With Super Bowl XLVII now officially in the books, the focus for the NFL turns to a first for Super Bowl history.
Super Bowl XLVIII will be held at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, the first to be played in a cold-climate location in Super Bowl history.
Super Bowl XLVII MVP Joe Flacco already offered his thoughts during the week of preparation in New Orleans. He called it “stupid.”
It’s not.
It’s about time the NFL tried something different and innovative. It’s about time a stadium that doesn’t see the Super Bowl got a chance to prove it could host. And it’s about time for a change.
The New Orleans Superdome – now called the Mercedes-Benz Superdome – has hosted the Super Bowl seven times, including three times since 1997. This time around, it will be viewed as a big failure.
After a first half that was lackluster on the field, half of the domed stadium lost power, leading to a 34-minute delay.
Seriously, there is no way somebody couldn’t have checked to make sure this crisis that was could have been avoided. It was a slip-up on the part of the NFL and Superdome operators.
This is the most-watched sporting event every year. And for a half hour on Super Bowl Sunday, there was time to pause from the game and focus all attention elsewhere. It shouldn’t happen – not on that big a stage.
Perhaps the move from domed, climate-controlled stadiums to the potential of freezing temperatures and nasty weather is the ushering in of a new era of the Super Bowl. It could be out with the old – as in the 37-year-old Superdome – and in with the new – as in the three-year-old MetLife Stadium.
Change is usually good. Why should that be different for the NFL.
But ultimately, what Super Bowl XLVII proved is that the success of the game still depends on location. Perhaps that means the NFL will take it to places it has never gone before.
