Who won’t miss Giants Stadium?
The NFL’s Giants Stadium was once a famous venue of American soccer, a must-be-seen place with packed crowds and Pele in the 1970s.
Then the New York MetroStars, later rebranded to Red Bull New York, started playing there almost two decades later in Major League Soccer.
As the Red Bulls laid the final piece of sod today at their new, impressive Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, some current players took the chance to express their feelings about Giants Stadium and the support they (did not) receive there. The massive stadium seemed to serve mainly as a mausoleum for a team that could never win over the soccer fans (or perhaps their children) in the region who once packed out the place for the Cosmos.
And it certainly never won over the home team’s players who consistently struggled on turf in front of pitiful crowds.
Giants Stadium
I’ll present the comments from the players on Giants Stadium without commentary, but I do wonder if a new stadium is really the magical solution they all seem to think it is — even if it will certainly be a significant step-up, deeper issues to do with winning on the pitch and attracting soccer fans to a soft drink branded team still exist.
From the MLS site at today’s ceremony at Red Bull Arena:
Mike Petke, New York Red Bulls veteran defender:
I’m brainwashed, I’m still seeing turf right now. Until I actually go down there and feel it, I’m not going to believe it. While Giants Stadium was good to us and was our home for so long, just to have not only the stadium and the grass, knowing that we won’t be running on rock-hard concrete anymore in front of sparse crowds, is just an overwhelmingly great feeling.
Juan Pablo Angel, New York Red Bulls captain:
I was probably the biggest critic of Giants Stadium since my first day here. I never liked it, I never liked the surface, I never liked the atmosphere, apart from the L.A. game in 2007. That was the only decent atmosphere we ever had at Giants Stadium. Apart from that it was a stadium that looked empty. For me personally, I never felt at home. That’s why I’m so excited about this. This is home, it’s like you’re walking into your second house.
I plan to be in New Jersey next spring for the Red Bulls inaugural game at Red Bull Arena, and a few Fire fans should be with me to make things a little less like home for Juan and his friends. Hopefully it will be the start of something more like soccer for the area’s MLS outpost, but we’ll have to wait and see how that stadium’s atmosphere pans out in reality.
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Tom Dunmore is the founder and editor of Pitch Invasion. Follow him @pitchinvasion on Twitter.
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I think having a team in Philly starting next year will help with getting butts into seats. Not only will you have the away supporters, but I think it’ll get more home supporters there to combat the Union crowd. Hopefully once they go for that game, they’ll keep coming back. The new stadium is amazing, but an empty new stadium is just depressing.
Come on, that’s clearly not an ongoing Red Bull game. Misleading caption.
As Matt said, that is a misleading caption.
As of a few weeks ago, however, the Red Bulls had sold out the lower level “midfield” sections, and part of the sideline sections, so by the time the season starts they should have most of the lower level sold between season and gameday tickets (to say nothing of the people buying upper level seats). So come March (god, the MLS offseason is so long!), RBNY should have a much improved atmosphere for games.
Caption corrected. Apologies. Though having been to a Red Bulls game, it’s not actually misleading as a representation of a Red Bulls game.
I am so excited for the new stadium! I live in the Mid Hudson Valley(Northern metro), which is only a 1 to 1 1/2 hours away from giants stadium but i could not get myself to waste gas and money to sit in an empty stadium with turf and football lines on it. While the new stadium is further from my house, I made the plunge and purchased season tickets in the supporters section. What i like about the new stadium is its location, it is near a PATH Station (Easier access from NYC), newark penn station(NJ Transit and an amtrak station for the union and united fans) and is right across the river from a great and vibrant neighborhood that loves soccer and will give it the European atmosphere. What i also like is the roof, for a team playing in the northeast, a roof is a must have, and solution to a red bulls problem, attendance on days with bad weather. It will help to keep fans dry and less depressed about the team on the field (who in an average game will be down two goal in the first 30 minutes). While the stadium is not magic cure, it will sure help. The team will be in control of more sources of revenue, instead of the current tickets and merchandise. They will know add food, parking, and any thing else. Which in turn will be able to create a better team. To finish, I am a college student who needs to watch my spending and i think this is a wise decision
I’m pretty sure RBNY fans won’t miss the gestapo, I mean, Meadowlands security staff. I heard some shocking stories about what they went through with them.
Argh, not the old soft drink branding BS again. That is so low on the list of this club’s “problems” it’s not even worth discussing,
Why, Matt?