PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The lights gleamed off polished luxury boxes, the scoreboards and widescreen monitors in each end zone glowed, fireworks lit up the night sky. Everything at Lincoln Field, the Philadelphia Eagles' new stadium, shone on Friday.

It all paled in comparison to the smile on team owner Jeffrey Lurie's face.

"We're opening tonight with tremendous pride. It's been a long process," Lurie said. "We're finally going to be able to showcase a stadium that was really built with the average fan in mind."

The result of Friday's preseason game against the New England Patriots will mean nothing in a few weeks. The real victory for Lurie was the field itself. It was the first football game inside the $520 million stadium that took eight years to plan and build.

The Eagles unofficially opened their new stadium with a short practice on the final day of their June minicamp. The first event was a soccer match between Manchester United and FC Barcelona on Aug. 3. Three Bruce Springsteen concerts followed.

They were all dry runs, practices for the most anticipated preseason game in Philadelphia history.

A capacity crowd of more than 68,000 filed into their seats by the middle of the first quarter after tailgating for hours leading up to kickoff. On the main concourse, there was a quiet calm among fans who were simply getting acclimated to their new surroundings.

Patty Creasy, 44, of Bloomsburg, Pa., said it will take some time to adjust to the new stadium. She said she had to comfort her 5-year-old son, who was overwhelmed by the raucous atmosphere.

"He misses the Vet. I love this, but everybody's going to miss the Vet," Creasy said. "I don't dislike the stadium, it just feels a little strange. But if I could talk to Jeff Lurie, I'd tell him he did a wonderful job."

Others were not so welcoming of the change. New Jersey resident and season-ticket holder Joe Sorantino, 34, contested Lurie's claim that the team has catered to the average fan, pointing to the dark, tight main concourse as opposed to the climate-controlled club-level walkways.

"It's a little on the snooty side," Sorantino said. "But in the end, we have the final say. We make it whatever we want to make it. I'll deal with the stadium if I have to. I can snoot with the best of them."

Lurie conceded that many fans will need a few games to fully appreciate the new facility. The preseason, he said, is a dry run for them as well.

The real focus for Lurie and the fans is the regular-season opener on Sept. 8 when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers come to town for a Monday night rematch of last season's NFC championship game.

By that night, all the kinks should be worked out, said Lurie, and the team will be ready to avenge the loss that closed the Vet.

"(Friday's game) won't be the best of atmospheres like Sept. 8, purposely," Lurie said before the game. "It's a preseason game. It's really a chance for our fans, who are fabulous, to start to enjoy (the stadium) and to start watching football games very, very close to the action."

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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