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77-645: The Meadowlands Rail Line , branded as the BetMGM Meadowlands Rail Line as part of a naming rights agreement, is a rail line in New Jersey , United States , operated by NJ Transit Rail Operations (NJT). Trains run between the Meadowlands Sports Complex and Secaucus Junction , some with continuing service to Hoboken Terminal . There is limited service on the line, with trains only operating in conjunction with major events. The rail line

154-468: A first-round bye . In the second round, the divisional playoffs , the number 1 seed hosts the worst-surviving seed from the first round (seed 4, 5, or 6), while the number 2 seed will play the other team (seed 3, 4, or 5). The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games met in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, hosted by the higher seed. Although the Super Bowl ,

231-452: A right-of-way that travels through a federal Superfund site was also contentious. The opening ceremonies for the line took place on July 20, 2009. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine , New York Giants owner John Mara , New York Jets owner Woody Johnson , and players from the Giants and Jets rode a special train from Hoboken to the new station for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The station opened to

308-463: A title sponsor replaces the original name of the property with a corporate-sponsored one (as is the case with most sponsored sports venues), with no reference to the previous name. Stadium naming may have shifted in recent years to promoting corporate trade names, but in earlier decades is largely traced to the family names of company founders. The record for the highest amount paid for naming rights belongs to Crypto.com Arena . On November 17, 2021,

385-549: A 20-year, US$ 700 million sponsorship deal was reached between Anschutz Entertainment Group and Singapore-based Crypto.com to rename Los Angeles's Staples Center (the Staples office supply store chain was the previous naming rights holder to the arena, having held them since the venue's opening in 1999). The home of the NHL 's Los Angeles Kings and NBA 's Los Angeles Lakers became known as Crypto.com Arena on December 25, 2021. Prior to

462-408: A bounty on quarterback Alex Smith after he told his men to hit Smith in the chin, "then he rubs his thumb against his index and middle fingers – the cash sign – and says, I got the first one. I got the first one. Go get it. Go lay that [expletive] out. " Ultimately, Goodell handed down one of the harshest penalties in league history, by suspending Williams indefinitely, head coach Sean Payton for

539-409: A corporate-purchased name must always be referred to in all event-related media (including live broadcasts) by a generic name (e.g., General Motors Place was referred to as "Canada Hockey Place" during the 2010 Winter Olympics ). On the other hand, Toyota Stadium was referred to as "City of Toyota Stadium" during the 2019 Rugby World Cup to avoid confusion as a form of ambush marketing; the stadium

616-535: A name of the sponsor as their team or club name (see List of sports clubs named after a sponsor). In association football , leagues and cup competitions sometimes adopt the name of their sponsors. For example, England 's Premier League was known as the Barclays Premier League until 2016, and its FA Cup is officially the Emirates FA Cup. The Premier League announced in 2015 that it would not accept

693-412: A naming rights agreement with BetMGM , a sports betting company owned by MGM Resorts International , to rename the line for $ 3 million over the next 3 years. In 2021, NJ Transit authorized studies for alternative options between the Meadowlands Sports Complex and Secaucus Junction including a bus " transitway ". An initial version designed by HNTB and largely using existing infrastructure (mainly

770-580: A property in recognition of the financial support. This is not a financial transaction in the style of the private sector. For example, in honor of the more than $ 60 million donated over the years by one donor to the National Air and Space Museum properties, the directors of the Smithsonian Institution chose to name its satellite facility in Loudoun County, Virginia , after the donor, calling it

847-502: A rare tied game , with each team scoring 24 points, none in the overtime period. Prior to this, the last tie game had been in 2008 . The 2013 Pro Bowl was held in Hawaii on January 27, 2013, after New Orleans was briefly considered as a site. Originally, the NFL delayed announcing a date or venue for the game, and even considered eliminating the game altogether due to the NFL's displeasure with

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924-599: A title sponsorship beginning in the 2016–17 season. Since 2020, the French Professional Football Ligue adopted the name of Ligue 1 Uber Eats . In college football , most bowl games have modified their traditional names in favor of title sponsors, and in some cases have abandoned their traditional names. While most include their traditional name in some form (e.g. the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential ), some have moved to sponsor-only names (e.g.

1001-583: Is Willis Tower in Chicago which was and often still is referred to as the "Sears Tower", even though the building was sold in 1994 (but retained its former name until 2003). Sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup , UEFA Euro , Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games prohibit the use of corporate-sponsored name on stadiums, construing the practice as a form of ambush marketing . Any stadium that uses

1078-496: Is not named after Toyota Motor Corporation , but the name of the city in which the stadium is located (though the city was named after the company). The regular corporate signage of a site, including billboards and deck advertising, is usually covered up in these cases; in the FIFA case the signage is replaced solely with FIFA sponsors. However, with the near-universal use of LED ribbon boards, scoreboards, and sideline boardings since

1155-455: Is a commercial company that since 1979 has sold unofficial naming rights to stars ( i.e. , the astronomical objects ). The naming services are limited to an entry in a book, and carry no scientific or official authenticity according to professional astronomers. In some places, and especially in the UK and United States, the naming or renaming of arenas or events is usually met with disapproval from

1232-701: Is a major interchange station for NJ Transit where all but one of its commuter lines stop. Connections are available to the Northeast Corridor Line and the North Jersey Coast Line to New York Penn Station and Newark Penn Station and points south; the Morris and Essex Lines Midtown Direct and limited service on the Raritan Valley Line to New York Penn Station and points west; the Main Line ,

1309-612: Is mixed. Naming rights sold to new venues have largely been accepted, especially if the buyer is well-established and has strong local connections to the area, such as the cases of Rich Stadium (now Highmark BlueCross BlueShield Stadium ) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park , Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh , and Coors Field in Denver . Selling the naming rights to an already-existing venue has been notably less successful, as in

1386-624: Is more widely believed to have begun in 1926 when William Wrigley , the chewing gum magnate and owner of the Chicago Cubs , named his team's stadium " Wrigley Field ". In 1953, Anheuser-Busch head and St. Louis Cardinals owner August Busch, Jr. proposed renaming Sportsman's Park , occupied by the Cardinals, " Budweiser Stadium". When this idea was rejected by Ford Frick , the Commissioner of Baseball at that time, Anheuser-Busch then proposed

1463-420: Is that the buyer gets a marketing property to promote products and services, promote customer retention and/or increase market share. There are several forms of corporate sponsored names. For example, a presenting sponsor attaches the name of the corporation or brand at the end (or, sometimes, beginning) of a generic, usually traditional, name (e.g. Mall of America Field at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome ); or,

1540-552: Is the brand used by said state agency in its marketing campaign for agricultural products produced in that state. Naming rights in United States may have been traced back to 1912 with the opening of Fenway Park in Boston . The stadium's owner had owned a realty company called "Fenway Realty" (itself, like the stadium, named for a nearby parkland ), so the promotional value of the naming may have likely been considered. Despite this, it

1617-543: The 2012 NFL season . Despite officials indicating the line would begin daily service when the American Dream complex opened, which occurred in 2019, the Meadowlands Rail Line does not currently operate daily, with NJ Transit delaying the expansion of service until "the rail system is resilient enough that doing so won’t adversely affect NJ Transit commuters". The Meadowlands Sports Complex, which opened in 1976,

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1694-621: The Atlanta Falcons . Tucker remains on the Jaguars staff. Crennel was the defensive coordinator for the Chiefs when he was promoted, and had previously served as head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 2005 to 2008. The Dolphins intended on hiring someone from outside the organization in the 2012 offseason and followed through on that intent by hiring Philbin, the former offensive coordinator of

1771-765: The Bergen County Line , and the Pascack Valley Line to points north. At its eastern terminus Hoboken Terminal connections to PATH trains, Hudson Bergen Light Rail , New York Waterway ferries and local buses are available. The Train to the Game was an excursion train operated jointly by Metro-North Railroad and NJ Transit, for Sunday football games starting at 1 pm. Trains running as part of this service originate at New Haven . They travel through southwestern Connecticut and Westchester County , Hell Gate Bridge , cross Manhattan via New York Penn (thus avoiding

1848-718: The Dallas Cowboys in the 2012 NFL Kickoff game at MetLife Stadium , and ended with Super Bowl XLVII , the league's championship game, on Sunday, February 3, 2013, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans , with the Jim Harbaugh -coached San Francisco 49ers facing the John Harbaugh -coached Baltimore Ravens . The Ravens won the game, which marked the first time two brothers were head coaches for opposing teams in

1925-505: The Denver Broncos . Pagano had previously served as the defensive coordinator of the Ravens. Vitt and general manager Mickey Loomis were also suspended, for six and eight games respectively, and Gregg Williams , the defensive coordinator at the time who allegedly oversaw the bounties, was banned indefinitely from the league (at the time of the ban Williams was the defensive coordinator of

2002-570: The Gator Bowl was known for four playings as the TaxSlayer Bowl), a move that generally is treated with consternation from fans. Some newer bowl games have been named after title sponsors since inception—for example, the Blockbuster Bowl , original named after Blockbuster Video when it debuted in 1990, has gone through multiple sponsorship and naming changes; for its December 2023 playing, it

2079-612: The Green Bay Packers . Fisher, who had spent the previous season out of football, had coached the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans franchise from 1994 to 2010. Schiano had spent the previous 11 seasons in college football, as head coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team, a team he eventually returned to as head coach 8 years later. Allen had previously served as the defensive coordinator of

2156-579: The Kentucky Farm Bureau , an organization promoting the interests of Kentucky farmers that is best known to the non-farming public for its insurance business, acquired the naming rights to the University of Kentucky 's new baseball park in 2018. The Farm Bureau in turn donated those naming rights to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture , naming the venue Kentucky Proud Park . The sponsored name

2233-580: The MBTA 's State Street station by Citizens Bank lasted from 1997 to 2000. In Tampa , naming rights for both streetcar stations and rolling stock are available. In December 2016, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a naming rights policy for its facilities and routes, but later rescinded the policy two months later over potential lawsuits for skipping sponsors. Examples outside of

2310-573: The Mass Transit Super Bowl for Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014, record numbers of riders took the shuttle to Meadowlands before the game, and were faced with waits of up to 90 minutes, due to security delays. After the game ended, there were more delays as demand exceeded the Meadowlands station's regular operating capacity. At one point, fans were asked to remain inside the stadium until more trains were dispatched to load passengers from

2387-579: The Monday Night Football game on October 15 between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos , officials checked the hands of Chargers players, under the suspicion that players were using Stickum or a similar banned adhesive on players' towels to gain a competitive edge. Chargers' head coach Norv Turner strenuously denied the accusations. The towels were revealed to have Gorilla Gold Grip Enhancer . The Chargers were fined $ 20,000 by

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2464-716: The New Jersey Turnpike ) is planned to go into service for the 2026 FIFA World Cup . In January 2022, the New Jersey Department of Transportation announced the replacement of the eastbound Route 3 Bridge over the Hackensack River , which would incorporate provisions for a potential future expansion of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail , ostensibly from Secaucus Junction . Naming rights The distinctive characteristic for this type of naming rights

2541-560: The St. Louis Rams ). Vitt served as head coach through training camp and the preseason, at which point he began serving his six-game suspension and Kromer (the team's offensive line coach) took over as interim coach until Vitt's suspension ended. The following head coaches were replaced in-season: After his hiring on January 26, 2012, Bears chairman George McCaskey told Emery that though head coach Lovie Smith 's contract ran through 2013, and that Smith would be head coach in 2012, Emery would have

2618-690: The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center . Walgreen Coast , a portion of the coast of Antarctica , was so named because the Walgreens pharmacy chain sponsored the Byrd Antarctic Expedition . 2012 NFL season The 2012 NFL season was the 93rd season of the National Football League (NFL) and the 47th of the Super Bowl era. It began on Wednesday, September 5, 2012, with the defending Super Bowl XLVI champion New York Giants falling to

2695-696: The Winston Cup Series featured sponsor names (including the Daytona 500 , which was given a presenting sponsor as the Daytona 500 by STP ), with little or no reference to the original names. As of the 2010s, very few exceptions remain in NASCAR (such as the Daytona 500, which no longer uses the presenting sponsor), and typically races without sponsor names only lack them because a suitable sponsor could not be secured in enough time. IndyCar follows suit, with most races (except

2772-827: The district of London in which it is located. While the highest prices have traditionally been paid for stadium rights, many companies and individuals have found that selling their naming rights can be an important consideration in funding their business. Since the early 2000s, many new categories have opened up, such as the selling of the rights to name a new monkey species for $ 650,000. Naming rights to public transit stations have been sold in Las Vegas and Philadelphia ( NRG station , Jefferson Station , and Penn Medicine station ). Such sales have been contemplated in New York and Boston , and ruled out in San Francisco. A sponsorship for

2849-498: The 12:30 a.m. event ending caused the problem since some train engineers had reached the end of the federal limit on work hours. In anticipation of overflow crowds attending BTS performances in May 2019, NJ Transit advised departing concert-goers to find alternative transportation and planned additional bus service, saying that the line's capacity of 8,000 person per hour would be exceeded. On September 14, 2022, NJ Transit entered into

2926-835: The Crypto.com Arena deal, the record belonged to Toronto's Scotiabank Arena (formerly the Air Canada Centre, which opened in 1999), which garnered a deal of CA$ 800 million (US$ 517 million) over 20 years starting in 2018. The New Meadowlands Stadium, shared home of the New York Giants and New York Jets in East Rutherford, New Jersey , US, was expected to eclipse both deals, with experts estimating it would value US$ 25–30 million annually. It ultimately fell short of that benchmark, with MetLife Stadium earning $ 17 million annually from its naming rights deal with MetLife . Occasionally,

3003-483: The Evraz steel company – mistakenly believing that the company's North American division was based there. However, the main motivation for accelerating the name change was the perceived need to disassociate with the steel company, largely owned by Russian oligarchs, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . A nonprofit organization has the option to recognize a major gift from a donor by bestowing naming rights to

3080-490: The NFL for failing to immediately surrender team towels when requested, but were cleared of illegal substance use. Gorilla Gold was subsequently banned from use by the NFL. There were a total of 11,651 points scored during the 2012 NFL regular season. The average points scored among all the teams in the NFL was 22.8 points per game. The New England Patriots had the highest point differential, scoring an average of 14.1 points more than their opponents. The Kansas City Chiefs had

3157-535: The November 2004 elections that essentially stipulated the name must revert to Candlestick Park once the contract with Monster expired in 2008. The initiative proved largely ceremonial, however, and it was overturned by the passage of Proposition C in 2009 in response to desperate economic times. The naming rights to the park were never resold and the stadium was closed and demolished in 2014. Sports stadiums with naming rights deals are most common in but not limited to

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3234-608: The United States include Madrid Metro where the metro line Line 2 and the station Sol was renamed from 2013 to 2016 after the mobile phone operator Vodafone , and Monumento Station in the Manila Light Rail Transit System in the Philippines , which was renamed Yamaha Monumento Station on February 14, 2018, after renovations. Naming rights in the realm of sports is common for both stadiums and sports competitions and series. In addition, some sports teams adopt

3311-563: The United States. "Named" stadiums can be found in countries including Australia, Japan, China, Finland, Canada, Israel and Germany, where 8 of the 10 largest football stadiums have their naming rights sold to corporate sponsors. The practice is widening in the United Kingdom; for instance the current stadium of Bolton Wanderers is the Toughsheet Community Stadium (after 17 years as Reebok Stadium, 4 as Macron Stadium and 5 as

3388-528: The University of Bolton stadium) and Arsenal Football Club 's stadium (opened for the 2006/2007 season) is the Emirates Stadium , their previous ground being Arsenal Stadium . In cricket, the most famous example is The Oval , home of Surrey County Cricket Club . It has had several sponsors over the years, and is currently known as "The Kia Oval", having originally been known as the "Kennington Oval", after

3465-451: The ability to make a change at the position after the end of the 2012 season. On January 5, 2011, Elway was named general manager and executive vice president of football operations of the Broncos, with the final say in all football matters. In this capacity, he reported to team president Joe Ellis and was the immediate supervisor for the head coach of the team. General manager Brian Xanders

3542-486: The attempt to rename Candlestick Park in San Francisco to 3Com Park. The general public (and some media outlets) continued to call the facility what it had been known as for over three decades – i.e. Candlestick Park. After the agreement with 3Com expired, the rights were resold to Monster Cable , and the stadium was renamed Monster Park . San Francisco voters responded by passing an initiative (Proposition H) in

3619-449: The championship game. In 2005, the NFL and NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) agreed to a contract that would last through the 2011 season. In 2011, the officials' union had planned to use a contract clause to reopen negotiations a year early, but this failed to occur due to the 2011 NFL lockout . By June 2012, the league and the officials' union had not yet come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement, thus failing to resolve

3696-520: The championship round of the playoffs, is played at a neutral site, the designated home team is based on an annual rotation by conference. In 2012, the New Orleans Saints were discovered to have run a "slush fund" under former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams , that paid out bonuses, called "bounties", to purposely injure offensive players that the Saints were playing against. The system

3773-523: The end of the Green Bay Packers–Seattle Seahawks game two days earlier was widely considered to have been the tipping point that finally led to an agreement. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged that the game "may have pushed the parties further along" in negotiations. The 2012 NFL League year and trading period began at 4pm EST on March 13 2012, which marked the start of the league's free agency period. The per-team salary cap

3850-468: The entire 2012 season , interim head coach Joe Vitt for the first 6 games, and general manager Mickey Loomis for 8 games. Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma was also suspended for the season, as well as defensive linemen Anthony Hargrove and Will Smith for 8 and 4 games, respectively. Former Saints and current Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita was also suspended for 3 games. The player's suspensions were later thrown out on appeal. During

3927-621: The field as a substitute referee, working several games during the season. He was originally promoted to referee in 2004, but had to leave the field in 2007 because of a heart condition. During his recovery, he served as a replay official. The following rule changes have been approved by the competition committee for the 2012 season: On August 30, 2012, the owners and NFLPA agreed to the following changes regarding player movement: The league announced on June 28 that all late Sunday doubleheader games will be moved ten minutes later from 4:15 p.m. ET to 4:25 p.m. Late games broadcast on

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4004-408: The game was canceled due to the 2011 NFL lockout ). The game, normally airing on NBC , instead aired this season on NFL Network due to NBC airing the 2012 Summer Olympics , as it had done in 2007. The Saints defeated the Cardinals, 17–10. The remainder of the 2012 preseason matchups were revealed on April 4. The November 11 game between the San Francisco 49ers and the St. Louis Rams ended in

4081-409: The general public. Some people see it as an example of a selling out , especially when they see no obvious benefit to themselves. They often refuse to use a new name, preferring instead to use a non-branded name, especially in colloquial situations. Rebranding can also lead to confusion. In such cases, there may be a lengthy period during which the property is known by both names. A common example

4158-436: The labor dispute. The main issues between the union and the league were changes to the retirement plan, salaries, and personnel. On June 4, 2012, the NFL announced it would begin hiring replacement officials. On September 26, 2012, an agreement was reached to end the lockout after increasing criticism of the NFL and the performance of the replacement officials. The contentious nature of the replacement officials' decision at

4235-821: The line for events where 50,000 or more attendees are expected, including New York Jets and New York Giants games. Trains begin running 3 1 ⁄ 2 hours before an event and stop up to two hours after its conclusion. Travel time between Meadowlands Station and Secaucus Junction is 10 to 13 minutes; a trip to or from Hoboken Terminal takes about 23 minutes. The agency considers full capacity to be 10,000 passengers per hour. In anticipation of increased ridership for Super Bowl XLVIII in February 2014 NJT extended platforms at Secaucus Junction by 120 ft (37 m) to accommodate multi-level 10-car train sets which can handle about 1,400 to 1,800 passengers per trip, moving about 14,000 or 15,000 people an hour. Secaucus Junction

4312-474: The lowest point differential scoring an average of 13.4 points less than their opponents. The following were named the top performers during the 2012 season: The 2nd Annual NFL Honors , saluting the best players and plays from 2012 season, was held at the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 2, 2013. Mularkey, previously the head coach of the Buffalo Bills from 2004 to 2005, had most recently been offensive coordinator for

4389-410: The mid-2000s in most major league sites where only known sponsors have advertising displayed, "neutralizing" an arena has become a much easier process than in the past. Regina, Saskatchewan 's REAL District was formerly named " Evraz Place"; when discussing its 2022 rebranding, its owner Regina Exhibition Association Limited stated that it had sometimes received shipments and communications meant for

4466-434: The naming rights after selling the team) was able to use the same name for the Cardinals' new stadium which opened on April 4, 2006. Foxboro Stadium , the home of the New England Patriots between 1971 and 2001, was an early example of a team selling naming rights to a company that did not own it, naming the stadium Schaefer Stadium after the beer company from its opening until 1983. The public reaction to this practice

4543-473: The normally required transfer from Grand Central Terminal ,) and continue through the North River Tunnels as regular NJT trains to Secaucus Junction. When the service first began, three trains operated in each direction. However, this was reduced to one train in each direction starting with the 2010 football season. New Jersey Transit began introducing online ticketing service by offering round-trip tickets from New York Penn Station to MetLife Stadium during

4620-452: The program ; examples include The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour , Texaco Star Theatre and The Philco Television Playhouse . This form of sponsorship fell out of favor in the late 1950s, although later examples include Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom , which originally aired from 1963 to 1988. One of the last surviving examples is the now irregularly-airing Hallmark Hall of Fame , on the air since 1951. The International Star Registry

4697-551: The program became even more notorious in the 2011 NFL Divisional Playoff Game against the San Francisco 49ers , when filmmaker Sean Pamphilon released audio tapes of Williams telling his players to injure a select group of 49ers, with one of them being running back Kendall Hunter , and to knock him out, as well as going after Kyle Williams because of his history of concussions. Williams also told them to injure Vernon Davis ' ankles and tear wide receiver Michael Crabtree 's ACL . According to Pamphilon, Williams also appeared to put

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4774-452: The public on July 26, 2009, for the championship game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament between the United States and Mexico . It is estimated that 6,000 arrived via the new rail line. Ridership to National Football League games increased by 50 percent in the rail line's second year of operation. In 2010, about 10,500 attendees at New York Jets games and 8,000 attendees at New York Giants games arrived by train. In an operation dubbed

4851-474: The purchaser of a stadium's naming rights may choose to donate those rights to an outside organization, typically one to which it is closely related. Probably the most notable example of this is Friends Arena , a major stadium in Stockholm . The facility was originally known as Swedbank Arena, but in 2012 that company donated those rights to the Friends Foundation, an organization heavily sponsored by Swedbank that seeks to combat school bullying . More recently,

4928-496: The quality of play in the 2012 Pro Bowl . The following games were rescheduled by the NFL using flexible scheduling to promote what the NFL deems to be its best games, typically because of their playoff implications: Within each conference, the four division winners and the top two non-division winners with the best overall regular season records) qualified for the playoffs. The four division winners are seeded 1–4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and

5005-433: The same reason. As per the NFL's scheduling formula , the intraconference and interconference matchups were: Intraconference Interconference Highlights of the 2012 schedule include: The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game was played August 5 and featured a match-up between the Arizona Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints . The Saints last appeared in the game in 2007 ; former Saints offensive tackle Willie Roaf

5082-405: The single game network will still remain at 4:05 p.m. The league cited 44 early games from the 2009 to 2011 seasons in which part of the audience had to be switched immediately to the kickoff of their home team's doubleheader game, and thus miss the end of the first game. The 4:15 p.m. late doubleheader kickoff time dates back to the 1998 season when the NFL moved it from 4:05 p.m. for

5159-463: The station. In total 28,301 riders arrived at the stadium and 35,264 (nearly three times as many riders as NJ Transit predicted) left via train. WrestleMania 35 in April 2019 was attended by 82,265 people, many of whom took the train. Due to scheduling delays, passengers had long waits before first trains departed after the event, leading to claims of incompetence against NJ Transit, which had not adhered to its own schedule. NJ Transit officials claimed

5236-573: The title "Busch Stadium" after one of the company's founders. The name was readily approved, and Anheuser-Busch subsequently released a new product called "Busch Bavarian Beer" (now known as Busch Beer ). The name would later be shifted to the Busch Memorial Stadium in 1966 , shortened in the 1970s to "Busch Stadium" and remained the stadium's name until it closed in 2005. By that time, Major League Baseball 's policy had changed – with Coors Field in Denver and Miller Park in Milwaukee going up in that span – and Anheuser-Busch (who retained

5313-447: The very traditional Indianapolis 500 ) embracing title sponsorship. Sports media coverage (such as ESPN news reports) typically refer to races by the town in which the home race track is held, avoiding the use of sponsored names in news coverage. Television and radio series, especially in the early days of each medium in the early-mid 20th century, frequently sold the naming rights to their programs to sponsors, most of whom bankrolled

5390-409: The wild card teams are seeded 5–6. The NFL does not use a fixed bracket playoff system, and there are no restrictions regarding teams from the same division matching up in any round. In the first round, dubbed the wild-card playoffs or wild-card weekend , the third-seeded division winner hosts the sixth-seed wild card, and the fourth seed hosts the fifth. The 1 and 2 seeds from each conference received

5467-685: Was actually retained, but served mostly in an advisory role to Elway. This was the seventh season under the television contracts with the league's television partners. On December 14, 2011, the NFL announced that it had extended all of its broadcasting contracts through 2022. There were some changes to the contracts, with the most immediate change in 2012 being the Thanksgiving night game being promoted from NFL Network 's Thursday Night Football package to NBC's Sunday Night Football package. CBS continued to primarily televise AFC afternoon away games, Fox airing NFC afternoon away games, and ESPN broadcasting Monday Night Football games. ESPN made

5544-460: Was built at a cost of $ 185 million. Upon opening on July 20, 2009, it became the newest NJ Transit rail route. It is represented on NJT maps with the color gold, and uses the BetMGM logo. Meadowlands station was built as a part of the rail network expansion and is next to MetLife Stadium , equidistant from Meadowlands Racetrack , Meadowlands Arena and American Dream . NJ Transit runs trains along

5621-546: Was inducted as part of the Hall of Fame ceremonies. The Cardinals played there for the first time since 1986 , when the franchise was still located in St. Louis. As with the originally announced 2011 game, this matchup broke from the game's usual tradition of featuring two teams from opposing conferences (the 2011 Hall of Fame Game would've featured the Chicago Bears and St. Louis Rams , but

5698-807: Was known as the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Team names and even whole leagues have occasionally been sold to corporate sponsors as well (examples include the New York Red Bulls in the former case, the NET10 Wireless Arena Football League for the latter), but this is generally rare in the United States and more common in other parts of the world. During the 1980s, sanctioned auto races in NASCAR and IndyCar began to abandon their traditional names in favor of exclusive sponsor names. The trend expanded rapidly in NASCAR such that in 1991, all 29 races in

5775-520: Was known to have operated during Williams's time in Buffalo and Washington . Rumors started in 2009 during the Saints Super Bowl XLIV run in the 2009 NFC Championship game against the Vikings, where the Saints defense was allegedly trying to hurt Vikings quarterback Brett Favre . Other than the Vikings, the Saints also allegedly targeted Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers players, and

5852-513: Was set at US$ 120,600,000, marginally increased from US$ 120,000,000 the previous year. Notable players to change teams during free agency included: The following notable trades were made during the 2012 league year: The 2012 NFL draft was held from April 26 to 28, 2012 at New York City 's Radio City Music Hall . With the first pick, the Indianapolis Colts selected quarterback Andrew Luck from Stanford . Bill Vinovich returned to

5929-577: Was until 2009 accessible only via automobile or bus. The decision to build a rail line along the chosen route was a source of controversy. A portion of the line is a 2.3-mile-long (3.7 km) spur line connected via a new wye connection to the existing network. The line as built is a spur off the Pascack Valley Line, which travels further than if it had branched directly off the Bergen County Line. The decision to spend $ 6.2 million to acquire

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