Owners' Decision About 2011 Super Bowl Host Seemingly Was a Money Decision
NASHVILLE, Tenn.--The decision by the NFL's team owners here Tuesday to award the 2011 Super Bowl to the Dallas area instead of Indianapolis seems to have been made largely for financial reasons.
The Cowboys and Colts both have new stadiums on the way. The domed stadium in Indianapolis, scheduled to open in 2008, will have a capacity of about 72,000 seats. That's considerably smaller than the $1 billion, retractable-roof facility scheduled to open in 2009 in Arlington, Tex. The Cowboys' new stadium is to have a capacity of about 100,000 for special events like the Super Bowl. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said that another 20,000 or so fans could occupy the two open-air plazas that will be at the ends of the stadium.
That difference in capacity made for a sizable difference in the two bids' projected revenues.
"That venue was significant," Jones said.
Said Colts President Bill Polian: "When you do your best and you come up short, there's nothing you can do but come back and try again."
Phoenix also submitted a bid to host the game, which was the next available Super Bowl, but was a long shot because it already is hosting next year's Super Bowl.
Representatives of the three contending cities made presentations to the owners Tuesday, and the owners voted on their fourth ballot to award the game to Dallas. The voting was said to be extremely close, with one owner saying that Dallas prevailed by only a 17-15 margin over Indianapolis after Phoenix was eliminated.
The Dallas presentation was spearheaded by former Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach. The Indianapolis bid was presented by Colts Coach Tony Dungy and included a top-10 list presented by Indianapolis native David Letterman in a taped segment.
It will be the third Super Bowl played in Texas, following games at Rice Stadium in 1974 and Houston in 2004.
By Mark Maske |
May 23, 2007; 12:05 AM ET
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Posted by: BoltsFan | May 23, 2007 7:08 AM
Of course it was a money decision, but even if the money factor was equal, who wouldn't choose Dallas over Indy? Indianapolis is nice, but Dallas is a lot better for entertainment, weather, etc.
Posted by: mart | May 23, 2007 12:21 PM
Indianapolis is just a suburb of Chicago. I wonder how many people spend their whole lives wishing to go to Indianapolis?
Posted by: Dancer13 | May 23, 2007 1:35 PM
"Seemingly"??? You're being too diplomatic, Mark.
Posted by: charlie | May 23, 2007 1:53 PM
I really don't understand Maske's comments. Of course it was about money; what else would it be? It's a business. What a non-issue. Nothing else to write about? No NFL thug stories today?
Posted by: Dancer13 | May 23, 2007 2:25 PM
i'am starting to wonder when is the league going to bring the super bowl to the nations capitol because the fedex field is big enough to make some serious money for the league it's about 93,000 seats if it's going to take Snyder to close the roof then what he needs to do is spend about 200 million to get that done and unless the league guarantees that the superbowl is coming to the fedexfield then and only then snyder can get to work because we enough Hotels betweeen virginia Dc and Maryland to hold everyone that is coming to the superbowl party.
Posted by: armen | May 31, 2007 1:39 AM
i'am starting to wonder when is the league going to bring the super bowl to the nations capitol because the fedex field is big enough to make some serious money for the league it's about 93,000 seats if it's going to take Snyder to close the roof then what he needs to do is spend about 200 million to get that done and unless the league guarantees that the superbowl is coming to the fedexfield then and only then snyder can get to work because we enough Hotels betweeen virginia Dc and Maryland to hold everyone that is coming to the superbowl party.
Posted by: armen | May 31, 2007 1:40 AM
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The owners made a money decision. Who would ever thought them capable of that?