Here's a column I filed for our early editions of Monday's paper:
TAMPA, Fla. – Three years from now the NFL, which has built up a nice little mountain of cash by making relatively solid decisions, will once again step into what my 8-year-old daughter would call a pile of doo-doo.
As it did three years ago by playing Super Bowl XL in snow-strafed Detroit, the NFL will send its marquee event to a cold-weather city, allowing Indianapolis to host the 2012 game in brand-new, domed Lucas Oil Stadium.
I know. I know. The NFL still will rake in busloads of cash and the worldwide television audience approaching 200 million won’t shrink by a single soul.
Heck, they could play the Super Bowl in a parking lot in North Garfield, Mont., and get 80,000 people to show up at two grand a pop.
But that’s beside the point.
Despite its humble beginning, the Super Bowl has become more than a football game with an above-average halftime show and a weird starting time.
It’s now a week-long social event rivaled only by Mardi Gras, where thousands of people flock to the streets, filling bars and restaurants and generally turning urban thoroughfares into giant pedestrian malls splashed with the team colors of officially licensed NFL merchandise.
Each night last week in the trendy Tampa neighborhood of Ybor City, Steelers fans bellowed their corny fight songs from the outdoor of balconies along Seventh Street, raining good-natured onto Cardinals fans with the misfortune of walking past below.
Street dancers performed and posed for photos with tourists in Polamalu and Warner jerseys, and people in shorts and light sweaters sipped draft beer and cocktails at open-air bistros while packed trolleys clacked past carrying more fans to outdoor venues in Channelside and downtown Tampa.
Try taking your drink onto the veranda in Detroit or Indy in late January. You’ll need an ice pick and a blow drier. And ice skates.
By moving Super Bowls north, the NFL has taken a wonderful outdoor game inside, depriving us of military jet flyovers and creating artificial sound chambers that echo crowd noise back toward the field at dizzying levels.
Starting next season, the league will up the ante by moving its Pro Bowl to the “dead” Sunday between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl.
Its annual all-star game will take place in the Super Bowl host city, allowing the league to sell ticket packages and encouraging fans who might normally arrive on Monday or Tuesday to extend their visits by a few days.
What could be better, after all, than nine days central Indiana at a time of year when the wind is cold enough to freeze your knee ligaments into ceramic rods?
It’s brilliant marketing, but if I want to experience cabin fever, I’ll stay in Erie and save on the hotel and food bills.
The NFL, of course, doesn’t much care about where it drags its biggest cash cow.
It’s more interested in cutting back-scratching deals with cities and team owners who mange to build new stadiums in tough economic times.
That’s why the year before the big game lands in Indy, it will send Super Bowl XLV to the north Texas prairie, where it can get mighty cold and icy in early February.
Yes, it’s still the Super Bowl. And as long as they play it, people will come.
It’s just a shame they’ll have to remember to pack their hand warmers.
JOHN DUDLEY can be reached at 870-1677 or john.dudley@timesnews.com.
Comments (1)
John, to be honest, I don't mind the game being played in "the elements". I think it will invoke memories of "the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field" and would add perhaps the most influential "12th man" that goes by the name Mother Nature.
I am dismayed that the NFL, if I am understanding you correctly, would put the Pro Bowl BETWEEN the conference championships and the Super Bowl. That would guarantee that any Pro Bowlers playing the Super Bowl would opt out, thus depriving the Pro Bowl of some of the top players.
Stupid move there.
Posted by Angelo Bufalino | February 3, 2009 1:14 PM
Posted on February 3, 2009 13:14