October 28, 2009
OFFSIDE REMARKS
RBA is living up to it hype and then some
That's right, Red Bulls fans, that's grass at Red Bull Arena.
By Michael Lewis
BigAppleSoccer.com Editor
In this day and age, it is easy to go over the top and hype anything.
Which brings us to Red Bull Arena.
During Tuesday's photo op for the final piece of grass laid at the stadium in Harrison, N.J., words such as amazing, unbelievable and phenomenal were being bandied about.
And you know what? You can throw fabulous, incredible and wow as well.
The amazing thing is the stadium isn't finished as thousands of seats have to be put in the 25,000-seat stadium and a good portion of the internal construction has to be completed.
Red Bull has gotten it right so far and the stadium is on course to be the jewel of the league come March 27, when the Red Bulls host the Chicago Fire for their 2010 season opener.
I, along with some other area writers, had a preview of what the stadium was going to fell like when we traveled to Salzburg, Austria for the Red Bulls training camp. The team trained at the stadium and we got an opportunity to watch Red Bull Salzburg perform in an Austrian Bundesliga match. The stadium had been expanded to 30,000 for Euro 2008, but we got a good idea of what RBA in Harrison would be like.
This is what I wrote in an Offside Remarks on March 1, 2008:
The fans are much closer to the action than at Giants Stadium. Doesn't look like there's a bad seat in the house.
It has two huge screens in opposing corners, so fans can watch replays from beautiful goals, marvelous passes and botched offside calls quite handily.
From strictly a selfish media stand point on my part, there are certainly some upgrades compared to the press box in Giants Stadium.
The box at Red Bull Park will be 12 rows from the field, so we probably could hear coach Juan Carlos Osorio yell to the referee. It will be an open press box -- which is the norm in Europe. That means we will be exposed to the elements like all of the fans.
The Arena press box is only nine rows from the field. But of course, who's complaining when we've been up in the clouds some nine stories high for the past decade?
If Red Bull Park is anything like Red Bull Arena, fans will be in for a treat.
Indeed they will be.
Editor's note: The name of Red Bull Park was eventually changed to Red Bull Arena.
Michael Lewis would like to hear from you. If you have a comment, drop him a line at email.
