Talk to locals and they’ll tell you the stadium’s reputation has been poor for years.
“If I’m being blunt, the most accurate technical description for MetLife Stadium is ‘blah’,” says long-time New Jersey sports columnist Steve Politi. Readers have compared its look to a massive prison toilet or an oversized air conditioner.
The stadium hosts two American football teams, the New York Giants and the New York Jets, and Politi notes it was deliberately designed to satisfy many different stakeholders’ needs.
The result, he says, is a vast, impersonal structure that many fans feel doesn’t justify its $1.6bn price tag.
Opened in 2010, it features a modern metallic louvered facade with programmable lighting that can glow in any color. It’s among the NFL’s largest venues and can be reconfigured for concerts and other events, with an open-air bowl for 82,500 spectators and 200 luxury suites spread across four levels. It has hosted everything from a Super Bowl and WrestleMania to Paul McCartney and Beyoncé.
The multi-purpose venue sits five miles west of Manhattan on former marshland encircled by highways, within the 750-acre Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
It’s generally tough to navigate without a car—and even with one, traffic is heavy.
Rideshare users had to thread through winding traffic lanes and road closures to reach the correct drop-off point.
Those on shuttles, or the roughly 20,000 who took the train, had an easier time. Though many balked at the steep cost—$98 for NJ Transit tickets—and the crowded waits to board, most were satisfied with the commute’s efficiency.
“There was a slight delay getting in, but it was fine,” says 56-year-old Jason Bentham, who traveled from Manchester. His biggest gripe was the price of beer. Of the three venues he visited—including Boston—his favorite was Atlanta, which is air conditioned, unlike MetLife Stadium.
“Atlanta’s stadium was incredible,” he says. “It was blisteringly hot outside, but inside the roof was closed, the air was cool—and the beers cost less.”
Still, the city he enjoyed most overall was New York, where he also watched darts at Madison Square Garden and soaked up the city’s bars and atmosphere.
For Fifa, that’s the allure of MetLife Stadium—its reach into the country’s largest media market.