When ticket holders arrive at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, for a New York Jets or a New York Football Giants game, they have no idea what it takes to convert the Stadium from one team to the other during the week. Unlike other NFL stadiums, with Sofi Stadium being the exception (Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers), MetLife Stadium hosts an NFL game just about every weekend during the regular season. So, the changeovers are scheduled and carefully planned well before the season begins. Furthermore, this work is expected to be performed on a straight hourly rate, with very little overtime.

I thought it would be interesting for the readers of the “Tips from the Pros” to learn how it is all done.

STADIUM

• Solar rings: The solar rings at the top of the Stadium are illuminated (blue for Giants or green for Jets) on the Wednesday before until the night of the game
• Gel packs (242): Blue or green film installed on the lights in the Plaza area inside the Stadium perimeter (gates/fence line) that illuminates the Stadium.
• End zones are changed out, displaying the name and color scheme for each team (it takes four days)
• Different field wall wraps are installed for each team
• Signage: 671 signs are changed between each team (usually takes two days)
• Banners
• Stanchion set-ups for pre-game field visitors are different for each team
• There are some rooms in the Service Level that are set up differently for each team
• There are different public address announcements at the five entrance gates for each team

GUEST SERVICES

• Staff working in the premium spaces (suites and clubs) wear blue or green clothing items depending on who is playing
• Several policies and procedures are different for each team which Guest Services staff needs to know
• Three spaces in the Stadium have different names for each team
• Two spaces have different access rules for each team

PARKING

• Change banners at the following locations: Toll booths (34), interior roadway poles (222), and parking lot poles (166): Total: 422 banners. The MetLife Sports Complex has several internal roads and 22,500 parking spaces.
• Different barricade set-up for reserved parking areas for each team
• Parking lot clean-up
• Two hours after the game ends, staff begin picking up large items from the tailgate parties and place them into five mason dump trucks for disposal
• Six hours after the game ends, five street sweepers begin sweeping trash from the parking lots, which takes about 4-8 hours, depending on the amount of waste.
• 462 portable toilets, which are strategically placed in the parking lots, are cleaned and stocked between games
• Different set-up of portable toilets in some parking lots for each team

FOOD AND BEVERAGE (DELAWARE NORTH SPORTSERVICE)

• Souvenir Cups: The team-specific cups are displayed on the soda towers at the concession stands.
• Customer Facing Displays: These displays are located on the 478 Point of Sales (POS) terminals in the permanent concession stands. They display the appropriate team logo with the following message “We are cash-free. Tap to pay. Visa, Proud Sponsor.”
• Menu Boards: The products and pricing on the menu boards do not change from team to team, but the background on the digital boards is adjusted to adhere to the team’s colors and logo.
• Commissioner’s Club Menu: The menu changes slightly in this prestigious Club. The palates of the ticket holders in the Club change from team to team, and the menu accommodates this.
• Catering Menu: Similar to the Commissioners Club. There are some conversions in some of the spaces, for example, one large sponsorship suite that changes from a Jets sponsor to a Giants sponsor and vice versa.

MERCHANDISE (DELAWARE NORTH SPORTSERVICE)

There are twenty-five retail locations throughout MetLife Stadium and the time to flip from one team to the other takes about four hours. Most of the work is manual labor, but some built-in efficiencies exist.

• 10,000 square foot Flagship Store
• Lighting changes from one team to the other with the flip of a switch (Giants: Red and blue; Jets: Green and white)
• Team signage rotates
• Hat racks and fixtures on walls rotate with Giants gear on one side and Jets gear on the other side
• East Plaza
• Trailers outside of the perimeter fence line
• Lower-Level Concourse
• Upper-Level Concourse
• Club Level
• Suite Levels
• Portable units

HOUSEKEEPING

The following is the typical schedule for the week of a Sunday home football game for the Giants and Jets:

• Sunday (game day)
• Event: 17 Leads and 204 Cleaners.
• Partial overnight following the game: 5 Leads and 160 Cleaners
• Monday (Post Day 1): 4 Leads and 40 Cleaners
• Tuesday (Post Day 2): 3 Leads and 69 Cleaners.
• Wednesday (Post Day 3): 1 Lead and 22 Cleaners.
• Thursday (Post Day 4): 1 Lead and 24 Cleaners.
• Friday (Post Day 5): 4 Cleaners.
• Saturday: 5 Leads and 69 Cleaners.

STADIUM VIDEO DISPLAYS (GATE PYLONS, VIDEO BOARDS, RIBBON BOARDS, TUNNEL COVERS, ETC.)

• These are team specific

BROADCAST (TELEVISION AND RADIO)

• Television production changes from game to game
• Radio feeds change from team to team
• The placement of in-house cameras is pretty much the same except for three cameras
• The video wall in the Stadium Production Room changes from team to team

SPONSOR ACTIVATIONS

• Different activation set-ups for each team (2 sponsors for each team)

Changeovers occur just about every week. However, there are times when the Jets or Giants will host two or possibly three games in a row, giving the changeover staff a break. But then there is the outlier when the Jets and Giants host back-to-back games on successive days. This situation has occurred several times since the Stadium opened in 2010 when there would be a 1:00 p.m. game on a Sunday and an 8:30 p.m. game on a Monday night. But in 2018, the Jets hosted the Houston Texans on Saturday, December 15, at 4:30 p.m., and the Giants hosted the Tennessee Titans on December 16, at 1:00 p.m. As a result, the changeover had to take place in 15 hours! Therefore, additional staff was needed to perform the conversion with a lot of overtime.

The only thing that was not changed for this game was the end zones due to the time factor involved (the safety of the field is always a consideration) and potentially bad weather (it rained following the Jets game and on Sunday). MetLife Stadium has two natural green end zones, which are used and painted for college football games. These end zones were painted for the Jets and Giants games with the same scheme the University of Notre Dame uses. The changeover was successful due to the planning and herculean effort of the MetLife Stadium management team, staff, third-party vendors, and all those who participated in the changeover

So now you know what it takes to convert the Stadium between Jets and Giants games and vice versa. The following is the takeaway: “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance” (6 Ps).

I want to thank and give credit to the MetLife Stadium and Delaware North Sportservice leadership team for providing the information in this article. I am very proud to know and work with them.

Posted September 20, 2022