Snow bowl at the Super Bowl, anyone?
While it sounds like fun, it’s not likely. The Super Bowl is scheduled to come to MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Jets and New York Giants, next year, but the NFL is not taking any chances, according to Sports Business Daily.
If snow is in the forecast, the league will likely move the day the game is played — either bringing it up a day or pushing it back further in the week, according to the report. The league is working on a variety of contingency plans based around not only snow during the big game but also the possibility that the area could be shut down, similar to what happened this past weekend during the nor’easter that overtook New York, Boston and surrounding areas.
A storm that takes several days to clean up could cause serious problems for what has become a multiweek sporting spectacle, but that’s what the NFL got itself into by committing the game to a “cold-weather stadium.” Earlier concerns about quarterbacks’ hands getting chilly have now morphed into much bigger problems, with not only the game being affected but possibly also the revenue streams of the NFL and local areas.
The Sports Business Daily report notes that adjusting the game time could affect flight plans and hotel accommodations, not to mention viewership. Demand for tickets and perks surrounding the game is already high in the media capital of the world, with one company that sells “on-site Super Bowl hospitality packages” taking deposits since last October.
Everyone likes a good snow day, but this one — well, the NFL may have joined the fun before it knew quite what it was getting into.
Photo via Flickr/Schen Photography
