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.
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