Simmons column today talks about the diminishing home field advantage teams have because of the new stadiums that slight the die-hard fan.

From ESPN

The bad news is that, with just a few exceptions, it's now more entertaining to invite your friends over, tailgate in your backyard and watch your favorite team on TV. You get the replays. You get HD. You have your own bathroom. You're saving money. You can stand up if you want. You don't have a commute. If you have the NFL package, you can flip around to other games during commercials. What's the downside? You got me. I had 10 times more fun watching the Pats-Jets game at a New York City bar last week than I would have had at the actual game. And the sad thing was, I knew that would be the case.

That seems to the way we will be heading soon with the new stadium and PSLs.  It's a shame too because after witnessing the massivbe home-field advantage at Seattle two years in a row, it seemed like Coughlin was determined to spread the word to the fans that it mattered.  The few Giants games I've been to in the last few years, I've been disapointed at the level of crowd involvment.  Coming the chaos at Penn State, I imagine any NFL game would be a disapointment to me.  But it's clear that when you can get an entire stadium of people who know when to be loud, it makes a huge differnce.   Sadly, I've never had as much fun at a Giants game as I've had at a Penn State game, but really between the price, the "wine and cheese crowd" as Simmons said, and the TV timeouts, I guess it's not that suprising.