Gary Myers of the New York Daily News said the 5,200 empty seats at New Meadowlands Stadium were the worst part of the Giants’ season-opening vitory Sunday over the Carolina Panthers.
We’re talking about two sections of club seats in the mezzanine level opposite the Giants bench that were nearly completely empty. There’s about 250 seats in each section.
It wasn’t visible on television like the empty seats behind the plate at Yankee Stadium. Forget about television. Anybody at the stadium Sunday saw the block of gray seats that stood out like a sore PSL.
One mezzanine section right at the 50-yard line – $12,500 PSL, $500 game ticket – and one section at around the 5-yard line – $7,500 PSL, $400 game ticket – had just a handful of fans in them. There was an entire row in a section in the corner of the end zone on the mezzanine level that was empty.
Directly behind the Giants bench, one section of the Coaches Club – $20,000 PSL, $700 game ticket – looked like it was pretty well sold out, but the sections next to it had some good seats still available. And it’s not like the seats were empty because the fans escaped the rain and remained in the cozy club lounges.
You have to remember that for basically forever the Giants were the toughest ticket in town. Season tickets were handed down from generation to generation. They were left in wills. They were gold.
The PSLs changed that. The Giants blew right through their waiting list of over 100,000.
“Certainly we would like to see the building sold,” Giants co-owner John Mara said as he walked out of the stadium late in the afternoon. “But you know what? This time next year it will be.”
The Giants — and the Jets — can both put the best face on it. They can’t have imagined opening the season with empty seats in the building, though. Or without a corporate sponsor for the stadium.