Jets and Giants look to PSLs for new stadium

It seems that over the past decade, every time you turn around there is a new, bigger and better stadium being built in the NFL. And each time the price tag for these state of the art stadiums seem to be getting bigger as well. Another trend in the NFL is how these teams are paying for these luxuries, and that is through personal seat licenses or PSLs. According to a report in the New York Times, the Jets and the Giants may be the next in line to charge their fans for the right to buy season tickets.

The PSLs would help the team’s finance their new $1.6 billion stadium they are building in New Jersey, and their use would be a first for the New York area. No decisions have been made by team officials on whether or not the licenses will be used; although it is widely viewed that the Jets and Giants will follow the lead of many teams across the NFL.

The Dallas Cowboys have most recently came under scrutiny for the use of PSLs, when they announced and began selling the licenses for prices ranging from $16,000 up to $150,000 per seat for the right to purchase season tickets.

“It was an internal feeling that that was what the market could bear,” Cowboys Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing told the New York Times. And so far that seems to be true as they have sold a majority of their PSLs since putting them up for sale.

Other NFL franchises using PSLs to increase revenue include the Carolina Panthers, St. Louis Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers. Perhaps with good reason, as according to a report in the Sports Business Journal, the National Football League may be carrying a debt of around $9 billion with much of that due to new stadiums across the league. The report also states that nearly a quarter of the entire league’s debt can be tied to building of the new stadiums in New York and Dallas. The NFL would like to cut their debt by $1 billion by 2010, the same year the Jet/Giants Stadium is set to open.

The New York area will see the opening of three brand new facilities in the next couple of years with New York Yankees and New York Mets both entering new stadiums in 2009 in addition to the Giants and Jets the following year.