Growing up, I recall the illustrious history of football’s biggest game. The Super Bowl is practically a national holiday nowadays, and it is treated with the utmost reverence by those in both the sports and media industries.
The location has always been a grand vacation spot along the lines of San Diego, Miami or New Orleans. Occasionally the idea of playing the game in Atlanta, Detroit or Houston has also been tested, but warm weather is usually the primary factor in the selection process.
Not the case here in 2013. America’s largest and most renowned center of business and economic history will “theoretically” host the game, even though the actually playing surface is in another state.
I’m a resident of New Jersey and have to admit that it should be quite interesting to see how an event of this magnitude will play out in a state that typically gets a bad rap from the national public. North Jersey is better known for Tony Soprano and good pizza, but the fact that it serves as the home venue for two teams whose names begin with “New York,” is actually pretty incredible when you think about it.
The two states are joined at the hip no matter what the conversation is, and sport is no different. We just saw the New Jersey Nets move from NJ to NY, and one could probably argue that there are just as many Yankee fans in Jersey as its counterpart.
But I find it very interesting that New York is essentially sponsoring this game. Yes, the “NY/NJ” area is collectively a part of the process in sponsoring the event, but the New York money speaks louder. The New York Times, NYSE, Morgan Stanley and JP MorganChase, to name a few, are some of the heavy hitters associated with this year’s game.
Certainly there are additional businesses with strongholds in the NJ area to put their credentials next to this one, but let’s face it: New York runs the show. The people pitching this idea several years ago were not doing so with the intention that New Jersey, first and foremost, would be the host location. That simply wouldn’t fly with the decision makers.
No one knows who yet will do battle in this game; there is a lot of football left to determine that. But for fans of any team traveling into town for the big game, it’ll be quite interesting to see how it all plays out.
For visitors who want to spend a week in the Big Apple, there will be a ton to do and see. But if you are just coming in for the game itself and don’t plan on staying beyond just the weekend, New Jersey is probably where you will spend much of your time.
Hotel managers are already seeing a spike in activity for the important dates, but not quite as much as you would expect. New York City hotels typically see 13% occupancy for the late January/early February period, but currently have filled about 27% of the rooms. While that is certainly a positive and upward trend, it isn’t quite what decision makers were looking for.
According to NJ.com, New York City hotel managers expected something like 50% of rooms to be booked by now. A combination of factors play into this variation, most notably the the most obvious of issues: weather.
New York is a great place to visit…unless it’s early February. Weather patterns are constantly changing, but for at least right now, New York is downright frigid in this time frame. It’s currently early December and the temperature is in the 50’s here this week, but that is a testimony to the idea that cold weather has been pushed back closer to spring months and is less of a factor in the November/December time frame.
For travelers and visitors alike, the thought of buying what should undoubtedly be a more expensive room in Manhattan and then trying to commute to a game being played about 40 minutes away (commute time) is borderline moronic. The thought of doing so in the midst of overpopulation and potentially awful weather is even more stupid regardless of what kind of money you earn.
The people who really want to see this game will end up coming to and staying in New Jersey. They will get better hotel deals and have easier travel arrangements. More importantly, they will remain unencumbered by the grind of America’s biggest city during a time period when all they want to do is eat, sleep and breathe football.
But New Jersey and the Meadowlands in particular will not be all “comfy cozy” come February 2nd. Al Kelly, the president and CEO of the Super Bowl Host Committee, has already vehemently stated that this will be “mass transit” Super Bowl, even if it’s a lie of sorts.
Due to a variety of factors (most likely overpopulation and terrorist concerns being at the top of the list), there will be no tail-gaiting at this game. That’s right, the most American of past times has been banned from the most American of events.
While many will indeed take trains to get to the game, those who do wish to drive in must park for the duration of the game and come in a bus or limo. They will be subject to parking fees which are dictated by the Host Committee and probably the league office, which should call for absurd prices.
While many North Jersey residents are already in the process of potentially renting out their homes for up to a week at a time for visitors, you have to wonder about the common sense behind such methodologies. The current asking prices for many nicer homes is going to be in the 10’s of thousands of dollars, and that doesn’t even get you a seat to the game.
Getting back to the venue, there is expected to be an army of state troopers in and around the marshland that surrounds MetLife Stadium. Locals may think they can get to the parking lots and hang out as if it were just another Giants-Skins regular season bout, but that won’t be the case.
The NFL is adamant about not wanting a vast throng of local residents hovering around this venue on game day, and you can kind of understand why. More people typically means more problems, and the NFL doesn’t need that on its biggest of days.
Still, you have to wonder about how this pie is being divided. Growing up in Pittsburgh, I watched the Steelers host AFC championships virtually every year. The Steelers have played in that game a whopping 15 times, with 11 of them coming in our home yard including five games between 1998 and 2009.
Virtually every year, there would be a variety of news centering around the economic impact of having the conference title game in our city. Inevitably it always led to increased revenue for local business in and around the city.
The Super Bowl does that for the host city but on a much grander scale…unless it’s 2013 in New York. All the evidence we have to date points toward an incredibly unique event that will be monitored very closely by law enforcement and the league office. While a lot of it is likely motivated by a desire for increased safety, you had better believe that the monetary motivation is there in a big way as well.
The NFL will definitely get richer off this game, but will anyone else? New York seems to be in a far more compromised position given the fact that the game itself will have little to nothing to do with their city.
As for Jersey, they are still likely to reap certain benefits but not without limitation.
As discussed, there is a lot going on here. People will see this as a moneymaker for the ages, but I’m just not so sure that is realistic.
