A friend brought me to the inaugural game at New Meadowlands Stadium, where the New York Jets inducted six greats into their Ring of Honor at halftime and, as if to pay tribute to so much of the franchise’s colorful-yet-utterly-embarrassing history, promptly imploded in the third quarter to christen the stadium with a frustrating loss to their co-tenants, the New York Giants (really should have seen that coming). The defeat hardly mattered though because the big perk was having my first chance to look at the recently completed stadium and I think I speak for many fellow attendees when I say that as I wandered through I couldn’t help wondering: how the hell did this thing cost so much?

Mind you, I like the new stadium. This has not been the reaction of many (see here and here for typical examples of reporters crapping on the facilities). Frankly, I was just happy to have additional bathrooms and overpriced concession stands. That said, this is what the Cowboys got for $1.2 billion.

And sure, everything is more expensive in New York/ New Jersey than it is down in Texas, but $400 million more? Not to mention something else: there’s a difference between the two stadiums. Look at this and this. It’s subtle, but if you squint a little you can probably spot it.

That’s right, the Cowboys have a roof and the Jets/ Giants do not (indeed, the New Meadowlands seems designed to ensure that pretty much everybody who didn’t pony up for luxury suites is completely exposed to the elements, in what I can only assume is an ironic commentary on capitalism via architecture). This is utterly ass backwards. The Jets/ Giants shelled out roughly half a billion more than the Cowboys to go roof-less. Plus I’ve been to Dallas and I discovered something: they have no weather. I haven’t looked at the weather forecast for Texas tomorrow, but I’ll take a guess: hot. Meanwhile tens of thousands of New Yorkers can look forward to gentle rainfalls and total monsoons and plenty of snow, from which they will get a respite only when they scramble off to the concession stands to buy a beer ($8.75 for a Bud Lite, meaning it’d take like 200 bucks to get Joe Namath properly wasted before he appears on TV with Suzy Kolber) or a burger and fries ($13, and unlike in Dallas no Kobe beef is involved).

The good news? Giants Stadium was in use for under 34 years. When they rip the New Meadowlands down in 2044, maybe they’ll get it right then.

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