Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Numb and Number

Jack Bell’s column in today’s NY Times notes that the New York Red Bulls’ Austrian overlords are “re-evaluating” the Harrison, NJ stadium project that former Metro GM Nick Sakewicz has been working on since 2000. Bell’s piece notes that Red Bull is convinced that Giants Stadium is “recognized around the world as the soccer destination” in the metro area.

As a fan that has followed the soap opera that is Harrison since the turn of the century with great interest, and as a fan that has watched from afar as Columbus, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Colorado and even Toronto has started, and in some cases moved into their soccer-specific stadiums, I’m dumbstruck by this latest news.

People become “fans” because of an emotional connection they feel with their teams. If the promise of escaping the high parking fees, surly security guards and low-forehead concessionaires at Giants Stadium is removed, I’ll feel as if my emotional capital will have been spent on... nothing. As our commander-if chief so eloquently put it... “Fool me twice… um… you can’t fool me again.” As the Mo Johnston death watch has begun, this club needs some good news around it. Now.

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