Sportsbook odds will feature the New York Giants and New York Jets at home in their new stadium in Week #1 of the regular season. How is that possible you ask? The Giants will play at home on Sunday, September 12th while the Jets will play the following day. The official NFL schedule has not been released yet but both teams could be favored in offshore sportsbook odds.
Sportsbook attention will be high on both the Giants and the Jets since they are New York teams. They will both be playing in the new Meadowlands Stadium. The Giants technically get to open the stadium though since they play first. “After extensive discussions with both teams, we have come up with what we believe is a unique approach for celebrating the opening of the new Meadowlands Stadium,” commissioner Roger Goodell said.
While everything sounds good for both teams there are some major question marks about the process. The league supposedly held a coin flip to determine which team would get to open the stadium on Sunday but neither team was in the room. “An NFL coin toss has a few fundamental elements that are missing here, most notably the presence of the teams involved,” Jets owner Woody Johnson said in a statement. “That’s how it’s always done in the league, whether it’s determining the order of the draft or deciding who’s going to kick off the game.”
The Jets are not happy with the process while obviously the Giants have no problem with it. “We look forward to playing the first regular-season game ever in the new stadium,” Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon said. “We have a great new home, and it’s right next door to Giants Stadium, a building that housed our three Super Bowl championship teams. We look forward to building the same legacy for our new stadium, and it starts on Sept. 12.”
Technically, the Jets get the first game in the stadium but that is in the preseason and not many people care about that honor. It is the regular season opener that matters at the sportsbook. Only once in NFL history have the Giants and Jets played at home on the same weekend as in 1991 the Jets hosted Tampa Bay on Sunday in offshore sportsbook action while the Giants hosted the 49ers the next day.