Red Bull Speaks on the Stadium Status

In an email to season ticket holders yesterday, Red Bull New York Managing Director Erik Stover cleared the air over reports that Red Bull Park construction was being held up over a pending eminent domain case, further delaying the opening of the new home of the Red Bulls in Harrison, NJ. Wrote Stover,

Dear RBNY Supporters,

There have been a number of inaccurate articles published recently regarding construction off Red Bull Park and I wanted to reach out to you directly to clarify some of the facts.

We have completed the piles and pile caps as well as the underground work of Red Bull Park and we are still committed to opening in 2009.

The pieces for the next phase of construction are ready and waiting, which includes the erection of structural steel. Cranes are on-site and ready to go once we receive the next set of permits that are to be issued by the Town of Harrison. We expect to receive these permits by the middle of August, possibly sooner.

As you can imagine, a project of this magnitude can be difficult and will have its ups and downs along the way. However we remain committed to the project and continue to move construction forward. We are still within the timetable for a 2009 opening as we've anticipated delays and have built contingencies for these possible delays into the plan. Should we get to the point where 2009 is not feasible due to delays that are out of our control, we will communicate to you directly so that you hear it from us first.

Thank you for your patience as we work to bring you a world-class stadium that we can all call our home.

Sincerely

Erik Stover
Managing Director
New York Red Bulls

There's a lot more that Red Bull could be doing to manage fans' expectations over the much-delayed stadium project (Red Bull held a groundbreaking for the stadium on September 16th, 2006, nearly two years ago). Most other MLS clubs have produced rich-media web sites generating excitement and communicating progress about their soccer-specifc stadia. Take RSL's, for example. Red Bull has chosen minute-long videos that air during halftime of the team's televised matches to show "updates" on stadium construction. However, there's a lot more that Red Bull can do to show the club's small but passionate fan base what's happening on the Harrison stadium site. The current Red Bull Park web site is woefully spare. Of course, if there's really not much going on... there's not a lot to talk about, but RB could really make a better effort in informing their fans.