Tag: MetLife Stadium

NFLPA calls for Giants, Jets to install natural grass at MetLife Stadium

NFLPA president JC Tretter is demanding that all stadiums use natural grass, including MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Giants.

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Following a Week 2 beating of the New York Jets, the San Francisco 49ers expressed concern over the fieldturf at MetLife Stadium after several of their players went down with injury.

“That’s as many knee injuries and ankle stuff and people getting caught on the turf as I’ve even been a part of,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters after the game. “I know our players talked about it the entire game, just how sticky the turf was. Unfortunately it’s a place we got to go back to next week.”

Leading up to a Week 3 game against the New York Giants, also at MetLife Stadium, the turf underwent several inspections and passed each. Ultimately, the NFL deemed the field safe.

While injuries in the stadium were down in Week 3, there were a few that piled onto the tally for both New York and San Francisco.

Now, NFLPA president JC Tretter is calling for all stadiums to convert to natural grass as opposed to fieldturf, including MetLife Stadium.

Below is a section of Tretter’s demands from the NFLPA website.

Based on NFL injury data collected from 2012 to 2018, not only was the contact injury rate for lower extremities higher during practices and games held on artificial turf, NFL players consistently experienced a much higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries on turf compared to natural surfaces. Specifically, players have a 28% higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries when playing on artificial turf. Of those non-contact injuries, players have a 32% higher rate of non-contact knee injuries on turf and a staggering 69% higher rate of non-contact foot/ankle injuries on turf compared to grass.

During a media conference on Wednesday, Tretter doubled-down on his request, once again citing the statistics.

“The data stands out. Those numbers are staggering, the difference in injury rate between turf and natural grass. It’s possible to get grass in every location, and it’s about pushing for that. We all should be working toward the safest style of play. We know the dangers of playing on turf. That’s not good for anybody. It’s not good for players. It’s not good for the GMs and the head coaches. It’s not good for the owners. It’s not good for the fans. Increased injuries isn’t good for anybody,” he said, via ESPN.

“Until we can find a way to get synthetic turf to respond and react like natural grass, it’s too much of a danger to continue to play on and expect different results.”

MetLife Stadium is one of 13 NFL stadiums that use fieldturf.

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MetLife Stadium turf passes inspection ahead of Giants-49ers game

The MetLife Stadium turf has passed an additional inspection ahead of a Week 3 game between the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers.

Following a Week 2 defeat of the New York Jets that saw them lose an abundance of players, the San Francisco 49ers publicly complained about the MetLife Stadium turf in East Rutherford, New Jersey, blaming it for the slew of serious injuries.

“That’s as many knee injuries and ankle stuff and people getting caught on the turf as I’ve even been a part of,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters. “I know our players talked about it the entire game, just how sticky the turf was. Unfortunately it’s a place we got to go back to next week.”

Several 49ers players also voiced their concerns with the turf, but Giants players and head coach Joe Judge completely dismissed the criticisms, saying they’ve had no issues with it at all.

“Our guys have been on that turf. We had camp in the stadium, that was our home for that month or so. We had our players on the turf every day for some kind of walk thru competitive practice,” Judge said earlier this week. “Leading up to the game last week, not a single player said anything negative along the way to me at all about any of the facilities, specifically the turf. I’ve been on it myself, obviously with the team. I think it’s a good surface.”

The Giants held two intrasquad scrimmages on the MetLife Stadium turf and then opened the regular season against the Pittsburgh Steelers there. In addition to their training camp practices, they sustained zero injuries as a result of the surface.

Despite that, with all the extra eyes on the stadium, representatives from the NFL, NFLPA, MetLife Stadium, the Giants and New York Jets, Field Turf and the independent field inspector all descended on East Rutherford to conduct an additional inspection ahead of Week 3’s game between the Giants and 49ers.

The conclusion? The turf is perfectly fine.

“Yesterday, representatives from the NFL, NFLPA, MetLife Stadium, the Giants and Jets, Field Turf and the independent field inspector conducted an additional review of the field surface at MetLife Stadium. The group again verified that the field meets all applicable standards and protocols for NFL field surfaces,” the NFL said in a Thursday statement.

And so ends this saga… For now.

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Gallery: Everson Griffen’s 2019 season with the Vikings

It was reported on Wednesday that Everson Griffen had signed a deal with the Dallas Cowboys. Here are photos from his 2019 campaign.

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Jets, Giants won’t have fans at MetLife Stadium ‘until further notice’

Don’t plan on attending any Jets or Giants games at MetLife Stadium in 2020.

Don’t plan on attending any Jets or Giants games at MetLife Stadium in 2020.

With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday that his executive order restricting outdoor public gatherings will apply to events at MetLife Stadium. In response to this news, the Jets and Giants released the following joint statement in which they said they will play without fans in attendance “until circumstances change.”

Today Governor Murphy announced that, due to the ongoing public health crisis, his Executive Order limiting outdoor public gatherings will apply to events at MetLife Stadium until further notice. This decision was reached after careful consideration of the current state of the COVID crisis, in discussions with our team, and in consideration of the health and safety of our fans, players and staff, which will continue to be our primary focus.

We support Governor Murphy’s decision in the interest of public health and safety and, until circumstances change, we will play our games without the benefit of fans in attendance. Although we would prefer to have fans at MetLife Stadium for our games, we will continue to work with Governor Murphy’s office and will provide updates if necessary.

Additionally, out of an abundance of caution, each team’s 2020 Training Camps and practices will not be open to the public.

We urge our fans to continue to take the necessary precautions recommended by health officials to stay safe and we look forward to seeing you at MetLife Stadium as soon as possible.

Thank you again for your continued patience and understanding during these unprecedented times and we will continue to provide additional information as it becomes available.

The language in the statement leaves open the possibility of fans returning to MetLife at some point this season if the crisis improves, but no such plans are in the stadium’s immediate future. Instead, the Jets and Giants will play in front of an empty house for the forseeable future.

Games without fans have become the new normal for sports in 2020. Various soccer leagues and Major League Baseball have already played without crowds. The National Basketball Association, meanwhile, won’t have fans when it resumes its season in its Disney bubble.

It remains to be seen what other NFL states, cities, venues and teams will do in regards to hosting fans this season, but the Jets and Giants will be without their hometown hopefuls.

Report: Giants will use MetLife Stadium for training camp

The Giants will still use the practice fields at Quest Diagnostic Training Center, but will use MetLife Stadium as a meeting place.

The New York Giants will use MetLife Stadium as the team’s training camp headquarters, according to Art Stapelton of NewJersey.com.

The Giants will host their team training camp in East Rutherford, while the Jets will be in Florham Park. As Stapleton reports, the Giants will still use the practice fields at Quest Diagnostic Training Center since the team’s training center is on the outskirts of the team’s facilities. However, with regards to the locker room and meeting space, the Giants will use their home stadium as a temporary space.

The Giants will also have access to the suites in MetLife Stadium, as the team will attempt to socially distance given their current constraints.

The Jets don’t have the same advantage of being able to prepare in their own stadium. Following the guidelines set forth by the NFL and CDC, the Jets will be conducting a limited training camp on their own accord while preparing for the season in Florham Park.

This isn’t a change from the Giants’ usual circumstances, but since they’re so close to their stadium already, they’re allowed to participate in the team’s limited training camp there.

The Giants being allowed to practice at MetLife gives them an opportunity to experience their home stadium without a crowd. The Jets, meanwhile, will have to get creative in order to mimic such circumstances at their own team facilities.

Report: Giants rookies will report on July 21; MetLife Stadium will be team hub

New York Giants rookies will report on July 21, while the team also prepares to use MetLife Stadium as a hub to fight COVID-19.

New York Giants coaches began to return to East Rutherford, New Jersey on Friday to undergo COVID-19 testing ahead of their preparations for training camp, which remains on schedule to start on July 28.

But in short order, those coaches will be joined by incoming rookies — many of whom are not yet under contract.

Art Stapleton of NorthJersey.com and USA TODAY reports that Giants rookies will report to East Rutherford on July 21 with all remaining players reporting on the aforementioned date of July 28.

The Giants have begun their COVID-19 testing procedures in advance of training camp with rookies set to arrive July 21. The veterans are set to report July 28.

Additionally, Stapleton reports that while the Giants will use their practice fields at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center, they will use MetLife Stadium as a hub. The team will have access to both the stadium locker room and the stadium suites in an effort to create more space and encourage social distancing.

The team will still use the practice fields at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center, as in years past, since their training facility is located on the outskirts of the MetLife parking lot. But with regard to locker room and meeting space, the Giants will take advantage of the stadium, likely using their traditional game day locker room in addition to those spaces used for visiting teams.

The Giants will also have access to suites within MetLife Stadium for their meetings – all in the spirit of social distancing with relative space limitations at Quest.

With the NFL and NFLPA still negotiating COVID-19 and season protocols, the early training camp and preseason schedules remain somewhat up in the air. However, after having missed an entire offseason, first-year head coach Joe Judge isn’t wasting anymore time and will conduct his very first in-person staff meeting on Sunday, July 19.

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MetLife Stadium ranked among worst in the NFL

MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets, was recently ranked among the very worst stadiums in the NFL.

When it comes to NFL stadiums, bigger is not always better. Some of the league’s largest venues are its worst. If you think the more money sunk into a project makes a stadium more amenable to fans, that’s not always true, either.

Jon Machota of The Athletic recently polled NFL experts on the best — and worst — 31 stadiums in the NFL in 2019 based on factors such as gameday atmosphere, architecture, sight lines, concession stands/food options, ticket prices, accessibility, parking, etc.

Most NFL teams have either gotten new stadiums, or had their existing venues upgraded, in this millennium. Machota’s poll encompasses 31 stadiums. The league is down to 30 stadiums now that the Rams and Chargers will share a venue — SoFi Stadium — which opens this year.

The Raiders also moved out of the Oakland Coliseum for the bright lights of Las Vegas where they will play in the brand new Allegiant Stadium, located along the famous Strip.

The five top-ranked venues are as follows:

  1. U.S. Bank Stadium (Vikings)
  2. CenturyLink Field (Seahawks)
  3. AT&T Stadium (Cowboys)
  4. Lambeau Field (Packers)
  5. Arrowhead Stadium (Chiefs)

The first three stadiums were built from scratch while Lambeau and Arrowhead have gone through many renovations in recent years.

Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Stadium, which opened in 2000, received 12 votes among the worst-five stadium rankings. Just missing out on the bottom five were MetLife Stadium (home of the Giants and Jets) and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. Each received 10 votes.

2019’s five worst according to the poll are:

27. Paul Brown Stadium (Bengals)

28. L.A. Memorial Coliseum (Rams)

29. Oakland Coliseum (Raiders)

30. TIAA Bank Field (Jaguars)

31. FedExField (Washington)

MetLife, the $1.6 billion uninviting concrete and steel behemoth that replaced Giants Stadium in 2010, was ranked 26th. No one should have a problem with this. MetLife has little charm and many strikes against it. It doesn’t help that ticket prices are some the highest in the NFL and that the teams that call it home have been largely terrible since its opening. The Jets have never hosted a postseason game there. The Giants have hosted only one.

In addition, accessibility from New York has become a frustrating exercise, usually taking hours to travel the 12 miles to and fro the city. That has caused many long-time, hardcore Giant fans to give up their tickets, opting to stay home rather than make the trek.

Since season ticket holders also see their ducats as commodities, many simply choose the games they want to attend and the rest of their seats on StubHub and other secondary markets. That puts a lot of “non” or indifferent fans in the seats, diminishing the homefield advantage.

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MetLife Stadium hasn’t been playoff friendly to Giants, Jets

MetLife Stadium hasn’t been kind to the New York Giants or New York Jets during the playoffs.

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.

See it: Giants reveal new field, endzones

The New York Giants have revealed a new field turf and customized endzones at MetLife Stadium ahead of the 2020 regular season.

The New York Giants have slowly reopened their facilities and some executives have begun to return, and should the NFL and NFLPA strike a deal, several coaches and rookies could populate their East Rutherford buildings as early as June 26.

Despite the bizarre nature of the offseason, which was dramatically altered due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Giants and all 31 other teams are preparing to roll full steam ahead on the regular season.

When and if that time comes, MetLife Stadium will open its doors — hopefully to fans — and it will feature a brand new field, including newly redesigned endzones.

The new endzone features two classic Giants logos — the lowercase “ny” that’s currently adorned on their helmets, and the old school underlined “GIANTS” logo in pure white.

Gone is he “NFC” logo that usually joins the classic “ny,” while the word “GIANTS” remains pure with a white border on white letter as opposed to the red border seen on the “ny” logos.

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Report: Jets could lose over $200 million in stadium revenue if NFL season is played without fans

The Jets would be among the biggest revenue losers if the NFL plays the 2020 season without fans.

The coronavirus pandemic put sports on hold for the time being, but there’s still a chance the NFL season begins as expected on Sept. 10 – potentially without fans in the stadium.

While this is great news for football fans, it also comes with some consequences if fans aren’t allowed at games. While the NFL has probably been the least affected of the major sports leagues in the United States, there’s a chance the league – and its teams – could lose an exorbitant amount of money. 

The NFL earned approximately $5.5 billion from stadium revenue in 2018, according to Forbes, which includes tickets, concessions, sponsorships, parking and team stores. The league – and its teams – stand to lose all or some of that money if they can’t open their stadiums to a full audience of fans. 

The Jets would be among the most affected by this possibility. Based on the 2018 season, the Jets earned $218 million of a reported $475 million directly from operations at MetLife Stadium. If fans are barred from games, that would equate to roughly a 45.8 percent loss in revenue. The $218 million loss tied for fifth-most in the league with the Texans behind the Cowboys ($621 million), the Patriots ($315 million) and the Giants ($262 million), who share MetLife with the Jets.

The trickle-down effect would hit the players, too. Players will earn 47 percent of football-related revenue in 2020 as part of the newly-signed collective bargaining agreement, but that number will surely be lower than in years past. If you look even further down the line, these losses could even lower the salary cap for the 2021 league year even after it increased by $10 million to $192 million this season.

None of this will matter if the NFL season is canceled or postponed, though. The lost revenue in either scenario would be far greater, so even a season without fans would be a win for the league. Will teams and players suffer for years after the pandemic ends? Yes, but that’s the case with almost all businesses and employees this year.