New York's Giants and Jets Both Deal With Low Attendandce Percentages

Thank God for the Bucs and Rams.

That must be the sentiment that the Jets and Giants organizations are sharing after this weekend.

Both teams opened up the $1 billion New Meadowlands stadium—the Giants in a Sunday afternoon win over the Panthers and the Jets in a Monday night loss to the Ravens. And both teams failed to come close to filling it to capacity

Plagued by ticket woes all offseason, the last thing these two teams needed on opening weekend was bad weather. But of course, that’s exactly what both squads were forced to deal with on consecutive rainy days.

The weekend turned out to be a complete wash.

The official listed capacity for New Meadowlands Stadium is 82,566, but neither team came close to breaking the 80,000 draw mark.

Here’s a look at how the sixteen NFL home teams stack up attendance wise in Week 1.

Figures courtesy of ESPN.com

1. Philadelphia Eagles: Lincoln Financial Field: 69,144 (102 percent)
2. Chicago Bears: Soldier Field: 62,080 (100.9 percent)
3. Seattle Seahawks: Qwest Field: 67,044 (100.1 percent)
t4. Tennessee Titans: LP Field: 69,143 (100 percent)
t4. New England Patriots: Gillette Stadium: 68, 756 (100 percent)
6. Houston Texans: Reliant Stadium: 70,974 (99.9 percent)
7. Washington Redskins: FedEx Field: 90,670 (98.9 percent)
8. Pittsburgh Steelers: Heinz Field: 63,609 (97.9 percent)
9. New Orleans Saints: Superdome: 70,051 (96 percent)
10. Buffalo Bills: Ralph Wilson Stadium: 69,295 (94.8 percent)
11. New York Jets: New Meadowlands Stadium: 78,127 (94.7 percent)
12. Jacksonville Jaguars: EverBank Field: 63,636 (94.7 %)
13. New York Giants: New Meadowlands Stadium: 77,245 (93.6 percent)
14. Kansas City Chiefs: Arrowhead Stadium: 71, 297 (92.9 percent)
15. St. Louis Rams: Edward Jones Dome: 52,440 (80.3 percent)
16. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Raymond James Stadium: 47,211 (71.9 percent)

To put in perspective, the Giants average attendance percentage in 2009 was 98.1 percent, while the Jets was 96 percent when the teams played their last season at Giants Stadium.

So, is it bad that the Giants had a lower attendance percentage for their stadium debut than the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team used as the scapegoat for attendance problems in the NFL?

Is it bad that the arch-rival Redskins filled up their stadium to near capacity in a venue with over 10,000 more seats? Remember, it was a Sunday night game.

And while we’re on the subject, is there a stadium name in the NFL more devoid of creativity than “New Meadowlands” Stadium?

So, I guess throwing a bunch of steel bars together and tagging it with the most generic name possible didn’t excite New Yorkers and New Jerseyians like it was supposed to.

Oh well, wake me up when it’s finally “Go Time!”