Giants-Jets' new $tadium debuts for real

f it seems as if we've been through this before, it's because we have, and not so long ago.

The struggle to sell spectacularly expensive tickets. Grumbling by fans displaced after years in the same seats. Nostalgia for the doomed stadium next door.

Seventeen months after new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field opened their doors here we are again, with the arrival at last of regular-season football at New Meadowlands Stadium.

Only this time there are some additional downbeats the baseball teams avoided.

Personal seat licenses, for example. And that name. Ugh. It's a sign of the economic times and as bland as the 82,500 seats in various shades of gray, lest they offend either co-owner by being green or blue.

But if the Yankees and Mets are a guide, once the games begin and everyone becomes comfortable, the stadium will be judged on its merits.

Given that, what is the new place like for those who choose to pay the stiff price for entry?

Remember, it's a football stadium, not a baseball "park,'' so don't expect the quirks of Citi Field or the majesty of Yankee Stadium.

Like its predecessor, it is a concrete bowl designed efficiently to allow many people to watch their team play 10 times a year and to provide a scenic backdrop for the millions watching on TV.

It serves that purpose well. But it also addresses the sorts of 21st century imperatives Giants Stadium did not.

For example: expansive concourses, the better to stretch one's legs and to empty one's wallet.

The array of eating and drinking options is impressive, but keep in mind this rule of thumb on stadium pricing: For food, double what would seem reasonable in the real world. For alcohol, triple it.

There are other interesting pit stops in the stadium's nooks and crannies.

They include the Giants' Legacy Club, which fits an impressive amount of memorabilia into a small space, including the team's three Lombardi Trophies. (Not open during Jets games!)

Verizon, one of the building's four "corner'' sponsors, has a video board in its corner on which it will show other sports events in progress - including NFL games.

Speaking of video, the most distinctive feature inside the bowl is the four massive boards located in each corner.

Replay screens are nothing new, but having four that size is a plus. And it fits with the league-wide effort to replicate advantages of home viewing for fans in house.

The Jets and Giants didn't always get along during the planning and building. But they needed each other to erect the costliest stadium in American history. (It totaled $1.6 billion or $1.7 billion depending whom and when you ask.)

The trick was designing a facility that could be transformed quickly into the home of one team or the other, from the lights outside to the smallest merchandise kiosk.

That has been done thoroughly, and often cleverly. Only someone looking closely last Thursday during the preseason finale would have known a team other than the Giants calls the place home, too.

As I walked into a large souvenir shop off the entry plaza I assumed that at least there, surely, half the store would be dedicated to one team and half to the other.

But no. The place was all blue, down to the color of the light glowing across the ceiling.

It will be again Sunday. But by Monday, the Eli Manning shirts will be gone, and the Mark Sanchez ones will replace them.

How will fans feel about the new stadium? Truth is that will have a lot to do with what the guys who wear the shirts for real do on the field. It begins Sunday.