Shared turf for 49ers, Raiders?

[Wolf]

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_117581...ce=most_viewed

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Imagine a gorgeous autumn Sunday as the 49ers take the football field. You're a loyal fan who never misses a home game and pays dearly for a season ticket. Now imagine the following week that a die-hard from the Raider Nation will be rooting for the despised longtime crosstown rival, from the very same seat — your seat! — in the very same stadium.

Would it still feel like home turf?

The Jets and the Giants are answering the New York version of that question, and the 49ers and Raiders are paying close attention. Mark Lamping, the man with the job of building the first modern stadium designed for two NFL teams, says the New York teams believe the unprecedented use of video technology will make the answer, "yes."

Last week, in the steel maw of what will be the New Jersey stadium's "Great Hall," Lamping, the chief executive of the Jets-Giants stadium venture, gestured upward four stories over his head, toward the marquee technology: a wall that will soon hold a high-definition video board more than 400 feet long — longer than a football field.

"When you come in there, you're going to see a huge mural of Jets green, if it's a Jets game," Lamping said. "And Giants blue, if it's a Giants game."

The $1.6 billion Jets-Giants stadium, scheduled to open for the 2010 season, represents a solution the National Football League is urging the Bay Area's two teams to explore, something 49ers

Neutral features

No permanent architectural feature in the New Meadowlands Stadium — the naming rights have not yet been sold — will reference the Giants or the Jets.

The 82,500-seat stadium will be shrouded with gigantic aluminum louvers that look like a sweeping wrap of silver Venetian blinds. They give a futuristic, abstract feel, which is meant to evoke the metal and stone of archetypal New York skyscrapers.

Neutrality of color and design was the only way, the teams concluded, to create a stadium that could feel like home to both. Inside the stadium bowl, Lamping pointed to the gray seats in the stadium's upper oval. "See, there's no green. There's no blue," said Lamping, the former president of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals. "The best thing the owners did is they made the decision that everything that is permanent is going to be neutral."

That isn't the case at the stadium the two New York teams now share: the 1976-vintage Giants Stadium, with its entry gates of Giant-blue and seats of Giant-red. The Jets have been second banana since moving there in 1984.

Rather than paint or banners, LEDs — light-emitting-diodes — will be the dominant source of color in the stadium being built next door.

Vertical video screens will bookend the turnstiles outside the stadium, giant video boards will stream team logos above fans entering the building, and four 40-by-200-foot video boards in each corner of the stadium bowl will project impossible-to-ignore replays and advertising during the game.

'Blue to green'

"It was the only choice they had, to be able to flick the switch and go from blue to green on respective Sundays," said Craig Schmitt, a principal with EwingCole, one of the architects on the project.

Neutrality is not what the 49ers have been shooting for in the design of a 68,500-seat stadium for Santa Clara, which features an unusually large lower bowl, the massing of all luxury suites and club seats on one side of the stadium, and potential use of 49ers colors.

Like the 49ers and the Raiders, the Giants and the Jets have different pedigrees.

[gtexan02]

Ive always wondered about the grass issue. 2 games a week sure seems like a beating for normal grass. And it would be strange to have souveniers for a rival team for sale in your stadium

[awtysst]

So if the Raiders are playing the 49ers, who is the home team? Who gets to sit in the seats: the home team fan or visitors?

[The Pencil Neck]

Originally Posted by awtysst

So if the Raiders are playing the 49ers, who is the home team? Who gets to sit in the seats: the home team fan or visitors?

The schedule tells you who's the home team and who's the visitor. The fans of the home team get their normal seats and the fans of the visiting team will have to buy tickets specifically for that game.

[Texaninlild]

Raiders can't afford a stadium after Nnamdi Asomugha signed a three-year, $45.3 million deal.

[ChampionTexan]

Originally Posted by awtysst

So if the Raiders are playing the 49ers, who is the home team? Who gets to sit in the seats: the home team fan or visitors?

Giants and Jets have been dealing with some of these issues for several years, as have the Lakers and the Clippers in the NBA.

The home team (and who gets to sit in the seats) is determined the exact same way as it is currently.