By BRIAN LEWIS

As focused as you Red Bulls fans are on the on-field product, there was plenty of off-field news coming out of media day. And while even coach Juan Carlos Osorio admits the TEAM needs help, the CLUB seems to be doing just fine, including their stadium and profits. Managing director Marc de Grandpre spoke on a couple of hot-button issues, including what he admitted was the “elephant in the corner of the room’’ _ the stadium. He said Red Bull Park _ a 25,189-seat stadium being built in Harrison _ is still on schedule.

“We’re progressing nicely. Phase I will be complete in few weeks. We’ve driven 2,600 of our 3,200 piles. It means we’ll be ready to start pouring concrete in the next 2 weeks, and then that process will go through July and we’ll start erecting steel. If everything goes according to plan we’re still on schedule for a 2009 opening, a big moment for our franchise next year.’’

With Red Bull having taken heat over their business plan, he defended their profits since buying the MetroStars in 2005.

“On the business front I can tell you we’re doing very well. Since we’ve purchased this team, year over year we’ve seen revenue growth 40 percent every year since 2005. Those numbers were never seen in MetroStars history,’’ said De Grandpre, who added that season ticket sales were a key factor.

“March 6 we surpassed total 2006 season-ticket revenue. In ticket volume we surpassed it last week.’’

Yeah, I know some of you are still going to be down on Team Energy Drink, or still all militant about changing the team’s name. Don’t hate: I’m just passing along the quotes.