Have the metros had a ground breaking ceremony at the new site in harrison? If not, does any one have a clue when it will be? Have they announce when they expect to play in it in 2007?
How do you know this? I agree that 2007 (even a late opening, say August) is a tough one, but was there an official announcement ?
I think Nick said something about it in an interview recently. It may have been on BigAppleSoccer.com
I think I read it somewhere, though I couldn't tell you where at the moment. Considering they haven't actually started construction (right?), I can't see how 2007 happens. I'd rather Opening Day 2008 over a rushed August 2007 opening anyway. Open it when it's finished and ready to go.
In order to have a ceremony they need to have an actual ground breaking, which is yet to happen. At this point I'm thinking 2009.
I read sometime ago that the current tenant is taking its time getting out. That was the first delay fo about six moths. But I also read recently the first month of this year that they are finally out and clean up has started. I would assume clean up could take some time. On Yahoo maps that place looks like it's had many years of industrial crap dumped over it. Unless they find nuclear waist. I guess clean up should take a few months and they should break ground in this MLS season. Start time 06/06 should be done 06/08. Good luck.
The foreign company building the stadium is now moving and it needs time to relocate, leaving the Metros project in limbo for now.
The moving companies that are on the land right now are taking their sweet precious time to remove themselves off the land. That's what I have heard.
Did a drive by the other day and noticed new signs going up by the real estate developer. I think they said some like "Metro Park - Future home of the Metrostars"
[typical Metro pessimism] "Future? FUture?!?" Notice it does not say "2007, "2008", "2020" , but future! [/typical Metro pessimism]
I, too, did a drive by last week. Most of the area looks deserted to me. Interesting side note, when driving by, I turned left onto a side road next to the property. There was a car pulled over to the side of the road with a middle-aged driver and a young asian woman in it. The passenger was definately crouched down trying to hide (or something). I yelled out the window "Hurry up and finish already! You're holding up the ground breaking!" (um, no, I wasn't yelling at the guy in the car. Well, not intentionally.)
A little information about the redevelopment of Newark and Harrison in the following NY Times link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/realestate/commercial/01newark.html By the way, it mentions that the MetroStars has leased office space across the river from the Harrison construction. I'm not sure if this is new information to you or not.
They announced the moving of the corporate offices in January. If done correctly, it could turn into a really nice area and with the Ironbound community, huge for soccer. You wonder if they get gentrified out of the way, but hopefully not. Having a re-done Newark to go along with a redeveloped Harrison could make the Metro stadium something unique in the US (eventhough the stadium itself will be a bit of a cookie cutter with the LA , Dallas & Chicago stadiums).