FEW TRANSPORT OPTIONS, AND FOR A PRICE
Making the area more accessible is not an outlandish proposition. An analysis published in 1978 by the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission identified an “unprecedented opportunity for development of a comprehensive bikeway network”. When MetLife opened in 2010, replacing an older stadium, builder Skanska declared that “bicycle racks have been installed to encourage visitors to cycle to the stadium”.
But the bike network was never joined together, and the stadium’s press office contradicts the contractor.
“Bike racks have never been installed at the stadium, nor have visitors ever been encouraged to cycle,” I was told. “It sits in the middle of three major highways on which bicycles are banned, so bicycling to it is not possible.”
The idea of walking or cycling to the stadium has received outsized attention this year because FIFA football’s governing body, has also banned people from driving there in order to set aside room for security and booths of corporate sponsors dispensing beer, fizzy drinks and crisps. (Full disclosure: I attended the France-Senegal match last week as a guest of PepsiCo, manufacturer of said crisps.)
The remaining transport options include parking at a shopping mall connected by footbridge to the stadium (US$225); taking a shuttle bus (US$20, but with limited seats); or taking at least two trains on New Jersey Transit (US$98). That last figure is marked up from the regular fare of US$12.90, as New Jersey state governor Mikie Sherrill has claimed that FIFA “will not cover the cost of transporting its fans despite making US$13 billion from the World Cup”.