A New Jersey man spent two years of his life and over $20,000 of his own money to recreate a shrine to his favorite team by building a scale-model replica of Giants Stadium in his Blairstown garage, reports the Star-Ledger.
Don Martini's labor of love is small enough to fit in his garage but large enough to bring back memories of the old 77,000 seat stadium when it was constructed for the Giants and the New York Jets were just considered pesky intruders.
Martin's creation is 20-feet long and 17-feet wide and no attention to detail has been spared. The replica includes tiny halogen lights, billboards and tiny TV Jumbotrons in each end zone — one which plays Super Bowl XLII on an endless loop, the other shows the NFC Championship Game victory from that season.
The only things missing might be the sound of Bob Shepard's booming voice and the smell of the backed up toilets in the crowded bathrooms.
The 34-year-old Giants Stadium was demolished in 2010 to make way for the new venue. The old arena was the place where Bruce Springsteen cut his teeth doing stadium shows, high school teams pretended they were pros and might be the legendary grave of Jimmy Hoffa.
While never considered one of architecture's great marvels, the "obsolete" old stadium's demolition touched a nerve with Martini.
"I'm going to build Giants Stadium," the 75-year-old retired teacher, and avowed builder of things, said to his wife one day.
"You're crazy," she told him.
Martini started working on the project and didn't stop for two years.
His son, Don G., is encouraging his dad to give it to the Giants — maybe for some season tickets.
Team spokesman Pat Hanlon called it "a wonderful tribute to a building that housed many wonderful memories" but he needed to give it more thought before accepting or declining the gift.
Nothing can ever erase the memories of Giants Stadium and it's nice to know there's a place you can still see its tiny reincarnation — minus the Turnpike traffic and Ray Handley years.
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