NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wants a little snow to fall on the 2014 Super Bowl, the first outdoor cold-weather edition of a championship spectacle typically played in warm cities or indoors.
Goodell spoke on Tuesday as organizers for the game unveiled the logo for Super Bowl 48, which features the George Washington Bridge in the background and a big icy white snowflake in the middle.
“A little snow would be great for us, but whatever comes our way, we’re going to be prepared for it,” Goodell said. “We’re coming and playing in the winter and I think that would be great.”
The US$1.6 billion Meadowlands Stadium, home of the New York Jets and New York Giants, will host the game in what are expected to be near-freezing conditions with ticket prices beyond the record US$600 and US$1,200 paid this year in Dallas.
“The world will be waiting for us to probably screw up on this because this is the first cold-weather Super Bowl,” Jets owner Woody Johnson said.
The pre-Super Bowl era of NFL title games featured games in cold markets, but that was in 1965. A gap of nearly half a century will fall between the New York Super Bowl and such fabled 1960s matchups as the “Ice Bowl” game in Green Bay.
“Some of our most memorable games were played in unusual weather circumstances,” Goodell said. “Winter and cold are part of football and snow is also.”
Goodell said the NFL is not considering staging a Super Bowl beyond US borders, despite pitches by such venues as London’s Wembley Stadium and Toronto’s domed stadium, preferring to have the event in existing NFL venues.
The marketing push from Super Bowl organizers will play up the potential for bad weather, one advertisement slogan saying: “It’s football like it was meant to be played — in the open, exposed to whatever winter throws our way.”
A total of 22 companies have already committed at least US$1 million each to sponsor the game.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
RSS