I visited the World Cup final venue in New York... it is dull and dangerously hot

Telegraph

6 hours ago

It is 10.45am at the MetLife Stadium, but it is already dangerously hot. It is 32C in the shade and some fans are feeling it as they walk.
Two New Jersey state police officers are sitting in a gazebo outside the vast steel perimeter of what will be the venue for next year's World Cup final.
Directly behind them is a large air conditioning unit – pumping chill air out into the open as the searing heat bounces off the tarmac and concrete that stretches out across the vast surrounding car parks and into the rest of the Meadowlands sports complex beyond.
The officers are happy, but environmentally, it is a disaster.
The 10.45am local time may well be at half-time during next year's World Cup final, which takes place in this stadium not in mid-June but on July 19, the absolute height of summer.
And so this is what happened when attending a Club World Cup group game, between the Brazilian club Palmeiras and the Egyptian champions Al-Ahly. It is a story of a fixture that started at midday and was therefore due to finish before 2pm, and eventually ended at 2.52pm because the stands were evacuated due to a severe weather warning, including the small risk of a tornado. Even then, English referee Anthony Taylor should have announced far more than just six minutes of added time. But by then the players had stopped.
It is also the story of another half-empty stadium – just 35,179 inside this huge open bowl that holds 82,500 – and of an Uber taxi driver trying to charge $150 (£111.40) in the middle of the afternoon for the tortuously slow eight-mile trip back into central New York. When challenged, he immediately dropped his price to $100 – still a rip-off.
And it is the story of an apparently unloved stadium, built just 18 years ago and criticised for its lack of character and atmosphere, where it can take up to two hours to get out of the car park, but which will host the most watched sports event in the world with five billion viewers.
First the heat. Fifa will not confirm the kick-off time for next year's final until after the World Cup draw in December. But there is speculation it could be as early as 10am (3pm UK time), although the semi-finals and final of this tournament, also held here, are scheduled for 3pm local time (8pm in the UK). That feels more likely.
The humidity on my visit was 60 per cent and that is on the cusp of affecting sports performance, according to experts. At 1.25pm, the game was suspended. Just over an hour had been played when it was announced that everyone in the stands and the players on the pitch had to leave to take shelter inside the stadium because of a potential lightning storm. There was even a small chance of a tornado.
A message emblazoned on the giant screens read: 'Your attention please. For your safety, we are going to have everyone leave the seating bowl area and take shelter inside the stadium because of severe weather in the area. Those on the field, please walk calmly to the nearest tunnel, to the West Hall, or the service corridor.'
The delay, with Palmeiras 2-0 up, lasted 50 minutes. Many fans of Al-Ahly – there is a large Egyptian diaspora in the United States and New Jersey in particular – simply decided not to return. There was even a delay to the delay as Taylor could not get his communication equipment to work and then we waited for the broadcasters to be ready.
Just 14 minutes later there was a drinks break, the second of the game, but interest among fans had dwindled by then and the game petered away. Is this the kind of football Fifa wants?
The first drinks stop came after half an hour with players already being draped in wet towels and handed ice packs. When Taylor announced over the PA system that he was rescinding a red card he had wrongly awarded for a tackle, after a VAR check, the sweat was pouring down his shaved head.
Weather cannot be controlled but how will such a delay and an apparent dwindling of interest look for next year's World Cup final?
Instead of trying to explain what was going on, the officials spent their time trying to stop journalists live-streaming and checking their accreditations. After all, all Fifa content must be protected, even at the price of preventing information being spread.
It was not just the players feeling the heat. There is very little shade inside this enormous roofless bowl for the supporters with those at the vertiginous top also having pretty poor views.
Small bottles of water were selling for $5 and Bud Light beer at $14. Hot dogs? They were $8.50 and a pretzel $9 – plus tax.
Not that the police liked anyone walking around with a water bottle. I was stopped and surrounded by no fewer than eight officers and had to have my bag checked, firstly by a sniffer dog.
Fifa will set its own prices – do not expect them to go down – and deliver its own branding for the World Cup, which is partly why it has chosen for the tournament so many bigger American football stadiums, such as this one, the home of the New York Jets and Giants. Only 12 of the 63 games are being played in stadiums specifically designed for 'soccer', with eight of the 12 grounds having capacities of at least 65,000. Four of them will be used at the World Cup, with the MetLife hosting the most games. This competition is a dry run. A very dry run, given the temperature.
The Club World Cup game was tough going. It was the third to be played in this stadium already during this tournament with the previous two ending goalless. When a score arrived it was an own goal headed headed in by Al-Ahly striker Wessam Abou Ali before Palmeiras substitute José Manuel López broke away to add a smartly taken second.
At that point, an Egyptian journalist in the press box, wearing a red Al-Ahly shirt and who had been shouting throughout the game, unplugged his phone and walked away in disgust.
Even the playing surface at the stadium has been criticised. The MetLife pitch with its synthetic grass is notoriously disliked by the NFL players – with 13 serious injuries suffered in the past five years, including famed quarterback Aaron Rodgers tearing his Achilles, so Fifa installed real turf.
But players and coaches at this tournament have not been impressed and right up until kick-off, and then at half-time, four large firemen's hoses were dragged on to drench the pitch. It still quickly dried out.
Getting to the MetLife is not easy. The stadium is in East Rutherford, right in the middle of Meadowlands, to the west of New York, near to the highways that lead into the city and the main routes around New Jersey. There is simply nothing else nearby and fans are told not to attempt to walk from local hotels. 'It is illegal and dangerous,' they have been warned in one poster.
There are plenty of parking spaces for about $50, but how many fans attending the World Cup will have cars? And, it takes up to two hours to get out of the car parks – longer than the actual game unless there is another weather incident.
The Meadowlands rail station, right on the doorstep, is open on match days, although fans were being directed instead to buses at the final whistle and it is a slow journey from Secaucus Junction, where they have to change trains to New York Penn Street.
The Palmeiras supporters,who had taken over Brooklyn Bridge, were out in force, smuggling in flags and banners far bigger than those permitted by Fifa and trying to create any atmosphere.
But this stadium lacks any character. It just feels a bit drab and grey and unsuitable and has been plonked in the middle of nowhere. It is dull, much like the football played here during this tournament so far.
Even though ticket prices had been cut to just $38, huge sections of the stadium – three-quarters of the top tier and even more of the middle one – were closed and taken off sale.
It will be different for the World Cup and the latter stages of this competition. Demand will be far higher. But that raises more serious questions, with complaints that the walkways out are too narrow for huge crowds to easily disperse.
Maybe it will look differently next year when it is kitted out by Fifa, even if it will be hard to transform a stadium which has been compared to an air conditioning unit in the way it looks and the way it feels. Which, of course, is where we started.