Post by TheShadow on Feb 23, 2009 18:25:58 GMT -5
www.insidebayarea.com
N.Y. teams show 49ers, Raiders how to share
By Mike Swift
MediaNews staff
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Imagine a gorgeous autumn Sunday as the 49ers take the football field. You're a loyal fan who never misses a home game and pays dearly for a season ticket. Now imagine the following week that a die-hard from the Raider Nation will be rooting for the despised crosstown rival, from the very same seat — your seat! — in the very same stadium.
Would it still feel like home turf?
The Jets and the Giants are answering the New York version of that question, and the 49ers and Raiders are paying close attention. Mark Lamping, the man with the job of building the first modern stadium designed for two NFL teams, says the New York teams believe the unprecedented use of video technology will make the answer, "yes."
Recently, in the steel maw of what will be the New Jersey stadium's "Great Hall," Lamping, the CEO of the Jets-Giants stadium venture, gestured upward four stories over his head, toward the marquee technology: a wall that will soon hold a high-definition video board more than 400 feet long — longer than a football field.
"When you come in there, you're going to see a huge mural of Jets green, if it's a Jets game," Lamping said. "And Giants blue, if it's a Giants game."
The $1.6 billion Jets-Giants stadium, scheduled to open for the 2010 season, represents a solution the NFL is urging the Bay Area's two teams to explore, something 49ers president Jed York and Raiders managing general partner Al Davis say they will consider. York has even toured the new Jets-Giants stadium and believes, given the economy and looming labor negotiations, the NFL also prefers a two-team stadium for the Bay Area.
But the Jets' and Giants' experience suggests the 49ers might have to accept significant revisions to their proposed stadium in Santa Clara, and that the two Bay Area teams would have to work together with extraordinary closeness, even to the point of sharing lucrative
corporate sponsorships, to build together.
Touting technology
The New York teams are banking on technology to create the first stadium that feels like authentic home turf to two rival tribes of fans, and two franchises with traditions nearly as mismatched as the 49ers and the Raiders.
Silicon Valley may play a role. Cisco Systems is a candidate, Lamping said, to install technology that could allow fans to use their smart phone instead of a paper ticket to enter the stadium, and that would create new digital marketing opportunities for the teams. But the real highlight will be 40,000 square feet of high-definition LED video boards that will be programmed for every event, whether it's an NFL playoff game or a Bruce Springsteen concert.
Woody Johnson, who bought the Jets for $635 million in 2000, said the saturation video means "there is no downside" to sharing a stadium with the Giants.
There will be so much electronic green on Jets game days, Johnson said, that "you're going to think you've gone to Jets nirvana." No permanent architectural feature in the New Meadowlands Stadium — the naming rights have not yet been sold — will reference the Giants or the Jets.
The 82,500-seat stadium will be shrouded with gigantic aluminum louvers that look like a sweeping wrap of silver Venetian blinds. They give a futuristic, abstract feel, which is meant to evoke the metal and stone of archetypal New York skyscrapers.
Neutrality rules
Neutrality of color and design was the only way, the teams concluded, to create a stadium that could feel like home to both. Inside the stadium bowl, Lamping pointed to the gray seats in the stadium's upper oval. "See, there's no green. There's no blue," said Lamping, the former president of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals. "The best thing the owners did is they made the decision that everything that is permanent is going to be neutral."
That isn't the case at the stadium the two New York teams now share: the 1976-vintage Giants Stadium, with its entry-gates of Giant-blue and seats of Giant-red. The Jets have been second banana since moving there in 1984.
Rather than paint or banners, LEDs — light-emitting-diodes — will be the dominant source of color in the stadium being built next door.
Vertical video screens will bookend the turnstiles outside the stadium, giant video boards will stream team logos above fans entering the building, and four 40-by-200-foot video boards in each corner of the stadium bowl will project impossible-to-ignore replays and advertising during the game.
"It was the only choice they had, to be able to flick the switch and go from blue to green on respective Sundays," said Craig Schmitt, a principal with EwingCole, one of the architects on the project.
Neutrality is not what the 49ers have been shooting for in the design of a 68,500-seat stadium for Santa Clara, which features an unusually large lower bowl, the massing of all luxury suites and club seats on one side of the stadium, and potential use of 49ers colors.
Like the 49ers and the Raiders, the Giants and the Jets have different pedigrees.
Compared with the Jets, "we tend to be seen as a bit old-fashioned in the way we do things, and our crowd is probably a little bit older," said John Mara, the Giants' CEO and the grandson of Tim Mara, who bought the team for $500 in 1925. "Their crowd tends to be a little younger and a little louder. I think they like to think of themselves as being a little bit more of a hip franchise, and there are some differences there.
"But when you are sitting down to think about which (stadium) structure would work best, I don't think those things really come into play."
Still, there were meetings, Mara said, where there "were some fairly strong disagreements." The Giants wanted to keep their training facility directly adjacent to the new stadium but agreed to move it to keep the new stadium neutral territory. The 49ers could face the same issue with a Santa Clara stadium since they now train next door. The Jets wanted more retail outlets in the new stadium but compromised on a single team store that will emphasize whichever team is home.
The Giants and Jets each get their own locker room, but the visiting opponent will have to use a section of the locker room of whichever team is on the road. Corporations have the option of leasing luxury suites for the Giants, the Jets, or both teams — but team owners won't have to share their suites. Each ownership group gets its own. The Jets and Giants have the option to set their own ticket prices and control permanent license fees to buy those tickets, but the teams will split all revenues from parking, concessions and advertising.
Cooperation key
Standing in the gaping space that will be one of five monumental entrances to the new stadium, Lamping described how closely the two ownership groups had to work together.
Instead of the larger number of sponsors who buy scoreboard or fixed advertising in many NFL stadiums, the new Jets-Giants stadium will have only five exclusive sponsors — one that buys the right to name the stadium, and four other "cornerstone" sponsors who will buy the right to "brand" an entrance to the stadium, from the turnstiles to the four large corner video boards.
A fan entering through the "Met Life" entrance — Metropolitan Life, along with Anheuser-Busch, have paid "well up in the seven figures" for cornerstone rights, Mara said — might be greeted with the insurance company's colors, its Snoopy logo, and a fleet of small Met Life blimps.
The Giants and Jets concluded that a shared stadium, with at least 20 NFL games a year, was an opportunity to maximize revenue by limiting the number of sponsors and giving them control of parts of the stadium.
"That's one of the things that's unique about this building," Lamping said. "It's really the concept that less is more."
N.Y. teams show 49ers, Raiders how to share
By Mike Swift
MediaNews staff
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Imagine a gorgeous autumn Sunday as the 49ers take the football field. You're a loyal fan who never misses a home game and pays dearly for a season ticket. Now imagine the following week that a die-hard from the Raider Nation will be rooting for the despised crosstown rival, from the very same seat — your seat! — in the very same stadium.
Would it still feel like home turf?
The Jets and the Giants are answering the New York version of that question, and the 49ers and Raiders are paying close attention. Mark Lamping, the man with the job of building the first modern stadium designed for two NFL teams, says the New York teams believe the unprecedented use of video technology will make the answer, "yes."
Recently, in the steel maw of what will be the New Jersey stadium's "Great Hall," Lamping, the CEO of the Jets-Giants stadium venture, gestured upward four stories over his head, toward the marquee technology: a wall that will soon hold a high-definition video board more than 400 feet long — longer than a football field.
"When you come in there, you're going to see a huge mural of Jets green, if it's a Jets game," Lamping said. "And Giants blue, if it's a Giants game."
The $1.6 billion Jets-Giants stadium, scheduled to open for the 2010 season, represents a solution the NFL is urging the Bay Area's two teams to explore, something 49ers president Jed York and Raiders managing general partner Al Davis say they will consider. York has even toured the new Jets-Giants stadium and believes, given the economy and looming labor negotiations, the NFL also prefers a two-team stadium for the Bay Area.
But the Jets' and Giants' experience suggests the 49ers might have to accept significant revisions to their proposed stadium in Santa Clara, and that the two Bay Area teams would have to work together with extraordinary closeness, even to the point of sharing lucrative
corporate sponsorships, to build together.
Touting technology
The New York teams are banking on technology to create the first stadium that feels like authentic home turf to two rival tribes of fans, and two franchises with traditions nearly as mismatched as the 49ers and the Raiders.
Silicon Valley may play a role. Cisco Systems is a candidate, Lamping said, to install technology that could allow fans to use their smart phone instead of a paper ticket to enter the stadium, and that would create new digital marketing opportunities for the teams. But the real highlight will be 40,000 square feet of high-definition LED video boards that will be programmed for every event, whether it's an NFL playoff game or a Bruce Springsteen concert.
Woody Johnson, who bought the Jets for $635 million in 2000, said the saturation video means "there is no downside" to sharing a stadium with the Giants.
There will be so much electronic green on Jets game days, Johnson said, that "you're going to think you've gone to Jets nirvana." No permanent architectural feature in the New Meadowlands Stadium — the naming rights have not yet been sold — will reference the Giants or the Jets.
The 82,500-seat stadium will be shrouded with gigantic aluminum louvers that look like a sweeping wrap of silver Venetian blinds. They give a futuristic, abstract feel, which is meant to evoke the metal and stone of archetypal New York skyscrapers.
Neutrality rules
Neutrality of color and design was the only way, the teams concluded, to create a stadium that could feel like home to both. Inside the stadium bowl, Lamping pointed to the gray seats in the stadium's upper oval. "See, there's no green. There's no blue," said Lamping, the former president of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals. "The best thing the owners did is they made the decision that everything that is permanent is going to be neutral."
That isn't the case at the stadium the two New York teams now share: the 1976-vintage Giants Stadium, with its entry-gates of Giant-blue and seats of Giant-red. The Jets have been second banana since moving there in 1984.
Rather than paint or banners, LEDs — light-emitting-diodes — will be the dominant source of color in the stadium being built next door.
Vertical video screens will bookend the turnstiles outside the stadium, giant video boards will stream team logos above fans entering the building, and four 40-by-200-foot video boards in each corner of the stadium bowl will project impossible-to-ignore replays and advertising during the game.
"It was the only choice they had, to be able to flick the switch and go from blue to green on respective Sundays," said Craig Schmitt, a principal with EwingCole, one of the architects on the project.
Neutrality is not what the 49ers have been shooting for in the design of a 68,500-seat stadium for Santa Clara, which features an unusually large lower bowl, the massing of all luxury suites and club seats on one side of the stadium, and potential use of 49ers colors.
Like the 49ers and the Raiders, the Giants and the Jets have different pedigrees.
Compared with the Jets, "we tend to be seen as a bit old-fashioned in the way we do things, and our crowd is probably a little bit older," said John Mara, the Giants' CEO and the grandson of Tim Mara, who bought the team for $500 in 1925. "Their crowd tends to be a little younger and a little louder. I think they like to think of themselves as being a little bit more of a hip franchise, and there are some differences there.
"But when you are sitting down to think about which (stadium) structure would work best, I don't think those things really come into play."
Still, there were meetings, Mara said, where there "were some fairly strong disagreements." The Giants wanted to keep their training facility directly adjacent to the new stadium but agreed to move it to keep the new stadium neutral territory. The 49ers could face the same issue with a Santa Clara stadium since they now train next door. The Jets wanted more retail outlets in the new stadium but compromised on a single team store that will emphasize whichever team is home.
The Giants and Jets each get their own locker room, but the visiting opponent will have to use a section of the locker room of whichever team is on the road. Corporations have the option of leasing luxury suites for the Giants, the Jets, or both teams — but team owners won't have to share their suites. Each ownership group gets its own. The Jets and Giants have the option to set their own ticket prices and control permanent license fees to buy those tickets, but the teams will split all revenues from parking, concessions and advertising.
Cooperation key
Standing in the gaping space that will be one of five monumental entrances to the new stadium, Lamping described how closely the two ownership groups had to work together.
Instead of the larger number of sponsors who buy scoreboard or fixed advertising in many NFL stadiums, the new Jets-Giants stadium will have only five exclusive sponsors — one that buys the right to name the stadium, and four other "cornerstone" sponsors who will buy the right to "brand" an entrance to the stadium, from the turnstiles to the four large corner video boards.
A fan entering through the "Met Life" entrance — Metropolitan Life, along with Anheuser-Busch, have paid "well up in the seven figures" for cornerstone rights, Mara said — might be greeted with the insurance company's colors, its Snoopy logo, and a fleet of small Met Life blimps.
The Giants and Jets concluded that a shared stadium, with at least 20 NFL games a year, was an opportunity to maximize revenue by limiting the number of sponsors and giving them control of parts of the stadium.
"That's one of the things that's unique about this building," Lamping said. "It's really the concept that less is more."