March 20, 2010: Red Bull Arena Opens

March 20, 2010: Red Bull Arena opens in Harrison, Hudson County, New Jersey, as the new home of Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls.

Known as the New York/New Jersey Metro Stars from MLS' 1st season in 1996 until 2005, and often still called "Metro" for short by fans who don't like the corporate rebranding, the team had played at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, Bergen County from its inception. The 78,000-seat tin can on the Hackensack River was too big for an MLS team, and its artificial turf surface was bad. So they wanted a smaller, soccer-specific stadium.

The Harrison site was chosen because the Town of Harrison, the Town of Kearny to the north, and the City of Newark across the Passaic River to the south were all hotbeds of American soccer fandom. All three towns had a significant group of Portuguese immigrants, with Brazilians having recently moved in due to the linguistic similarity. Newark still had a sizable Italian community. And both Harrison and Kearny were loaded with Scots and Irish who loved soccer.

In addition, Harrison had a station on the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) system, a subway system (much of it, including in Harrison, above-ground) connecting Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan with the New Jersey cities of Hoboken, Jersey City and Newark. The Harrison station was built in 1937, and was much too small to handle a sellout crowd, and a new station finally opened in 2018.

Red Bull Arena seats 25,000 people in two decks. Fortunately, the food is good, and the bathrooms are regularly cleaned. Unfortunately, the concession stands and the bathrooms are only on the first deck.

Newark divided its city government into "wards," and the Arena's South Ward is home to the team's strongest supporters' groups, including the Empire Supporters Club (fans from New York City) and the Garden State Ultras (fans from New Jersey).

The Arena opened with a friendly match, as the Red Bulls beat Santos FC of Brazil 3-1. On March 27, they played the building's 1st competitive match, with the Red Bulls beating the Chicago Fire, 1-0. Joel Lindpere scored the 1st competitive goal in the Arena.

Also in 2010, it hosted its 1st international match, with Turkey beating the Czech Republic; and the New York Football Challenge, a 4-day event featuring the Red Bulls, English teams Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, and Lisbon team Sporting Clube de Portugal, who won it.

The Arena hosted the 2011 MLS All-Star Game, with Manchester United beating a team of MLS All-Stars, 4-0. On October 11 of that year, it hosted its 1st match of the U.S. men's national team, which lost 1-0 to Ecuador. The U.S. women's national team debuted there on June 20, 2013, beating South Korea 5-0.

In 2020, the Arena became the new home of the National Women's Soccer League's NJ/NY Gotham FC. It also hosts some home games of MLS' New York City FC when a scheduling conflict arises at Yankee Stadium, and hosted "home games" for CF Montreal in 2020 due to COVID restrictions preventing them from re-entering Canada.

Since moving into the new building, the Red Bulls have won 3 Supporters' Shields for best overall regular-season record, but have failed when it counts: They've gotten to the MLS Cup Semifinals in 2014, 2015 and 2018; to the U.S. Open Cup Final in 2017; and to the CONCACAF Champions League Semifinals in 2018.

UPDATE: On December 11, 2024, Red Bull actually took its name off the stadium, and sold the naming rights to Authentic Brands Group, which bought the magazine Sports Illustrated and its affiliated properties from Time, Inc. in 2018. The stadium was renamed Sports Illustrated Stadium.

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March 20, 2010 was a Saturday. There were 4 other games involving MLS teams that day, none in league play. In the Carolina Challenge Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, D.C. United beat the hosts, 2nd-division team Charleston Battery, 2-0. And Real Salt Lake beat Toronto FC, 1-0.

At Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, California, just outside San Jose, the San Jose Earthquakes and the Portland Timbers played to a 1-1 draw. And at Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara, California, the Houston Dynamo beat the Los Angeles-based Chivas USA, 3-1.

Also, Arsenal beat West Ham United, 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium in North London.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 7 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Toronto Raptors, 100-90 at the Izod Center at the Meadowlands.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 98-84 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Miami Heat beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 77-71 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. (It's now named the Kaseya Center.)

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Golden State Warriors, 123-107 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks, 102-93 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Denver Nuggets, 102-97 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. (It's now named the Ball Arena.)

* And the Utah Jazz beat the New Orleans Hornets, 106-86 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City (then named the EnergySolutions Arena).

And there were 11 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the St. Louis Blues, 1-0 at the Prudential Center in Newark. Alex Steen scored the only goal of the game, with 13 seconds left in the 1st period.

* The Atlanta Thrashers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the Philips Arena in Atlanta. (It's now named the State Farm Arena.)

* The Washington Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-1 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. (It's now named the Benchmark International Arena.)

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Florida Panthers, 3-1 at the BankAtlantic Center in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida. (It's now named the Amerant Bank Arena.)

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh (as the Civic Arena was then known). Jamie McBain scored the winning goal with 1 second left in overtime.

* On CBC's Hockey Night In Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 in a shootout at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. (It's now named the Scotiabank Arena.)

* The Nashville Predators beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 1-0 at the Sommet Center in Nashville. (It's now named the Bridgestone Arena.) Cody Franson scored the only goal of the game, 1:54 into overtime.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-4 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4 in a shootout at the Jobing.com Arena in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. (It's now named the Desert Diamond Arena.)

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the New York Islanders, 1-0 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (It's now named the Crypto.com Arena.)

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3 at General Motors Place in Vancouver. (It's now named the Rogers Arena.) Henrik Zetterberg scored the winning goal with just 1 second left in overtime. This may have been the 1st time 2 NHL games were settled with one second remaining in overtime.

* And the New York Rangers, the Boston Bruins, the Minnesota Wild, the Colorado Avalanche, the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers, the Anaheim Ducks and the San Jose Sharks were not scheduled.