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Giants & Jets at MetLife Stadium: What time do gates open?

Gates open about two hours before kickoff at most NFL stadiums.

Ready Time can tell you when to leave for your game →

So when do you leave?

Your leave-by time is the first travel row. Ready Time can alert you when it comes up. Put in your kickoff time, tap any duration, and the plan recomputes backward.

Kickoff
15 min Final pack & check 11:03 AM
30 min Drive to the stadium 11:18 AM
20 min Park & find your spot 11:48 AM
15 min Walk to the gate 12:08 PM
15 min Gate security 12:23 PM
12 min Walk to your seat 12:38 PM
10 min In your seat for the anthem 12:50 PM
Kickoff 1:00 PM

NFL game day at MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets. For a concert here, start from the concert night plan instead: doors and a support act, not gates and kickoff.

Get an alert on game day when it’s time to leave for MetLife Stadium.

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At a glance

Gates open
About two hours before kickoffTypical at most NFL stadiums; check the official site
Bags
Clear bag onlyUp to 12 × 6 × 12 in, or a small clutch
Drive
About 30 min from ManhattanWithout game traffic · real drive
Transit
NJ Transit via Secaucus
Parking
Park & find your spot
Formerly
New Meadowlands Stadium
MetLife Stadium seen from outside, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Photo by Anthony Quintano from Hillsborough, NJ, United States, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Resized for this page.

Kickoff windows at MetLife Stadium

Kickoff times are national broadcast windows, the same ones every week. Pick yours and every step before it moves.

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Windows are published in Eastern Time, and MetLife Stadium is on Eastern, so what you read is what you get.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Sunday late window sometimes at 4:05 instead of 4:25, and late-season Saturdays run their own times. Type those in on the kickoff row.

Getting to MetLife Stadium

Route 3 and Route 120 back up well before you see the stadium. NJ Transit runs the Meadowlands line into a station at the stadium; from New York that is Penn Station to Secaucus Junction and a transfer. Trains out of Secaucus fill quickly on game day.

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Enormous lots are the tailgate and fill from the moment they open. Shared by two teams: check which home schedule you are looking at.

The Brooklyn Bridge with Lower Manhattan behind it, seen from the Brooklyn shore.
Photo by Jakub Hałun, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Resized for this page.

Gates, the queue, and what you can carry in

Clear-bag policy at every stadium. Getting it wrong usually means walking back to the car and re-entering the line.

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Check current sizes and door times on the official MetLife Stadium site before you go, because the door time moves for a night game or playoff.

The upper deck is a long way up. If your seats are in the 300s, the climb after security takes real time, and it is the part people forget when they cut it fine.

MetLife Stadium was previously called New Meadowlands Stadium, so older directions and tickets may still use that name.

Leave time for packing up the tailgate

A tailgate feels open-ended until it isn't: grill, food, lock the car, walk to the gate with the whole lot. Add one and those steps go in, which means leaving earlier.

Gates, lots and bag rules change; the official site is the live source.

Common questions

How early should I get to MetLife Stadium?

Gates open about two hours before kickoff at most NFL stadiums; that is when the crowd starts arriving, not when you have to. Without a tailgate, being through a gate about an hour before kickoff covers screening, the walk to your section, and a stop on the concourse.

When should I leave for MetLife Stadium?

Work backward from kickoff: minutes in your seat beforehand, walk to your section, gate screening, walk from the lot, parking, then the drive (30 minutes in the default plan). That puts leave-by at 11:18 AM for a 1:00 PM kickoff. Change the kickoff time and every row moves.

What time is kickoff at MetLife Stadium?

It depends on the national broadcast window. On this stadium's clock: an early Sunday game kicks off at 1:00 PM, the late Sunday window at 4:25 PM, a night game at 8:15 PM. This example uses the early Sunday window. Thanksgiving, Christmas and some late-season Saturdays run their own times; the kickoff row is editable for those.

How long does the security line take?

The plan allows 15 minutes for a normal walk-through queue. It runs longer in the twenty minutes before kickoff. Arriving fifteen minutes off that peak is usually enough.

What time do the gates open at MetLife Stadium?

Two hours before kickoff is the common NFL practice. It moves for a night game, playoff or special event. Check the official MetLife Stadium site for your game.

How early should I get there to tailgate at MetLife Stadium?

A short tailgate adds about an hour and a half; a full one closer to three. For a 1:00 PM kickoff that already means leaving well before lunch. Watch packing up and the walk to the gate. Those get squeezed when the lot is having a good time.

What can I bring in?

Assume a clear bag or no bag. Check the stadium's own page for current sizes. The timing risk is being turned around at the gate and walking back to the car: the walk twice and a second trip through the queue.

Flying in? The airport pages. Taking Amtrak? The station pages. No stadium listed? The tailgate timeline is the same plan without a particular lot.

The countdown to kickoff, on your Lock Screen

Start the plan in the app, and the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island show the time left, with a bar that fills as each step passes.

Glance at it on the walk in without opening the app.

Every step also gets its own alert, and sharing the plan gives whoever is driving the same leave time, with alerts on their phone.

Live Activities are part of Premium, a one-time unlock.

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Ready Time

You know what you need to do. Ready Time helps you know when to start.

Other stadiums

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