Mark My Words: The New York Giants Will Open Up The New Stadium

When the schedule was released last year, I scrolled to week 17 without any urgency. It’s called Giants Stadium; obviously the New York Giants are going to close it out. The real drama was which team would have the honor of playing the stadium’s last game.

It turns out I assumed wrong. After going through the unusual process of a triple-take, I scanned through the week 17 games multiple times and saw: Cincinnati Bengals @ New York Jets: 1:00 p.m.

It was very surprising. Not only that they would close out Giants Stadium with a Jets game, but also would pick a match up between two teams that were projected to be average at best in 2009.

Couple that with the fact the game was slotted to be at 1:00 and the last game at Giants Stadium likely would have received as much publicity as Michael Strahan’s sitcom on FOX.

After some consideration I derived with a fair deal of certainty that the triumvirate of the Jets, Giants, and the NFL had a wink-nod arrangement in place.

The Giants would sacrifice the true last game at Giants Stadium—which was probably a good thing in hindsight—and in return the Giants would open up the new one.

It makes sense. It wouldn’t be right only one team to close down a legendary stadium then open up one they hoped to create only a greater legacy for. As the rightful owners to Giants Stadium, the NFL likely gave John Mara and the Giants priority in deciding which game they wanted.

Closing Giants Stadium would have been nice, but Mara is shrewd enough to realize that Giants Stadium will be remembered for the Giants—not the Jets—regardless of who played the last game there.

However, if the Giants opened up the new stadium, it would create a peace of mind for Giants fans everywhere. For years their rallying cry against Jets fans has been that the Jets are merely paying rent in their arena: the Jets were essentially homeless.

If the Giants baptize the stadium then the fans could hold similar bragging rights, in addition to confirming their belief that they are the city’s number ones.

Thanks to the PSL era being a New York owner has become extremely political. It may take certain tactics such as the one I believe Mara used to keep the fan base content.

But the Jets have work to do on the PSL front too. Since Rex Ryan made his first visit to the microphone he made declaration upon declaration of how he is prepared to revive the Jets franchise. And to the surprise of many, he did just that. Cha-ching!

After a 9-7 season morphed into a near Super Bowl berth within a span of a few weeks, the P.R. department was living the dream. Forget Sanchez’s ugly 20 interceptions to his mere 12 touchdown passes. Or the fact the offense was essentially taken out of his hands the last eight games. A rookie quarterback led the Jets to the AFC Championship game! Imagine what is to come!

And no one can blame them for taking that route. But now the Jets are attempting to build on the momentum. On Saturday, the New York Jets website posted with surprising certainty that the determining factor of who opens up the new stadium will be a coin flip.

The article then goes on to state that this will be a mini-event and fans will be permitted to observe and cheer for whichever team they prefer.

But the NFL and New York Giants declined to confirm this report. It is strange that the Jets would be willing to post an article of such magnitude on their website without NFL approval, but they did just that.

For many, it has been a foregone conclusion that the Giants are opening up the stadium. Perhaps the Jets want to spark up some more PSL sales, which they apparently are in serious need of.

Whatever the reason, it would be a true shocker if the Giants do not christen the new stadium. The Jets were permitted to close out one memorable site, it is only fair that the Giants open up the new one.