Giants fans will have to dole out lots of cash just to get a seat in their team’s new stadium.
The Super Bowl champions will sell season-ticket holders “personal seat licenses” for as much as $20,000 in the team’s new stadium starting in 2010, team officials said this afternoon .
The team sent letters to fans today notifying fans that the decision to sell PSLs – which gives fans ownership of a seat – came to help pay the tab of the $1.6 billion stadium in the Meadowlands.
PSL prices will range from $1,000 to $20,000 for each seat , Giants CEO John Mara said.
The team said 90 percent of the seats in the upper bowl will have $1,000 PSLs. Fewer than 5,000 seats, in a stadium with a capacity of 82,500, will be at the highest price.
The team is expected to make as much as $400 million from PSL sales.
“All the net proceeds from the sale of PSLs will be used to fund construction of the new stadium,” Mara said .
A PSL guarantees the owner’s right to purchase a season ticket as long as the Giants play in the new stadium. It also provides a fan with control of successorship of the tickets – a benefit now only available for direct family members.
“You can sell them or will them – the season-ticket holder gets to decide,” Mara explained . “This isn’t the case now.”
The team decided to sell PSLs to help with escalating construction costs attached to the new Meadowlands facility.
“We have spent months exploring our various options regarding the financing of the construction of the new stadium,” Mara said. “Given construction costs and NFL and lender requirements for paying down our debt, and after much thought and analysis, we decided this PSL program is necessary.”
The PSL stays active on the condition that the season tickets are purchased annually.
The Jets, who will share the new stadium with the Giants, has not yet made on decision to sell PSLs, but did sent season-ticket holders a survey this week in order to gauge interest.
Seat licenses are currently sold by 12 NFL teams and are sold privately and listed on Web sites like eBay and Craigslist, where fans attempt to flip their PSLs at a profit.