As the Chargers try to find a way to secure a location and funding for a new football stadium, let’s hope they don’t follow the path of the 82,500-seat New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., which opened this season as the home of the Giants and Jets for $1.7 billion (yep, that’s a “B”). Granted, metro New York real estate prices are in a stratosphere by themselves even in a crusty hamlet across the Hudson River. Yet aside from new asphalt, wider concourses and much more expensive ticket prices, I could discern no measurable difference between the old Meadowlands and the new one, aside from the spiffy club seats out in the open so you could snap a picture of Caroline Kennedy and her pals nibbling on sushi above the 50-yard line. Suffering from the same disease as the Dodgers in Los Angeles, they still haven’t figured out how to get the parking straight at this behemoth of a concrete jungle, which also includes a racetrack, the Giants training facility and a now-vacant basketball arena — thanks to the New Jersey Nets bolting temporarily to Newark until their new hoops arena opens in 2012 in Brooklyn (coincidentally, the last pro team in that borough was the 1957 Dodgers). Nets new owner, Russian Mikhail Prokhorov, was on to something because parking is a train wreck at the Meadowlands, along the lines of which I haven’t seen. Yet if that wasn’t bad enough, if you intend to drive and tailgate before the game, you need a parking pass to even get in (or, if you’re a schmoozer like me, be a darn good storyteller on why you’re without one). Even during August preseason games, the New York Daily News reported how fans who had paid $40,000 for personal seat licenses — yes, that’s four zeros after the four — were never informed they would also have to pay for parking. So what did the Jets do? Start selling single-game parking passes online for $50. What’s worse, the club’s inability to inform its ticket base has resulted in a black market online where parking pass prices themselves have become inflated. By the way, the exterior of the stadium might just be the ugliest I have ever seen. Aluminum louvers, which are basically shutters with slats, encircle the stadium. I thought the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona took the cake for football stadium turned spaceship. No more. The lesson of the Meadowlands mess is two-fold: be upfront with your fans and be smart about logistics and design before spending millions. To their credit, the Chargers have been forthcoming, and it would seem downtown would be the best fit, providing fans with multiple transportation options and no ultimatum to fork over $50 to park. — Joe Connor is an occasional contributor to Beach & Bay Press who has seen a game inside every NFL stadium.
