NY/NJ, New Meadowlands Stadium Wins Bid to Host Super Bowl in 2014

If you build it, they will come -- wearing winter coats.

The New Meadowlands Stadium, the $1.6 billion jewel co-owned by the New York Giants and Jets, will host the 2014 Super Bowl, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced Tuesday afternoon at the league's spring meeting.

"It's a historic moment for the league," Goodell said.

Saying that New York is a unique market, Goodell added: "It will be a great experience for our fans. It will be a great experience for the NFL."

The league's 32 owners, undaunted by the prospect of a wintry championship game, awarded Super Bowl XLVIII to the New York/New Jersey region after also considering bids from Tampa and South Florida, both traditional sites. South Florida and Tampa have hosted the Super Bowl 10 and four times, respectively.

At 4:04 EST, the owners voted for the 2014 Super Bowl. And ... there was no winner.

By rule, one city needed at least 75% of the vote (24 out of 32) on the first ballot to be declared the winner. At 4:10, Goodell announced that no one had made the cut.

It's believed that no city ever has won on the first ballot. So they voted again. Once again, a 75% majority was needed in Round 2.

At 4:10, the 32 owners began to vote in Round 2. There's no lobbying, no speeches, no nothing. The owners simply take another ballot and write in their choice.

Once again, there was no winner, but by rule, they had to eliminate the third-place finisher. As expected, that was South Florida. Adios, Miami. You've been great for 10 Super Bowls, but you're not hosting in 2014.

And then there were two: New York/New Jersey vs. Tampa.

Is the third time the charm for New York/New Jersey? The answer was ... no.

At 4:18, Goodell announced to the room that neither New York/New Jersey nor Tampa received the required 75% of the vote to win the bid.

One more time. This time, there will be a winner. Only a simple majority (17 votes) is needed.

And then there was a winner. It took four rounds of voting to determine the host, but New York/New Jersey won by a simple majority over Tampa.

The official tag line of the New York/New Jersey bid was "Make Some History," and it did. It will be the first open-air stadium in a cold-weather region to host a Super Bowl. In their presentation to the membership, the Jets and Giants reps showed a video that included clips from historic cold-weather games, including Adam Vinatieri's forever field goal for the Patriots in the 2001 divisional playoffs in Foxborough, Mass. -- a.k.a. "The Snow Bowl" and "The Tuck Rule Game."

"An old-school matchup in a new-school stadium," the voiceover says.

There could be a record-low temperature at kickoff. The current record is 39 degrees in 1972 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, and that would be considered a warm February day in East Rutherford, N.J.

There's never been snow in a Super Bowl game and that could happen, too.

"Obviously it will be cold, but that's what playing football is all about," Giants quarterback Eli Manning told Fox News Channel's Studio B with Shepard Smith. "I've been in the Super Bowl and I've been to a couple of Super Bowls and if you're not in it, the Super Bowl is an event and its kinda a place to be and there's no better place to be than New York City for that vibe and that atmosphere."

The average temperature range for the Meadowlands area during February is 24 to 40 degrees, with several inches of rain, according to the bid documents. Remember, the game kicks off after sunset in the Eastern time zone, so temperatures would be dropping throughout the night.

Planners have factored it all in. They're plotting giveaways to warm hands and seats, having hundreds of people ready to shovel away snow and anything else they can do to make the experience more than just bearable.

Jets owner Woody Johnson cracked, "I like doing things for the first time ... I hope it snows."
It could be the last cold play for a long time, as the league made this a one-time exemption to its 50-degree rule.

"People talk about the weather, but, you know, this is football, not beach volleyball," New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg told the NFL Network. He said his city welcomed the chance to host its share of a worldwide event and noted the Sept. 11 attacks.

"America came to the rescue of New York, and that's something I think that New Yorkers have never forgotten," Bloomberg said. "This is a little bit of our chance to say thank you."

Meadowlands CEO Mark Lamping told the owners, via the NFL Network, "This region has hosted every big event -- except the Super Bowl." Lamping described their plans to integrate the Super Bowl into the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and Fashion Week.

Organizers expect the 2014 Super Bowl to generate approximately $550 million for the local economy. While there will be no direct financial benefit to the two local teams, the Super Bowl will help the Giants and Jets sell the naming rights to the stadium. That could be worth an estimated $500 million.

The two teams will have access to 109 of the 219 club suites in the 82,500-seat stadium, and those will be distributed to their suite holders. But the money goes directly to the league. The Giants and Jets will split 6.2 percent of the overall ticket allotment. Because two teams are hosting, more hometown fans than usual will be left in the cold. Typically, the host city gets 5 percent.

Johnson wasted no time in raising the possibility of a Jets-Giants showdown in four years.

"We'll try to be in that Super Bowl together," he said, then turned to Giants co-owner Jonathan Tisch. "Am I right?"

Giants co-owner John Mara thanked his fellow owners "for having the guts to want to make some history."

He credited Johnson for hatching the idea in 2005, when the two teams agreed to share the new stadium.

"Woody started pushing the idea about four years ago, and he was absolutely relentless," Mara said.
Johnson said: "I was born in New Brunswick, N.J. To be a Jersey boy and to bring something like this -- to be involved in something this big -- is a tremendous thing for all the people that live in our area."

There are three possible dates for the game in 2014 -- Feb. 2, 9, 16. It depends on the structure of the 2013 season.

Mara tried to imagine how his late father, Wellington Mara, might have reacted to New York getting the Super Bowl.

"I think he would've thought we've come a long way since the Polo Grounds in 1925," Mara said in an NFL Network interview immediately after the announcement.

But no matter how you slice it and dice it, this is fantastic news for the New York/New Jersey region. A Super Bowl here will enable fans from all over the country to see the brand new, and beautiful Meadowlands Stadium.

Despite the game most likely being played in very cold weather, this game could definitely become one for the ages if snow and cold weather become factors. You don't have to go too far back in the memory bank to find the latest memorable cold weather game. Brett Favre's last season in Green Bay featured the Giants vs. Packers in a thriller that ended in overtime thanks, in part, to a Favre interception (shocking, right?). The bottom line is this: Cold weather games are extremely fun to watch and be a part of.

As a native New Yorker, I am proud of my city and proud to say that we will host the 2014 Super Bowl. But before this party kicks off in the Meadowlands, the Super Bowl will be held in Dallas (2011), Indianapolis (2012) and New Orleans (2013).