Mensch of the Week-NFL Owners

If you’re in the area, I’m sure you’ve already heard that the Meadowlands is going to host Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014. Depending on how the schedule works out that season it could be played on February 2, 9, or 16, 2014. A few years in advance of each Super Bowl the NFL owners gather and select the venue from the list of bids they get. Currently, only cities with NFL teams can bid to host a Super Bowl (but this may change as Roger Goodell has hinted at potentially hosting a Super Bowl in London). In the past, cities also had to have an average temperature of 50 degrees (or a climate controlled dome) in order to be eligible to host the big game. This year, the NFL bent the rule so that the new Meadowlands could be in the running, and the NFL owners selected the venue on May 25. That is why each of the 32 owners of NFL teams is a Mensch of the Week. They helped a piece of real estate, the most expensive football stadium ever built, garner massive attention. And boy will it be one cool piece of real estate.

There hasn’t even been an NFL game played in Meadowlands Stadium yet and it is already slated for a Super Bowl. The 82,566 seat stadium is the second largest in the NFL, only beaten by FedEx Field (home of the Redskins). Fun fact: the Redskins have never fully sold out FedEx Field, there are always club seats available. For some reason, I highly doubt that 82,000+ seats will be a problem for either the Jets or the Giants. Super Bowl tickets from 2010 had a face value of anywhere between $500-1000.  So this game should help defray the costs of the $1.6B stadium, at least a little bit.

This behemoth of a football stadium is the most expensive stadium ever built. The Giants and the Jets have an equal partnership in the 25-year lease from the state of New Jersey, which carries options that could extend it to as many as 97 years. Interior lighting is able to change colors for different events, helping to individualize the stadium for both the Jets and the Giants, and the 50-yard line seats will be the closest to the sideline of any NFL football stadium. This giant (excuse the pun) stadium will be an excellent choice to host the Super Bowl.

Hosting the Super Bowl is not just good for the stadium, and it’s owners, however. When the Super Bowl rolls into town, way more than just the people attending the game come with it. This means hotels, restaurants, retail shops (especially those selling football jerseys), and countless other businesses will see a huge increase in demand the entire week the Super Bowl is in town. The sheer increase in population for the short Super Bowl celebration may cause an annoyance of increased traffic in the area, but for the area around the Meadowlands, this is potentially a once in a blue moon chance to put a nice kick in the area’s economy (which will hopefully be booming by 2014 anyway).

I say once in a blue moon chance because this could potentially be the last time the NFL allows a “cold-weather city” to host the Super Bowl. The average temperature at the stadium in February is anywhere between 28 and 40 degrees, which could make for an interesting night. Some NFL owners expressed concern about the weather factor, but I agree with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg when he says, “this is football, not beach volleyball.”

Real football is played in the winter in Green Bay, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, New England, and of course New York (I exclude the Bills, Browns, and Bengals because they haven’t played real football in years). Real football is watching the Patriots light up the Titans 59-0 in a snowstorm, or watching Bears Linebacker Brian Urlacher harass quarterbacks while the winds off of Lake Michigan howl. Real football means wearing cheese-shaped hats, chanting J-E-T-S, waving yellow towels, and watching the Eagles choke, all while your teeth are chattering and you can’t feel your hands. Real football is NOT played in a climate-controlled dome, so why should the Super Bowl? A team that comes seasoned from a bad-weather city should have an advantage in the Super Bowl.

So to the NFL owners, I say thank you. Each of you is a Mensch of the Week because you finally opened the Super Bowl to a cold-weather city, will help area businesses by inundating them with football fans from around the country, and put the Meadowlands Stadium on full display for all to see.  I may be the only one hoping for this, but I hope it snows. I hope a warm-city or a dome team like Indy, New Orleans, or Arizona gets dismantled by a cold-city team like Chicago, New England, or Green Bay. Only time will tell.