A nasty September nor’easter has turned Sunday’s Giants-Titans game into a bargain hunt.
For New York fans willing to sit through the mess at MetLife Stadium, the secondary market has gotten slammed by the forecast. As of Friday, the cheapest available tickets were down to just $17, a steep drop fueled by heavy rain, strong wind and a game-day outlook that has sellers scrambling.
The weather picture only gets uglier as kickoff gets closer. Forecasters expect the strongest impacts from Friday night through Sunday morning as the storm tracks near the region.
Winds are set to build through the day and could reach about 40 mph around New York City. Along the I-95 corridor and in northeastern New Jersey, gusts could climb to 40 to 50 mph, with the Jersey Shore and eastern Long Island facing the worst of it.
ABC7 New York reports that coastal flooding is still a major concern and wind advisories remain in effect. Rain totals of two to four inches are possible across the metropolitan area, with even more farther east.
The storm has already caused disruptions beyond football, forcing outdoor event cancellations and prompting states of emergency in several counties.
The ugly conditions are arriving at a bad time for the Giants, who are also dealing with a shaky quarterback situation. Jaxson Dart is out for the season with a multi-ligament knee injury, and New York will start Jameis Winston against Tennessee. Pro Bowl pass rusher Brian Burns also sounded the alarms on Monday with an ankle issue.
The price tag may be low, but the full cost of going is still no joke. Parking fees are still approaching $65, and fans should expect a wet, windy afternoon that will make everything harder on the field.
That’s especially true for the offenses. Heavy rain and gusts near 40 mph usually push teams toward the run game and special teams while making deep throws tougher to pull off. Both teams already rank near the bottom of the league in efficiency through two weeks, so the weather figures to make life even more miserable.
Week 2 offered a preview of how ugly these kinds of conditions can get. The Patriots-Steelers game was played through steady rain and overcast skies in Foxborough.
The Buccaneers-Browns matchup was delayed by lightning so long that an end zone wound up underwater. Rain and wind also played a role in the Vikings-Bears and Packers-Jets games, helping produce low-scoring, sloppy results.
The market is still moving, and more tickets could pop up closer to kickoff if the forecast stays this bad. For anyone determined to tough it out, this is a rare chance to get into a regular-season home game for almost nothing.
In Other News...
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Jaxson Darts season-ending knee injury in Week 2 changed the Giants quarterback picture almost immediately, pushing Jameis Winston into the starting role and forcing the team to rethink its depth behind him. What looked like a clean transition now comes with a more familiar kind of midseason uncertainty, the sort that can quickly expose whether a roster has enough insulation at the games most important position.
Jonathan Jones of The Athletic reported the Giants have been linked to potential trade targets Mitchell Trubisky of the Tennessee Titans and Mason Rudolph of the Pittsburgh Steelers as possible quarterback depth options. No move has been made yet, but the interest alone says plenty about where the Giants stand after losing Dart, with Winston now carrying the job and the front office left to decide how much security it wants to add around him. [Read more 🡒]
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Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said the Giants are working on specific packages for Beckham, but those plans have not yet shown up in games, leaving his role very much in flux. For a team trying to steady its offense, the timing makes this a real issue, because Beckham is supposed to be part of the solution and not another question the Giants have to sort out on the fly. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Face An Ugly MetLife Problem Fans Cant Ignore
A developing noreaster is making life messy around MetLife Stadium ahead of the Giants home game against the Titans, and the weather is already showing up where fans feel it most. Heavy rain and strong winds have pushed secondary-market ticket prices down sharply, a sign that the forecast has taken a real bite out of the usual Sunday demand, even with parking fees still sitting high.
The on-field backdrop is just as unsettled, with Jameis Winston set to start at quarterback after Jaxson Dart was lost for the season because of injury. Between the weather, the shaky quarterback situation and the likelihood that conditions will affect both gameplay and turnout, this is shaping up as one of those games where the scene around the stadium may be as notable as the action inside it. [Read more 🡒]