Meadowlands Closing In on Naming Rights Deal

After 2 ½ years of construction, $1.6 billion spent, and countless debates over how it all should look, feel, smell, be, the New Meadowlands Stadium opened on April 10, 2010, with its 82,566 seats awaiting the backsides of happy lacrosse fans.

Lacrosse isn’t exactly what this stadium is known for, though. This place is all about football: New York Giants and New York Jets football. With 20 home games a year, twice the number of any other stadium in the land, you’d think there would be one company out there ready to pony up some big bucks on the naming rights.

But the troubles on Wall Street and Main Street were just too bad at the time for any corporation to feel good about spending that kind of dough on such a thing. It appears, however, that times have changed.

Sports Business Journal reports that the naming rights for the venue in East Rutherford, NJ, are close to getting done and all the papers should be signed and stamped and made into triplicate by the start of the coming season. (Of course, the negotiators may have bought some time since it remains unclear when the players and team owners will come to agreement on a new collective-bargaining agreement. Until that happens, not a helmet will be lifted in an NFL building.) 

One good reason for someone to sign on is it will save money on buying a Super Bowl ad. The stadium will host the NFL’s first-ever open-air, cold-weather Super Bowl in 2014. “Naming rights were initially priced at $30 million for 20 years,” National Football Post reports. “The price has reportedly dropped some.” 

One company surely not in the running for the naming rights is AshleyMadison.com, the website that is set up to help people looking to have extramarital affairs. Last year, the site pulled a publicity stunt (it’s still getting press right here and now!) by offering the Giants and Jets $25 million for the next five years to have naming rights, according to ProFootballTalk, but that — like most affairs, come to think of it — didn’t go anywhere.