For more than three decades, the Jets and Giants have been just as much siblings as rivals in football’s largest market – the older brother crashing at the younger brother’s Shea Stadium pad in Queens for the 1975 season while Giants Stadium was being built on New Jersey swampland, and the younger one then moving over in 1984 for an extended stay at the elder’s new home. And after both scouted options to build new digs – the Jets especially hoping to finally call one their own – they ended up choosing to bunk together again, but this time in style.
Their unprecedented decision resulted in what debuted this year in East Rutherford, N.J. – the first National Football League stadium built for two teams, a trait that colored key aspects of design and construction. That signature element, combined with high expectations for a premier-class facility and the daunting logistics of building it smack in the middle of a bustling, 180-acre, three-arena sports complex, helped the $1.6 billion New Meadowlands Stadium earn top honors in the Best of 2010 Awards competition.