How a convention center could become the Meadowlands’ second transformational moment

When Jim Kirkos thinks about the potential of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, he doesn’t first think about the numerous iterations of a plan to create a world-class convention center — an idea he’s been pitching for more than a decade as head of the Meadowland Chamber of Commerce.

He’s confident the plan is a winning play.

Kirkos, speaking at an event Tuesday in which the chamber showed renderings and site plans — a major step forward in the process — harkened back a generation ago, when advocates and legislators first had to be convinced to build the complex.

“I think about the decisions that leaders back in the ’70s were making when they were thinking through whether they should build the original sports complex — the arena, the original Giants Stadium, the racetrack,” he said. “Think about those decisions. Think about how big of a deal — and how costly — they were at the time.

“But they thought it through. They made the decision to advance it. And look at where we are today.

“This is certainly about the future.”

The plans presented by Kirkos, Ron Simoncini (the project’s lead consultant) and State Sen. Paul Sarlo were heavy on big numbers:

• A 300,000-square-foot exhibit hall, divisible into three 100,000-square-foot spaces;
• A 60,000-square-foot main ballroom, the largest in the state;
• 100,000 square feet of meeting space, including 75 breakout rooms;
• A 1,000-key headquarters hotel, part of a broader plan to add 2,000 rooms to the complex;
• A 70,000-square-foot outdoor terrace, along with significant green space;
• 2,000 parking spaces;
• A 6,000-seat flexible arena designed to attract out-of-town youth sports events such as volleyball, basketball and cheerleading competitions.

Simoncini said the project would give the region what it lacks: a modern convention center — something nearly every other major metropolitan area in the country already has.

More than that, he said, it would represent a generational upgrade of the Meadowlands itself. Simoncini pointed to the early days of the complex, when it was largely a destination for football games, concerts, basketball and harness racing.

“Those things were used by people who came for a few hours at a time,” he said. “What you’re seeing now at the Sports Complex is American Dream, where people spend many hours. And they don’t just watch, they participate.”

The same is now true at the racetrack, which today generates much of its business from a full-scale sportsbook. Simoncini said the proposed convention center would extend that evolution, with visitors staying for days rather than hours.

“This is the most active, most famous sports and entertainment district in the world,” he said. “It still has that brand. And now it’s going to have that economic impact again because of 313 event days.”

Simoncini said the convention center would help shift the Meadowlands from a place built around episodic events into a more consistent economic engine.

“Having professional teams here is critical — it does a lot for our brand and our visibility,” he said. “But the economy relies on people doing something more consistently and spending more per visit, which is what will happen here.”

That potential spend was more than intriguing to Sarlo, who represents much of the area and has become the project’s strongest supporter in the Legislature.

He, too, looked back at the Meadowlands’ early years — particularly the era when the Meadowlands Arena, home to the Devils, the Nets, and an array of concerts and family shows, brought steady business to merchants in his district.

Sarlo said it’s his goal to recapture that economic energy.

“I’ve sat through multiple presentations — different videos, different concepts,” he said. “It made me a believer.”

He said the previous proposals led him to seek seed money from Gov. Phil Murphy and the Legislature to fund site planning, traffic studies and market analysis.

The presentation Tuesday echoed pitches made in the 1970s, laying out potential revenue and branding gains tied to a major public investment. In this case, backers project $30 billion in economic impact over 30 years, built on an initial $3 billion cost.

Kirkos hopes today’s decision-makers will show the same foresight their predecessors did a generation ago.

“For the many years we’ve been pushing this concept forward, not one person has said to me, ‘Kirkos, you’re out of your mind. You should never do that,’” he said.

“I think that’s because we always made it about common sense. When we sat with our engineers and designers, we said, ‘We don’t want to build pie in the sky.’”

Kirkos said the goal has always been a project that is both buildable and financeable.

“If we can do that,” he said, “we’ll win people over.”