VenuesNow 2025 All-Star Honoree: Stephen Sansonese

STEPHEN SANSONESE
VP Of Facility Operations & Events
MetLife Stadium

HEAVY OPS:
Preparing for World Cup 2026

Since 2012, Stephen Sansonese has served as Vice President of Facility Operations and Events at MetLife Stadium, where he oversees events for the New York Giants and New York Jets, as well as concerts at the largest-seated NFL stadium.

Concerts include landmark shows such as Taylor Swift’s “Eras” Tour, Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” and “Cowboy Carter” treks (“Cowboy Carter” landed at the venue for a whopping five nights, running from May 22-29, with 250,083 tickets sold, grossing $70.2 million, according to reports submitted to Pollstar’s Boxoffice) and Oasis’ long-awaited reunion. With 15 dates reported to Pollstar since the start of this year, the venue has sold 773,024 tickets, grossing $162.9 million.

“My most impactful achievement this past year was successfully collaborating with my staff at MetLife Stadium to host a record 40 events attended by nearly two million fans between April and September,” Sansonese says. “This included 23 concert dates, nine FIFA Club World Cup Matches (including the quarterfinal, both semifinals, and the championship), 2 Premier League Soccer Matches, the first-ever two-night WWE SummerSlam, Supercross, Monster Jam and two college graduations. As a building, we had no dark days from the middle of April through the beginning of September.”

Sansoneese graduated from Canisius College. As a student, he received on-the-job training working with the Division 1 head coaches for how to prepare the fields. That experience wound up lending itself useful as he prepared the field at MetLife Stadium for the 2014 Super Bowl. Now, he’s steeped in preparations for another massive feat: The 2026 FIFA World Cup.

“We completed the required field expansion construction over a two-year period, allowing our events to continue without interruption,” he says. Already, work to ensure the stadium is ready in time is underway.

The field was widened to meet FIFA’s requirements for hosting the final match, with the east side expanded in 2024, and the west side in 2025. Sansonese oversaw four to 10 rows being removed and then built back in such a way that they’d be able to be taken out for the finals.