Remember that there are all kinds of bad weather, and they don’t all affect play equally.
If you have a cold, clear day but the field has a lot of snow on it, well, that can actually make for a lot of good passing. Many quarterbacks and receivers will tell you that a snowy field is a GREAT place to throw the ball, because receivers know when and where they’re going to make their cuts, but defensive backs don’t. Hence, receivers can often get open more easily on a snowy field, as defenders slip and fall while trying to stay in pursuit.
Warren Moon and many other guys have put up big passing numbers in the Canadian football league under difficult weather conditions.
No, it’s not anything like moving basketball games outside. Football is an outdoor sport that is played in crappy weather all the time. It’s one of the things I love about football. Pro basketball is ALWAYS played indoors.
I hate the ‘it changes the game’ argument too. Teams from cold weather outdoor stadium cities have to build their teams balanced and able to compete in all weather. Why negate one if their advantages? Why should only high flying fair weather teams be rewarded? I hate that the Super Bowl is always nice while the playoffs are a grind I whatever Mother Nature throws at you. The Super Bowl should be no different.
I’m excited by a cold weather Super Bowl. I hope it snows during the game. Smash mouth physical football.
Of course it could be at someone’s home stadium. Should the Jets make the Superbowl this year they will end up playing at home. San Diego was the host of many SBs but always in years when the Chargers sucked.
Didn’t Detroit get theirs as part of the deal when they got a new stadium? Overall they like to have them in places where the sponsors and their families would like to go on vacation anyway.
Not exactly. Cities with new stadiums certainly get consideration from the Super Bowl Selection Committee, but it’s no guarantee. There are plenty of other hoops to jump through, but yeah - getting a shiny new stadium is typically at the top of that list.
2015: Phoenix
2016: San Francisco (Santa Clara, actually)
2017: Houston
Indy is pushing for a 2018 bid, and will be up against Minneapolis (good: new stadium, bad: Minnesota in February) and New Orleans (good: Bourbon St., bad: 2013 blackout).
Millionaires and sports journalists are the only ones who complain. The reason they complain has nothing to do with football, it’s all about the parties and the nightlife surrounding the game. The shame is that people pay attention to them.
We are talking about New Jersey, not the Arctic Circle. Its possible there might be bad weather. Or it might be fine. Regardless the ratings will not suffer. It may even make it more interesting.
The 2008 NFC Championship game was a thriller and was certainly not effected by the -1 temp (-23 wind chill) in Green Bay. Hell, the home team didn’t even win.
Indeed, it could be, though it has yet to have ever happened. The closest that a team has come to playing a Super Bowl “at home” was when the 49ers played at Stanford Stadium, down the road in Palo Alto.
The Jets (or the Giants) could do it this year, though both are under .500 at the moment, so it’d be an uphill climb.
Here’s the almanac for the weather history in East Rutherford on February 2 (you can change the year). Other than what appears to be a truly shitty day in 2008, I don’t see anything all that terrible in the last 15 years.
It would never happen. It could never happen. Having been to numerous Steelers games, the stadium is in a really fabulous location but it is totally impractical for a Super Bowl. As fans we can tolerate the multi-hour traffic jams trying to get up the Parkway through the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, but that won’t wash with the NFL trying to make the Super Bowl a great experience. The city layout is all wrong, and the best way to get to the game is to take the boat, which further delays the exodus.
New York is getting the Super Bowl because it’s New York. That’s it.
Jacksonville had to bring in cruise ships to have enough hotel rooms to qualify. They were docked near the stadium. That won’t work too well in Pitt.
NYC was promised a super bowl after 9/11 if they built a new stadium.
That promise was based on its being a domed stadium, specifically the West Side Stadium that was being discussed at the time. Somehow that eventually turned into “New York is SPECIAL and should be awarded a Super Bowl despite not meeting the requirements that everyone else had to meet.”
