1st Experience at New Stadium

[JoeWillie]

For anyone interested ... I was there on Wednesday night for the Bon Jovi show.

I've got to tell you guys, I was NOT impressed with the new stadium. Compared to Yankee Stadium or Citifield, from a cosmetic standpoint, the stadium is nothing spectacular to look at, especially on the outside. I'd even say it's very boring asthetically with NOT alot of character. It's your typical, round bowl, "cookie cutter" football stadium and it's MASSIVELY HIGH. If you're sitting in the upper deck at this stadium, it would be like sitting in an imaginary fourth deck in the old Giants Stadium. It's THAT high.

Once you're in your seat, aside from the grey seats, and the 4 HD screens in each corner of the endzones, it reminds me very much of the old Giants Stadium inside. Perhaps they'll have some better signage during the football games, Jets/Giants photos and paraphanalia, etc... there was none of that on this particular night.

A few other things I noticed:

• Much more room in the concourses with plenty of concession stands and plenty of bathrooms, both men's and women's. I did not wait on a single line to take a leak or buy a beer all night. Of course, there weren't as many people there for a concert as there would be for a football game ... probably about 60,000 people there on Wednesday night, compared to about 80K for a football game, but I still didn't have to wait for anything. Beer was warm at a number of stands, though. And the price for four 12 ounce bottles of beer? A meer $40.

  
  

• The access to the stadium lower level is different from the old stadium. In the old stadium, you took an escalator even to the lower level and then walked DOWN to your seats. In this stadium, you walk down from the parking lot into the stadium via ramps, then walk UP to your seats. Not sure about the upper levels, but I did hear some horror stories about people in the upper deck not being able to get out of the stadium for a half hour after the show. Apparently to access the upper deck, you need to take multiple escalators, sort of like MSG, only more mazelike.

  
  

• One thing I noticed was that while it was pretty breezy in the parking lot prior to AND after the show, there was no wind in the stadium at all where I was sitting. Maybe it was just that night, but could be that the construction of this stadium minimizes the wind inside the stadium moreso than the old one. Might be good news for Sanchez ... something to keep an eye on.

  
  

• Another thing I noticed was that the corners of the endzones are dangerously close to the lower tier walls. They may have to do something about that. I could see receivers getting seriously hurt catching fade passes in the end zone, it's THAT close to the walls.

  
  

• The stadium lights give off tremendous heat. For the concert, they only turned on the lights on the far side of the stadium, and it was incredible bright and and incredibly hot. I was drenched when I walked out of the stadium and you could feel the heat of the lights pounding on you even in the lower level.

  
  

• The 4 built-in stadium HD screens in each corner of the end zones are awesome, but for some reason, were only utilized to show the band during the last song of the concert. Not sure if that was a technical glitch, but when utilized, the screens were absolutely beautiful.

  
  

• The parking lot seemed to be more organized, with traffic flowing much better. We left my house in Rockland at 6:05 and we were sitting in our parked car having a few beers at 6:45. Show ended at 11:15 and we were home swimming in my pool by 11:50pm.

  
  

• I didn't venture into any of the club seats or the clubs themselves, and I'm sure they're all very nice. But I go to the stadium to watch the football game from my seats, not sit in a bar. If I'm gonna do that, I may as well sit in my mancave with my own bathroom, and my own refridgerator, and my own channel remote and watch as many games as I want. And sitting in my stadium seats in this stadium is not worth the money they want for it.

  
  

Overall, a good experience, but aside from not having to wait on a lot of lines, not terribly different from the old one and MUCH more expensive.

I'm glad I didn't take the PSL plunge.

In my opinion, both new NY baseball stadiums blow this place away.

[faba]

Thanks fro the viewpoints - any place is going to have quirks to be adjusted -hopefully they can work them out before the start of football season.

[Green DNA]

Thanks for the info. Those hot lights should come in handy in December and (hopefully) January

[ECURB]

• One thing I noticed was that while it was pretty breezy in the parking lot prior to AND after the show, there was no wind in the stadium at all where I was sitting. Maybe it was just that night, but could be that the construction of this stadium minimizes the wind inside the stadium moreso than the old one. Might be good news for Sanchez ... something to keep an eye on.

  
  

When I went on my tour they said this stadium was designed to keep the wind out of the bowl... seems it worked...

[NIGHT STALKER]

Thanks for the info. Those hot lights should come in handy in December and (hopefully) January

I was thinking when the SB comes to town...

[JoeWillie]

I was thinking when the SB comes to town...

Yeah, I've never felt stadium lights that give off that kind of heat before, but it was noticably warmer when the lights went on at the end of Train's set and then again after Bon Jovi was done.

I thought I may have been imagining it, because it was a very warm night to begin with, but I had a friend in the upper deck who said the same thing about the lights when I saw him the next day.

And they didn't even use all of the lights, only one side of the stadium.

[Larz]

I'm going to go once this year for the experience, but I have a feeling it will be only the one time

between the drunks traffic and $$$ just watching it at home is so much better

[NIGHT STALKER]

I'm going to go once this year for the experience, but I have a feeling it will be only the one time

between the drunks traffic and $$$ just watching it at home is so much better

Don't let 124 read this...you won't be classified as a "real fan".

[Bugg]

"It's your typical, round bowl, "cookie cutter" football stadium and it's MASSIVELY HIGH. If you're sitting in the upper deck at this stadium, it would be like sitting in an imaginary fourth deck in the old Giants Stadium. It's THAT high."

Heard this from everyone that looked at upper deck seats.The PSL sales guy even made the point to get them to buy lower tier seats-that the upper deck is really far away from the field.

Also why buying tickets to any concert there in the upper deck is a waste of time. Seems like every upcoming concert there is still advertising like crazy because the word is out-you might as well play your ipod than go to a concert if you sit upstairs.

[Jbro22]

"It's your typical, round bowl, "cookie cutter" football stadium and it's MASSIVELY HIGH. If you're sitting in the upper deck at this stadium, it would be like sitting in an imaginary fourth deck in the old Giants Stadium. It's THAT high."

Heard this from everyone that looked at upper deck seats.The PSL sales guy even made the point to get them to buy lower tier seats-that the upper deck is really far away from the field.

Also why buying tickets to any concert there in the upper deck is a waste of time. Seems like every upcoming concert there is still advertising like crazy because the word is out-you might as well play your ipod than go to a concert if you sit upstairs.

The seats are up there, but they are much closer to the field a la old Yankee stadium, for what its worth.

[jetophile]

Hopefully you ran out onto the middle of the field and took an elephant dump.

[4HCrew]

I think it is tough to compare a football field to a baseball field, especially the likes of Yankee stadium. I was fairly impressed with the new stadium and look forward to seeing games their this year. I think there will be things they have to work out and correct as with every facility, but I have been to a ton of stadiums throughout the country and the new meadowlands is pretty sweet