NFL takes unacceptable risk with New York Super Bowl
Sporting News believes that having the 2014 Super Bowl in a cold climate stadium is bad for business. Read the full article below:
When I first heard the NFL was seriously considering staging an open-air Super Bowl in a cold-weather city, I was intrigued. This isn’t the same stuffy, stodgy NFL that ventures outside the box only with an engraved itinerary and a six-pack of Sherpas. The NFL is willing to take risks and do something different. But there’s a fine line between being edgy and going loco. After further deliberation, the NFL’s decision to hold a Super Bowl in a cold-weather climate with a stadium that has no lid makes us wonder whether plenty of people have lost their marbles. The Super Bowl is the single greatest day on the American sports calendar. It needs to be protected from circumstances that can make the experience something other than super. Any of you who have ever stood for three-plus hours in single-digit temperatures for an NFL game know exactly what I’m talking about.
Folks familiar with going to outdoor games in cold-weather cities understand how to properly prepare for multiple hours in the hostile elements. But what about the sandal-wearers from California whose idea of a winter coat is a windbreaker with a hood? When it’s time for them to pay for tickets that with a face value in the vicinity of $2,000, will they realize that they’ll also need to spend roughly that much more on coats, boots, long underwear, gloves, hats, scarves, hand warmers, and foot warmers?
At a time when the NFL has displayed greater sensitivity to the in-stadium fan experience, the league seems to be pandering to the experience of the home viewer, who’d love to see images of a Super Bowl played in gently falling snow emanating from their 3D-HD television screen (made by the NFL’s official 3D-HD television sponsor). The message to the customers who’ll be likely paying record-high prices? As the late Peter Boyle playing New York resident Frank Barone would say, “Suck it up, Nancy.” Maybe the NFL is hoping to make it “cool” to go to games in bitterly cold weather. Or maybe the NFL wants to create a spectacle like hockey’s annual Winter Classic, already an indispensable New Year’s Day tradition. Either way, the risk of a nightmare scenario outweighs the potential reward of a day in which it’s cold but not too cold and the snow is falling but not too heavily, with the wind blowing but not gusting.
The rest is here: NFL takes unacceptable risk with New York Super Bowl