple quarters, four
quarters, five quarters. Whatever it is, we'll be out of it."
Johnson said the fans will be well rewarded with their financial commitment.
"I do think they'll be shocked and awed by the stadium, that's for sure," Johnson said. "Every
time I've been into the stadium, I'm in awe at what's been accomplished and how different it is than the stadium we've played in."
Johnson added, "It's going to be an amazing experience for the fans and one that the
suite-holder will enjoy from one vantage point and the PSL owner and the other fans will enjoy
from another standpoint. There's something for everybody." (Newsday)
MEADOWLANDS STADIUM AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
March 12, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
East Rutherford, N.J. - Construction on a new National Football League stadium for the New
York Giants and Jets is four months ahead of schedule and may be finished by December.
Work on the $1.6 billion stadium has gone smoothly and a rail link to the Meadowlands sports
complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will be done before next football season, Mark Lamping,
chief executive of the teams' joint stadium corporation, said at a ceremony marking the placement
of the building's final steel beam.
"We could have substantial completion by the end of the year, which would be nice," Lamping
said. "It would give us plenty of time to work out the kinks."
Jets owner Woody Johnson joined Giants co-owner Steve Tisch at the ceremony honoring
ironworkers, who finished assembling about 15,000 pieces of steel, weighing 26,000 tons, using
420,000 bolts. Ironworkers joined the owners in signing the beam and posed for pictures before
lifting the last piece into place around the stadium's rim.
Amenities at the stadium, scheduled to open in 2010, include areas for corporate sponsors;
about 200 luxury suites; four video boards, each about 100-by-30 feet; and a "Coach's Club" that
includes access behind the team bench and a private bar and lounge. (Bloomberg News)
JETS, GIANTS HAVE INVENTORY TO SELL
September 3, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
East Rutherford, N.J. - The economy is taking its toll on teams with long histories of sell-outs,
including the New York Giants and Jets which have tickets available for their final season in the
80,242-seat Giants Stadium and have new seats to sell in the teams' new 82,500-seat venue.
The Giants, which still have seats to sell for some games this season, have not found buyers for
about 3,000 club season tickets for 2010, some in the best locations at the highest prices.
The Giants said they had leased slightly more than 60 percent of the approximately 200 suites,
totaling about 4,000 seats.
That sales figure has moved only marginally from the Giants' report from almost a year ago of
more than 50 percent.
And the Jets lag behind the Giants. They said they still had "a few thousand" season tickets
remaining for 2009 and were advertising half-season packages.
As for 2010 in the new stadium, the Jets are not providing specific sales figures for suites, club
seats with personal seat licenses or nonclub seats because, they said, it was too early to know.
September 24, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
New Meadowlands Stadium Co., the firm formed by the New York Giants and Jets to build a
new stadium, has picked the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to provide event and site
services for the venue. The agency also provides services for the existing Giants Stadium. The
Authority will employ more than 1,000 people for game-day duties including security, seating and
ticketing. Terms of the deal are not known.
TAX ASSESSOR TO LOOK AT NEW GIANTS/JETS STADIUM
October 15, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
East Rutherford, N.J. - Local governments believe they should share in the wealth that will be
generated by a new Giants/Jets stadium in the Meadowlands and they are asking their tax
assessors to determine the value of the venue that will cost $1.6 billion to build.
The stadium, which is scheduled to open next year, is in East Rutherford, and the borough
wants to collect taxes that any private business in its borders would have to pay. But the stadium
sits on land owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority, a tax-exempt organization
created by the state in 1971 to run the sports arenas in the Meadowlands and elsewhere in New
Jersey.
For years, the authority has collected rent from the teams to use its publicly owned stadium,
and payments of $1.3 million a year in lieu of taxes. In turn, the authority has made payments to
East Rutherford in lieu of taxes that cover the football stadium as well as the Izod Center and the
Meadowlands Racetrack.
This year, the authority will pay the borough $5.97 million, which is equal to 21 percent of what
the borough would have collected if the land were privately owned. The first annual payments of
$466,000 started in 1977, the year after the sports complex opened, and have been renegotiated
every decade or so.
Now, however, the Jets and the Giants are building their own stadium, team offices and
practice facilities, most of them in East Rutherford. Because the buildings are privately owned,
James Cassella, the mayor of East Rutherford, said the borough deserves more than what it has
been receiving, a point he plans to make in negotiations with the authority.
Negotiations are unlikely to begin until November, when the next governor is chosen. Borough
officials would like to deal directly with the Jets and the Giants. But that is unlikely because the
authority, to keep the teams from moving, agreed in 2006 to let the teams continue making the
payments of $5 million in rent and $1.3 million in lieu of taxes. That deal is separate from the
authority's agreement with East Rutherford.
To bolster their positions, East Rutherford officials point to the sports authority's agreement
with Xanadu, a privately owned shopping and entertainment center on the its property. After its
scheduled opening next year, Xanadu will pay the borough $1.8 million for each of the first two
years before payments rise to nearly $10 million after the fifth year.
Then there are the businesses not on authority land. The Federal Reserve Bank pays the most
property tax to East Rutherford, $2,677,642.51 in 2008. Two real estate developments paid more
than $1 million each last year.
The Mets and the Yankees also make payments in lieu of taxes in New York City, the payments
roughly equal to the debt payments the teams have to pay on their bonds. The owners of Madison
Square Garden have been exempted from paying property taxes since 1982, costing New York City
hundreds of millions of dollars.
October 29, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
The New York Jets have cut prices on some of their premium seats for the new stadium they
will share with the Giants by up to 50 percent. The team has sold about 70 percent of non-premium seats in the new stadium, which opens in 2010, to existing season-ticket holders, Matt Higgins,
executive vice-president of business operations, said. The Jets are cutting prices for mezzanine
club seats, which account for 7,000 of about 80,000 seats in the new stadium, by between 20
percent and 50 percent. Seats in the corners will drop to $195 from $400, while the most-expensive
"Prime" seats will decline to $395 from $500. The new prices also apply to ticket plans already
purchased, so those customers will receive the same discount, Higgins said. Prices for seat
licenses, one-time charges for the right to buy season tickets, won't change.
NFL TO ALLOW NEW GIANTS/JETS STADIUM TO BID FOR SUPER BOWL
December 24, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
East Rutherford, N.J. - Concerns about bad weather and cold temperatures have dictated the
NFLÕs decision making on Super Bowl locations, but the league is apparently warming to the idea of hosting a game at the new Giants/Jets stadium under construction in the Meadowlands.
NFL owners will consider hosting a game in the 82,500-seat venue after the 2013 season.
The $1.6 billion facility, next to the current Giants Stadium, is 92 percent complete. The preliminary bids must be submitted by April 1. League owners will announce the winning site in late May.
Other cities bidding for the game in February of 2014 are Miami, Phoenix and Tampa. This season's Super Bowl is to be in Miami, followed by Dallas, Indianapolis and New Orleans.
Mark Lamping, the president and chief executive officer of the New Meadowlands Stadium Co., said the average temperature in the region is 32 degrees in early February and that the NFL waived, for this bid, its rule that an outdoor Super Bowl site must have an average daily temperature of 50 degrees or that a venue be enclosed by a roof.
Lamping said fans attending the game might be warmed by seat cushions that generate heat and that many enclosed areas behind and beneath the seats of the new stadium would be heated.
He said the Meadowlands bid could be aided by the large hotel space in nearby New York, the relative compactness of the city for parties and other events and the new rail link from Midtown Manhattan to the Meadowlands, located west of the Hudson River in Bergen County, N.J.
Lamping said the new stadium does not have a roof, either fixed or retractable, because it would have cost another $400 million to add it.
The NFL's six-member Super Bowl Advisory Committee approved the Meadowlands application to bid on the game, but all bidders, after preliminary submissions in April, must make formal presentations at the league meetings in Dallas from May 24 through 26.
February 4, 2010
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures
The New York Jets lowered the price of tickets and seat licenses on about 6,400 lower level
seats near the goal line as the National Football League team attempts to sell out its new stadium in advance of the 2010 season. Current season-ticket holders will have the opportunity to buy tickets first in a two-week sale opening. Seat licenses in the goal line sections fell to $6,000 and $7,500 dollars from $10,000, with game tickets dropping to $125 from $140.
