| Built
as part of the Meadowlands Sports Complex in 1975,
Giants Stadium was built to serve as a home for the New
York Giants, who moved from Shea Stadium beginning with
the 1976 NFL season. In 1983 the New Jersey
Generals were born, but to readily admit that the
Generals were playing in the home stadium of another
team - and an NFL team at that - would be
sacrilege. To avoid this situation, the Gens and
the USFL's television partners agreed to refer to the
facility as simply "The Meadowlands," a
practice adopted by the New York Jets when they joined
the Giants as tenants at the stadium in 1984.
Sometimes the USFL's printed materials would slip and
use "Giants Stadium," much to the dismay of
team owners J. Walter Duncan and Donald Trump.
The
seating capacity of "The Meadowlands" was
76,891 back during its USFL days, but it was rare that
the Generals generated enough interest to necessitate
that many seats.
Today
the stadium continues to host the Giants and Jets home
games, but its days are numbered. A new
Meadowlands Stadium project is in the works, with Giants
Stadium, The Meadowlands, or whatever you wish to call
the stadium, headed for a date with a wrecking ball or
implosion sometime in early 2010.
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THE
MEADOWLANDS |
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East
Rutherford, New Jersey |
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