Joe and Jamie's Blog

Tonight the NY Red Bulls faced Brazil’s Santos FC in a friendly pre-season game. This game was also the grand opening of Red Bull Arena, the new stadium for the Red Bulls.

This was a very exciting game to attend. We’re used to seeing anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 people attend a Red Bulls game but there was 25,000 people there this game, and most of them were rooting for Santos FC. Needless the say the new stadium was put to its limit and all the efforts of staff were tested to the extreme for the first day. Therefore, there were obvious issues but nothing you wouldn’t expect in a brand new place filled to capacity on day one.

The Red Bulls had a horrible season last year. They ended up dead last in the whole league with a record of 5-6-19. After this match against Santos FC it looked like the Red Bulls were back in business and ready to play this year. They came out strong and stayed that way the whole game. They held a 3-0 lead until there was 1 minute left when Santos FC scored on the backup keeper.

Here’s some photos from the match.

Last Thursday Jamie and I headed down to Harrison, NJ to the new Red Bull Arena, new home of the MLS New York Red Bulls. Construction is not complete, but all the concrete for the stadium seats were in, even some seats themselves were installed. Jamie and I were part of their seat relocation event for people buying season tickets. Last season we only went to 5 games but loved it enough to fork over the money for season tickets.

For weeks I kept using their online 3D seat locater that gave you computerized images of approximately what your view may be. This just wasn’t enough for me since I am spending anywhere from $300-$600 a seat. I even said, “Boy it would be cool if we got to see the views from the new stadium before buying seats”. With that comment came the notice in the mail of a seat relocation date. Pretty cool, wish other things came that simple.

So after leaving work early to battle rush hour traffic in NJ, ugh, we made it to the new stadium. There we met some of the sales department who took us out into the stadium to pick out our seats, but not before we were given hard hats, safety goggles, construction vests, and watched a safety video. I was curious how the views from the second deck were since our biggest complaint at the old stadium was people in front of us standing up or walking down the isle blocking our view. Since the stadium is brand new, obviously it has awesome seating views and space, no more of that just cram them in mentality.

We ultimately chose seats on the endline of the field in the second deck, front row, isle seats, directly above the goal. This gives us a view of the entire field without even having to move our head. Best of all there is no one in front of us and an elephant could be in the isle and it wouldn’t block our view!

After picking the seats we had to wait our turn to make the seat selection official. This made me nervous since they went in priority order which was based on longevity of accounts, and I only had an account since the 2009 season. Luckily no one chose our seats and we got to go to the board and mark off our seats with our little stickers. After that they enticed us with merchandise that was deeply discounted, so we folded and got the stuff we have been meaning to buy. You can’t go wrong with a $70 half-zip pull-over for $20.

Even though Jamie called me a nerd I took some pictures, so enjoy! They will be up on the picture gallery as well. More info on the stadium at www.redbullarena.us

Today I purchased a four game pack of tickets to the MLS team New York Red Bulls. Jamie and I both like soccer, but we have never been to a real MLS game before, go figure.

Pricing for the MLS is really cheap, well at least compared to other sports. I got seats near the midfield line, end row seats, mid section for all four games. This should give us a good view of the whole field without too much disturbance. I believe they currently play at the Giants stadium, but they are having their own stadium built as we speak, well read I guess. You can check out the new arena’s website here. They have a web cam to watch the progress.

Can’t wait for our first game, I’ll have a bunch of pictures to show everyone. For now, you can visit the team’s website here.