MetLife Stadium is like every other major sports venue in America this spring. Empty and quiet. There are no concerts or sporting events scheduled due to the lockdown restrictions put in place by the COVID-19 pandemic.
That will supposedly change when football season comes. The NFL is planning to play their season in its entirety come September. Whether fans will be permitted to attend is still in question.
To the New York Giants and their co-tenants, the New York Jets, MetLife Stadium has been a home but not really an advantage to either team. Since the venue opened in 2010, there have only been two NFL postseason games played in the $1.6 billion flavorless dwelling.
The Jets have never hosted a playoff game at MetLife Stadium. The Giants have hosted just one – a wild-card round victory over the Atlanta Falcons in 2012 on their way to winning Super Bowl XLVI.
Other postseason game was Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014 between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos. Seattle won the game, 43-8, but the story afterward centered around the travel and egress before and after the game which was nothing short of disastrous.
MetLife Stadium has been kind of a house of horrors for NFL fans in the NY/NJ metro area. Since the stadium opened, the Jets are 68-92 overall but have a winning record (42-39) at home. The Giants have fared slightly better overall (70-90) but are just 39-43 at home with one playoff win.
The only thing the Giants and Jets gained by opening the new stadium was wealth. The fans, many of who were forced to give up tickets they held for decades at Giants Stadium, Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds were sent packing in favor of corporations and entities who were willing to pay the high price of the personal seat licenses.
In return, the fans have been treated to some of the worst football New York has seen since the 1970s. MetLife Stadium may be a state of the art facility but the football teams that occupy it are far from state of the art quality NFL teams.