The weather tonight at 6 p.m. at the home of Super Bowl 48 is a balmy 38 degrees, windchill 33, with a 90% chance of rain. Are you ready for some football!?!? While the organizers of Super Bowl 48 will tell fans to "Bring your coats" they are dreaming. Having been to dozens of Jets games in January they should be telling fans "Bring your under armour, turtleneck, long sleeve shirt, fleece jacket, winter coat, ski mask, winter hat, 2 pairs of gloves, long johns, sweatpants, winter pants, 2 pairs of wool socks, and winter boots. Considering what it costs to go to the Super Bowl it is ridiculous to pay that money and freeze, outside.
The Weather, And The Stadium Will Affect Play
Even if it doesn't snow the elements will still have a major role in the game. Just as the old stadium was New Meadowlands Stadium is a proverbial wind tunnel. At times kicking and punting can be downright impossible, I wouldn't feel confident in any kick over 45 yards. This isn't what the Super Bowl should be about. It should be two great teams, with an even playing field playing for the Lombardi trophy. Playing at New Meadowlands Stadium is advantageous to teams with strong running games, as throwing can be very difficult with the intense cold and wind. The team that wins the coin toss will have a huge advantage since they could possibly determine whether the kick to win the Super Bowl will be going into a 25 MPH wind, or against it. That's unfair.
It's A Logistical Nightmare
While the game will be played in New Jersey, most of the activities will take place in New York City. While media day will be in the Jacob K. Javitz Center in New York teams will practice in the Jets and Giants facilities in New Jersey. There are only three routes to get from the City to New Jersey, and it's hard to imagine them getting any more clogged then they already are. The thousands of media members who will shuttle back and forth between the practices and their bases in New York will be staggering, and at rush hour reporters will be forced to file stories from the back of a car trapped in tube 2 of the Lincoln Tunnel. It will also be a hassle to move the teams from their NJ bases to New York for their obligations. There is tremendous potential for a logistical disaster to occur.
It's Completely Unnecessary For A NY/NJ Super Bowl
Funny how the announcement that New York and New Jersey would be getting a Super Bowl came just as the Jets were unable to sell thousands of PSL's for their new stadium, coincidence, No way! This move by the NFL generated tremendous buzz and was a way for the Jets to hype their personal seat licenses to fans who were not going to pay the astronomical prices. It's completely unnecessary for the NFL's great game to be played in this cold weather climate. The NFL was just motivated by money which is stunning considering how much the NFL already gets with all of the Super Bowl festivities. New York doesn't need this at all, and for the NFL to give New York and New Jersey a Super Bowl is a terrible decision.
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The real reason the NFL gave the Super Bowl to New York in 2014 is because they wanted to give back to the late Wellington Mara. Mara gave so much to the league, specifically his willingness to share television revenues. Whether it is actually a wise decision is debatable, but clearly the NFL knows what they were in for when they made this decision. Whether they are prepared for the consequences of this decision remains to be seen.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with both of you. Ben, there is no way the NFL handed the Super Bowl -- the league's biggest event of the year and the biggest sporting event in the world outside the World Cup -- to NYC just because it wanted to honor Wellington Mara. As deserving of praise and respect and honor as Mara is, the league would never jeopardize its most valuable asset with a groundbreaking new location (frigid NJ/NY) just because it wanted to make a nice gesture.
ReplyDeleteRussell, I think you're overstating the logistical issues. A quarter million people commute each weekday from New Jersey to NYC and back again without unreasonable difficulty. While the Super Bowl will inevitably create a lot of traffic, the game is played on a Sunday. Will the game create more than 250,000 at one time (like during rush hour)? I say no. In addition to the Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, and George Washington Bridge, there are also NJ Transit buses and a train stop right at the Stadium. I think the metro NYC area knows how to handle tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of travelers.
I'm also tired of hearing this garbage about the weather affecting the game. This is football and it's meant to be played outside, often in the rain, snow, mud, and freezing cold. Nobody said a word when the Giants beat the Packers in the 2007-08 NFC Championship Game when the windchill was below 0 at Lambeau. In fact, people LOVED it. And guess what? The game sold out.
The Super Bowl will sell out in NJ. There will not be a single empty seat. People will still fork up thousands for a ticket. Because this is America and the NFL rules. People don't care if snow/rain/cold favor running teams. People don't care if kickers are affected by the ground conditions. People embrace those parts of football. The Super Bowl will always be super, regardless of where it's played. Look at all those conference championship games in Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Chicago, and every other cold weather city. Those games were still popular and they still sold out. WHY SHOULD THE SUPER BOWL BE ANY DIFFERENT? WHY SHOULD THE RULES ABOUT WEATHER CHANGE BECAUSE IT'S THE CHAMPIONSHIP?? If anything, the Super Bowl is the ONE GAME where the league shouldn't be allowed to dictate, control, or protect against the weather conditions.
I also wanted to bring up one other thought, completely unrelated to my above point.
ReplyDeleteLet's say the NFL decides that this year's Super Bowl in Dallas is a "complete disaster" due to the cold and the snow. (At this point, I would tend to disagree with that assessment, but that's my hypothetical.) Doesn't that conclusion give the NFL a possible out??
Now the league can feasibly say that it awarded the 2014 Super Bowl to NYC despite its reservations about the weather up here, because at the time, it was reasonably certain that cold temperatures and/or snow would not have a major impact on the game or the week leading up to it. But now that it has seen firsthand what a disaster Dallas has been, it should back out of NYC in '14 while there's still time. The league would basically be saying now that we've seen the worst-case scenario, there is no way that NYC would work out....especially with no roof on the Meadowlands.
Again, I'm hoping this does not happen, but I think it's possible.