Shining like a silver spaceship across the Passaic River from Newark, Red Bull Arena is ready for soccer.
Discussed for a decade and approved in June 2004, the soccer-specific stadium is well past due to open but when it does - with an exhibition between the Red Bulls and Brazil's Santos on March 20 - the 25,000-seat stadium will immediately become the premier soccer venue in the nation.
After fumbling around Giants Stadium for 15 seasons, often playing before crowds of 10,000 in a 79,000-capacity venue, the New York area's professional soccer team will now have a $200 million home of its own.
"Unfortunately, for 15 years now we have not really been able to showcase the game to key media people, to key sponsors, to influential people from the financial community," MLS commissioner Don Garber said. "It didn't tell the right story about what we're trying to do in this country. And now finally, not only will we be able to showcase a fantastic soccer stadium, but we'll be able to showcase what I think is one of the best stadiums of its size in the world."
Delays in cleaning up the 200-acre site, where pipes and steel used to be made, postponed the start of construction on the stadium until January 2008.
The 120-by-75-yard grass field (109-by-68 meters) is surrounded by seats just 21 feet from the touchlines under the design by Rossetti Architects. The 17th row is the farthest from the field in the lower deck. There are 30 luxury suites with a bi-level lounge, about 1,000 club seats, a bar for longtime season ticket holders and five locker rooms - enough to hold a neutral doubleheader without having to open the Red Bulls' private player areas. Six broadcasts booths provide enough space to hold major World Cup qualifiers.
Fans can munch on Brazil- and Portuguese-themed food created by Seabras, a nearby restaurant in Newark's Ironbound district. Instead of driving, they can take commuter rail trains to a station right outside. Empty space outside the arena has been set aside for commercial development.
And no longer having to work around the NFL's Giants and Jets, college football and concerts, the soccer team is master of its own fixture list, choosing the optimum dates and times to create a schedule aimed at the league, fans and television partners. After a youth game Saturday and the exhibition, the first Major League Soccer game set for March 27 against the Chicago Fire
No more slipping around on garish artificial turf that often was marked up with both soccer the NFL lines, as if some Willem de Kooning drip painting were superimposed over a Jasper Johns.
A team that's largely stunk since the league started play in 1996, is hoping the stadium will spur it to a renaissance - or, perhaps more accurately, a naissance.
"It hasn't been hard for a visiting MLS team to come in and play. This we expect it to make it difficult on them," Red Bulls managing director Erik Stover said. "It helps us with a homefield advantage. It helps us with recruiting players. We think it will help our guys stay healthy."
MLS has tied its future to soccer-specific stadiums, and Red Bull Arena is the eighth to open, following Columbus Crew Stadium (1999); the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. (2003); Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas (2005); Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill. (2006); Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo. (2007); BMO Field in Toronto (2007); and, Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah (2008).
PPL Park in Chester, Pa., is slated to open later this year, and the Kansas City Wizards' stadium in 2011, when expansion teams move into renovated stadiums in Portland, Ore.; and Vancouver, British Columbia. That will leave only D.C. United, Houston, New England and San Jose exploring new homes, with Seattle happy following its first season at Qwest Field.
"We believe that every team needs their own home. They need a building that defines them and gives their fans a place which can celebrate the game in the local community," Garber said.
New York's modern era of professional soccer began with the Cosmos, who wandered from Yankee Stadium to Hofstra and Randall's Island before the 1975 signing of Pele sent them back to Yankee Stadium the following year and onto Giants Stadium in 1977 until the team's demise in 1985.
The MetroStars started play with MLS in 1996, then were renamed in 2006 when Anschutz Entertainment Group sold the team to Red Bull Co. Ltd.
The team has advanced past the opening round of the playoffs just twice and has never won a title. In an area where only winning has been acceptable, the Red Bulls have been an embarrassment. They were 5-19-6 in the league and 6-21-7 overall last year, going winless in 27 MLS regular-season road matches since May 2008. They averaged a club-low 12,491 fans for league home games, 12th among 15 teams.
Following Newark's Prudential Center (2007), new Yankee Stadium (2009) and Citi Field (2009), and preceeding the new Meadowlands Stadium (April) and Barclays Center (ground just broken), the soccer stadium is part of a sports building boom in the New York metropolitan area.
In an area where the Yankees charge up to $1,500 per seat per game, down from $2,500 last year, the Red Bulls priced their season tickets at $272 to $3,000 for 15 home games, although they reclassified 300 of their thousand pricey club seats down to "premium midfield" at $695 for the year. Emulating some European teams, they're replacing many paper tickets with smart cards for buyers of season plans.
And they're seeking to expand the fan base by bringing in other teams. The Czech Republic meets Turkey on May 22 in the first international match at Red Bull Arena, and Stover hopes Fox will allow the Red Bulls to show the European Champions League final on the high-definition video boards after the final whistle, which would encourage fans to stay.
"Hopefully some of them will come back occasionally for our matches," he said, "or even better become season ticket holders."
