First thing you notice when you walk in the worker door, is that the entire stadium smells like a brand new car.. or 'new stadium smell'. This is before thousands upon thousands come to visit every football season and muck the place up ;).
Our first stop was the field. One of the cool things about it, is that you knew it was big. But oddly enough, it looks booth bigger and smaller when you are on the actual field itself. I guess it's all in the perspective. The Field was pretty much complete except for the giant hole in the middle of it, where I am guessing the NFL logo, or stadium name might be placed. You can only imagine how it would feel if 80,000 fans where either cheering you on, or booing you as you entered.We saw the Generator room next, wich has the loudest, constant hum you've ever heard. IF the thing was poorly built, no doubt your hair would constantly stand on end due to all the electricity pumping through there.
Next stop was the locker rooms. We didn't see the Giants, but we did see the Jets and Visitors. The Jets have their name emblazoned on the ceiling. The lockers are made too look like would, but I'm not sure what the actual material is. The Floor is carpeted, but it's designed to be picked up piece by piece, should any one section get too dirty due to over use, or a muddy football field. Next to the Jets room was the Coach's Area with what looked like a full cabinet of stuff for the coach to store all his crap :).
The Visitors Coach wasn't so lucky, as we didn't see any area for him to drop his stuff. The players in that locker room will feel like they are back in high school, as it's all very, very basic. Just much larger than a normal high school locker room. They do, however, have a bunch of wide screen TV's on the wall to watch whatever pre-game coverage they choose to have on.
After that, we went to the commissioners club. I think we where told that each seat outside is about $20,000 per game. Directly outside the commissioners club are about 20 'booths' where folks can take their food and just sit and relax. This area is at a pretty good viewing level as well, with no binoc's required. Equally expensive, was the Suite area. Each one had it's own Giant TV....why that is needed when the field is directly outside, I'm not sure...and it's own sink and cabinet area. It basically looked like a mini hotel at a super expensive Super 8. The 'cheaper' suite's had the seats outside the glass door, and the more expensive one had leather looking seats inside the room itself. Pony up the extra money if you don't want to freeze to death during a December game :).
After that, was the scaffolding tour. This was one area I choose to go too, because I don't care much for heights. But the lights go all around the entire stadium, and I guess if any of them ever blew a very expensive fuse, they'd have to have a way to fix 'em easily. Little known design fact 2. The outside of the stadium is supposed to light up with colors when a touch down is had, or various events take place. Apparently when the lights inside light up, it's supposed to give the effect that the outside is all a glow. It'll be pretty cool to see if that is in fact the case and not just a rumor.
Finally, we hit the Press quarters. This is where ESPN Radio, or the Stadium announcer is. Next to the press quarters was a giant electronics hub where everything electrical in the stadium is controlled. Should something go wrong during a half time show, this is where the guy will be shitting his pants trying to fix it ;).
And that's the stadium tour in a nut shell. Hope you enjoyed the video!
