Stadium Gets $300M NFL Loan

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ-The proposed new football stadium for the New York Giants and New York Jets got a financial boost yesterday in the form of a $300 million loan from the National Football League. At the urging of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, the 32 team owners approved the deal at a meeting in Dallas yesterday. The 81,000-seat venue, expected to cost in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion, will replace the existing, 30-year-old Giants Stadium that the two teams currently share.

The financing comes from the NFL’s G3 program, which the league set up in 1999 to help teams build new stadiums. It essentially gives NFL teams up to $150 million for stadium construction, but the loan for the new stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex here amounts to $300 million because the project involves two teams.

“We owe thanks to all of the other team owners… and Commissioner Goodell and his staff for their support,” says a joint statement from Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch and Jets owner Woody Johnson. “Our goal is to create a new stadium that will revolutionize and enhance the experience for the fan. This modern and technologically advanced stadium will bring about a new excitement for football in the region… and be a showcase for the grandeur and fun that NFL game days offer. We look forward to commencing construction next spring.”

Some design issues still need to be ironed out between the two teams before the spring 2007 construction start. If all goes well, the new stadium is expected to be ready by the 2010 season. Among those technological advances will be a lighting system that will make the facility glow blue for the Giants and green for the Jets.

It will be built just to the northeast of the existing stadium, and when the new stadium is finished the existing one will be demolished and replaced by parking lots. With the start of work next spring, both the new stadium and the $1.2 billion Meadowlands Xanadu project, just across Route 120, will simultaneously be under construction.