Construction Delays Add to Red Bulls Woes

• New York Daily News, Wednesday, May 23, 2007 3:45 PM

Things are going far, far smoother for the Red Bulls on the field than they are upstairs in management. After rather limply dismissing the club's second-worst season attendance average on Tuesday, there came more bad news from Red Bulls managing director Marc de Grandpre, according to a New York Daily News report. The club's 25,000-seat stadium project in Harrison, N.J., which had set a target opening of July 2008, has now been pushed back a further two months due to construction delays. The cause: multiple foundations and industrial waste at the site, De Grandpre said. It's true that Harrison, N.J., isn't the prettiest of locales.

For a club that's been struggling in the financial and fan support departments over the last few years, that's not good news. A two-month delay means the Bulls will have to rent out Giant's Stadium for an additional eight or nine weeks at a cost of $100,000 per match.

"It's a challenging site," De Grandpre said, adding that any more unforeseen problems could scale back the opening until 2009. "Based on the current time line, until we're 100% that it can't open in '08, it could happen," he said. "Anything could pop up this winter if it's a terrible winter. There are too many variables that we can't control. But according to what we have been informed with, a late third quarter opening is possible." Construction is supposed to begin next week or the first week of June.

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