Wed Sep 5 22:04:11 2007

Comment | Email | Print

Giants, Jets break ground for new stadium

---

East Rutherford, NJ (Sports Network) - The owners of the New York Giants and New York Jets broke ground Wednesday at the site for their new stadium, just a few hundred yards from their current home at the Meadowlands in northern New Jersey.

The $1.3 billion stadium is being privately financed by Jets Development LLC and Giant Stadium LLC in a 50-50 joint venture. It is expected to seat 82,500 fans and is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2010 season.

In addition to hosting 20 NFL games per year, including the preseason, the new stadium will also stage college football games, soccer and concerts.

The Giants and Jets have co-existed in the same building -- Giants Stadium -- since 1984 when the Jets moved their games from Shea Stadium. The Giants have played at the Meadowlands Sports Complex since 1976.

Design elements of the new building will allow each team's colors and imagery to be featured at home games. The "Great Wall," as it is being called, is a 40-foot-high by 400-foot-long frieze of louvered panels that will change to illuminate the Giants' colors and logo or the Jets' colors and logo.

"Ensuring that the stadium would feel like home to both teams and both groups of fans was our goal and also one of the biggest challenges in the design of the stadium," said Giants chairman and executive vice president Steve Tisch. "With a unique combination of design elements, both teams will now be at home at the epicenter of football in a setting unmatched anywhere in the country.

"Our ability to transform the building overnight also extends to meet the needs not only of each team on game day but can become a neutral building on non-game days."

Infrastructure changes are also in the works for a facility that is currently difficult to enter and exit. Access lanes into the Meadowlands will nearly triple from 16 to more than 40, while a rail station will link the new stadium from New York's Penn Station or Newark's Penn Station.

Video boards will be spread throughout the seven concourses and outdoor plaza, while team stores will house 15,000 square feet of merchandise. Restaurants and bars will also be featured around the building's interior.

"Every aspect of a Sunday at the stadium will be radically different before fans even step foot inside," said Jets chairman and CEO Woody Johnson. "Improved highway access and redesigned parking lots will make the trip to the Meadowlands more efficient. A brand new rail facility will also provide fans a quick and convenient travel alternative. Once at the stadium, fans will enjoy enhanced tailgating opportunities and a new plaza filled with activities for fans of all ages."

Joining Tisch and Johnson at the ground-breaking ceremony was NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Giants president and CEO John Mara, New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, state senate president Richard Codey and New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority chairman Carl Goldberg.

The owners are still negotiating naming rights for the building.