Why is NFL giving South Florida the cold shoulder as a SB site? - Ingles

Monday, February 07 2011

The selection of Super Bowl destinations used to be a simple question of weather or not. South Florida, a place without real winters, has hosted the NFL's showcase game a record 10 times as a result. This article was written by Dave George and appeared in the Palm Beach Post.
Suddenly, however, Miami Gardens is in danger of falling out of the Super Bowl rotation because of expensive upgrades the NFL wants for Sun Life Stadium. While everybody's squabbling over who should pay that $200 million, here's a simpler strategy for winning back league officials.

Chill.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area was hit last week with a prolonged cold snap that started with a splattering of sleet and snow Tuesday and kept temperatures below freezing for days. Melting ice slid off the domed roof of Cowboys Stadium on Friday and injured six people.

None of that was in the party and travel plans leading up to tonight's Super Bowl XLV.

With next year's Super Bowl awarded to Indianapolis and the 2014 title game scheduled for just outside New York City, there's plenty more February parka weather to come. If that's not enough to warm NFL team owners to the idea of a return to South Florida, there's ample incentive for tailgaters, major corporate sponsors and even halftime entertainers.

"As a touring band, we always bring the heat," said Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, who will perform Sunday night while the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers take a mid-game break. "Hopefully we will bring the heat because it's cold as hell here."

A week of headaches

All schools and most of downtown's skyscraping office buildings were closed in the Dallas metro area from Tuesday through Friday as wind chills dipped below zero on a few mornings and a fresh 6-8 inches of snow hit at the end of the week. Dallas-Fort Worth Airport was closed for two hours Tuesday, and road crews worked around the clock in a futile effort to make snow-covered highways safe.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers had a question for reporters at Media Day on Tuesday: "What's up with the weather?"

At 2 p.m. Thursday, the day when Super Bowl visitors traditionally start pouring into town, it was 21 degrees in Dallas. At the same moment, it was 18 in Green Bay, 26 in Pittsburgh and 80 in Miami.

By kickoff, when all the frosted limousines are parked and emptied, it's supposed to be in the high 30s with possible flurries in the forecast. The retractable roof at Cowboys Stadium guarantees a warm environment inside, but that's no help to anyone who wanted to fit in a Texas tee time earlier in the week, or simply wanted to leave the earmuffs at home.

"This isn't smart to do it in a city like this," Dan Patrick said during a break from his national radio show at the Super Bowl media center.

"Permanent sites would be great just because you're factoring in the weather and the fans themselves. They're paying the exorbitant prices."

Fans were far more comfortable at last year's Super Bowl between New Orleans and Indianapolis. The kickoff temperature at Sun Life Stadium was 60 degrees.

Mike Dee, CEO of the Dolphins, said the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee has informed the league it will bid on the 2015 and 2016 games. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is a tough one to figure, though.

By pushing for New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey in 2014, he broke the rule on enclosed stadiums for Northern Super Bowls.

Goodell's focus is on the quality of the stadium and the TV product presented on Sunday. He maintains that the snowy prelude of Super Bowl week in Arlington has gone just fine.

"The stadium is a priority consistent across all 32 clubs," Goodell said. "Quite frankly, that's our stage, and we're going to be playing and you're going to be watching this Super Bowl from one of the great stadiums in the world."

Dolphins hope for bed tax

Again, then, it all gets back to the improvements required to bring Sun Life Stadium up to Super Bowl snuff. A canopy to protect the stands but not the field from rain is high on the list. The stadium lighting must be brought up to the highest of high-definition standards, too.

"Suppose we don't do anything," said Dee, whose franchise is counting on help from Miami-Dade and Broward counties in the form of a bed-tax bill that is moving through committees in the Florida Legislature. "Suppose 10 years from now we have a 37-year-old stadium with no changes. Where are we then?

"It's still salvageable at this point. We don't need a facility like Dallas. They need that to keep the owners interested. We have beaches, airports and hotels. You just can't have a facility that falls below minimum standards."

Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson said "public money today is very tough to come by" and suggested that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, as the biggest beneficiary of any future Super Bowls, should fix his own stadium.

Aaronson is unswayed by arguments regarding economic impact. A Palm Beach County Sports Commission official said the county enjoyed an economic impact of $25 million from last year's game.

"We've got the greatest inducement to bring Super Bowls here without giving a nickel, ever," Aaronson said. "They're suffering in Dallas now. We have 81 degree weather here. What better inducement could there be?"

Sitting by the pool certainly feels more like a vacation than getting lost in a snowstorm on an unfamiliar city street. That's what happened to Rodney Barreto, chairman of the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee, when the Super Bowl was played in Detroit five years ago.

"The reality is that NFL owners could have worked it out to award us a game and then say, 'You have 24 months and if improvements aren't made, we'll pull it and give it to somebody else,' " Barreto said.

That's pretty much how Miami Gardens got the 2010 Super Bowl, which originally was awarded to the New York Jets on the condition that they build a new, retractable -roof stadium in Manhattan. When those plans fell through, the game fell into South Florida's lap.

More trouble next year?

Meanwhile, the Dallas area is hoping that a great game Sunday night will make everybody forget about the hassles of the past week, when several Pittsburgh players even complained of goose bumps while doing interviews at Cowboys Stadium in short-sleeved jerseys. The roof was closed at the time, but several large entry doors were open for delivery trucks and arctic gusts alike.

Indianapolis had its own wintry problems last week.

While trucks were salting the highways to combat an ice storm, people kept losing their footing on the slippery sidewalks. On Wednesday alone, one Indianapolis hospital reported treating 200 injuries from fractures and other problems suffered in falls.

"I don't want to go to Indianapolis for this game next year and I don't want to go to New York," said the NFL Network's Deion Sanders. "It's freezing up there. They should just have the Super Bowl in Miami or California every year."

Follow the sun, he's saying. It plays favorites even more than NFL owners do, and South Florida always will be one of them.

NFL WANTS IMPROVEMENTS
If the Dolphins want to get Sun Life Stadium back into the NFL’s rotation of Super Bowl sites, it will have to make improvements that could cost $200 million. These are some of the priorities cited by Dolphins CEO Mike Dee.

-A canopy attached to the inside edge of the roof to protect fans from rain.

-An additional 3,500 seats between the goal lines to increase inventory of most desirable seats.

-Less dead space between stands and the field. Stands would be moved 18 feet closer.

-Improved and reconfigured seats in lower bowl; some seats were moved to accommodate baseball.

-Better lighting to meet needs of high-definition TV broadcasts. Temporary lights were needed for previous Super Bowl.

Super sites today and beyond: Cold weather is possible at the next four Super Bowl locations.

Year Site The weather factor

2011 Arlington, Texas Retractable roof will be closed; ice has limited activities for days.

2012 Indianapolis Stadium has a retractable roof; city says it can deal with ice and snow.

2013 New Orleans Domed stadium; Big Easy can be chilly, but temperatures today should hit the 60s.

2014 East Rutherford, N.J. Open-air stadium; what if a blizzard hits the New York area? This article was written by Dave George and appeared in the Palm Beach Post.