New Meadowlands Stadium

The stadium is only two regular-season weeks old, so a “review” of sorts?
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When I was first arriving to the New Meadowlands (yes, Meadowlands, not Giants) Stadium last Sunday for the week 1 matchup versus the Ravens, to be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect.  Was it going to be “all it was hyped up to be?”  I mean, it cost $1.6 billion to make, about $.3 billion more than Jerry Jones’ beloved football Mt. Olympus, so it must be like, awesome crazy football Mt. Olympus, right?

But then I kept remembering Yankee Stadium.  The new stadium is, in many ways, bigger, better, grander than the old one.  The big screen is so big it’ll probably have long term effects on players eyesight, there are refreshment money-vacuums every couple feet, and things like a Metro-North platform connecting to the stadium are all overly convenient.  But, even as a stern and assiduous Yankees fan, I’ll admit that it’s simply “not the same” as old Yankee Stadium.  When I’m at home I’d rather sit on a huge, comfortable couch than a small, hard one, but at a game that notion isn’t the same.  And there is no giant baseball bat outside the stadium, which was the focal point of every mental picture I had of the stadium from my childhood. I also haven’t seen the gaudy Steinbrenner plaque yet, but I can assume.

I never knew why the bat tape was peeling

So there are always the cool new things you enjoy and the old things that aren’t even actually that cool but that you miss a whole lot.

Like I said, I didn’t know what to expect, and as we approached our parking space,  (Granted old Giants Stadium isn’t as memorable as old Yankee stadium), I wasn’t sure what new things I’d appreciate and what old staples would soon become memories.