Stadium News Today …

A fan in NYC has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court seeking $6B in damages and a court ordered return to NYC by the Giants and the Jets.  The suit alleges false advertising, deceptive practices and interstate wire fraud on the part of the two teams.  [It is the interstate wire fraud allegation that lands this in the Federal court system.]  The Giants have played their home games in New Jersey since 1976 and the Jets have shared a stadium there with the Giants since 1984.  Obviously, the Giants think that the suit is “without merit” and they swear that they will defend their position vigorously.  If there has been a response from either the Jets or from the NFL as a whole, I have not found it.

The charges in this suit have a patina of credibility only because the Giants and Jets call themselves “New York” but never actually play there and both teams have their practice facilities “across the river” in New Jersey.  That got me thinking about other NFL franchises where the team does not play in the city they claim in their team’s name.

• Given where I live, the Washington Football Team – – or whatever they will name themselves in the near future – – would be guilty of the same egregious behavior.  The team’s stadium is in Landover, MD; the team’s practice facility is in Ashburn VA.

[Aside:  When Jack Kent Cooke owned the team and built the stadium, he tried to create his own locality name; he called the location of the stadium, Ral-John, MD, after his two sons Ralph and John.  The name did not stick.]

• The Dallas Cowboys play their games in Arlington, TX and their practice facility is in Frisco, TX.
• The Buffalo Bills play their games and have their practice facilities in Orchard Park NY – – a small suburb just south of Buffalo, NY
• The San Francisco 49ers left town several years ago and moved to their new stadium in Santa Clara, CA which is much closer to San José than it is to San Francisco.

I cannot think of any other NFL team that would run afoul of a victory by the plaintiff in this lawsuit, but I have not gone to verify the mailing addresses of every team’s stadium and practice facilities.

Dwight Perry took note of this suit and its allegations and had this to say in the Seattle Times:

“A fan has filed a $6 billion lawsuit against the Jets and Giants for deceptive practices, on the grounds that they:

• a) call themselves New York but play in New Jersey
• b) claim to play professional football.”

Speaking of stadiums – sort of – I read a report that the city of Miami and the folks who own/operate the MLS team in Miami – – InterMiami – – have reached a deal for a new stadium for the team.  The stadium would be part of a larger commercial development project and would include:

• The stadium that would seat up to 30,000 folks
• A shopping mall
• A park
• A hotel.

The total cost would be about $1B and the team’s contribution to the deal would be the cost of the land which could be in the $35-50M range.  That seems like a hefty price tag for a project centered on a soccer stadium – – unless this means that soccer has finally arrived on a sound financial footing in the US.

Miami as a city must love to build stadium/arena venues.  The Dolphins, the Marlins, the Heat and the Panthers each play in their own venues; now InterMiami will have a new crib of its own too.

Yesterday, I said that the NY Giants seemed to be ready to stick with Joe Judge for at least one more season.  That changed overnight; Judge is out as the coach of the Giants and GM Dave Gettleman “retired” so the Giants will do a full restructuring of the football side of the house.  The plan is to hire a new GM and to have that GM go out and hire a new coach.  Frankly, that makes more sense than hiring a new GM and telling him to find a way to make nice with the existing coach whose record with the team is a less-than-laudable 10-23-0.

Just as Dolphins’ fans might be justified in skepticism about the capabilities of their owner to hire a new head coach as detailed yesterday, Giants’ fans should worry about the processes at work in NYC.  The last three Giants’ head coaches since ditching Tom Coughlin have lasted two years or less on the job and the results have not been pretty:

• Joe Judge – – 10-23-0
• Pat Shurmur – – 9-23-0
• Ben McAdoo – – 13-13-0

The pressure will be on the new GM – – not just for hiring a competent and lasting head coach.  In addition, the Giants – – a team with significant talent upgrade needs – hold the overall #5 and #7 picks in the 2022 NFL Draft.  The new GM needs to get those picks right; the way Dan Jenkins would describe it; the picks need to be:

• Dead solid perfect.

Finally, since I used an observation from Dwight Perry above, let me crib another comment of his from the Seattle Times:

“Point: Let’s expand the College Football Playoff field.

“Counterpoint: So we can have even more riveting games like Alabama 27, Cincinnati 6 and Georgia 34, Michigan 11.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………