NFL Super Bowl's Next Destination: New York

NFL owners could award a Super Bowl to the New York area when they conduct their one-day spring meeting Tuesday in the Dallas area. The owners also might consider extending the sport's new overtime format to regular season games. 

 

New York is bidding to host the 2014 Super Bowl and is regarded by many observers as a strong favorite to get the game. The other bidders are Florida sites, Tampa and the Miami area. The potential cold-weather Super Bowl would be played in New Jersey at the new stadium at the Meadowlands being built by the New York Giants and the New York Jets. The stadium opens next season.

The 2014 game is the next available Super Bowl without a host city. Next season's game is to be played in Dallas, followed by Super Bowls in Indianapolis in 2012 and New Orleans in 2013.

There appears to be strong sentiment within the league to play the sport's biggest game in the shadow of New York City. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he will remain neutral on the topic, but he believes it is an idea worthy of the owners' consideration. Some owners have expressed wariness about playing a Super Bowl at a cold-weather site. 

 

But the league waived its usual average-temperature restriction for outdoor venues to allow the New York bid to proceed, and some observers consider it a foregone conclusion that the owners will vote to award the game to New York.

The four U.S. senators from New York and New Jersey wrote a letter to Roger Goodell on Monday endorsing a possible New York-area Super Bowl:

"As the nation's most populous metro area with more than 19 million people, and as the nation's top media market, the fanfare of the Super Bowl would be uniquely enhanced by the vibrancy that the region has to offer," said the letter, which was signed by Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). 

 

"I think it can be very attractive to the ownership and to the NFL in general, and I continue to believe that," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the March meetings when asked about staging a Super Bowl in the New York area.

Owners could also vote on whether to expand the new overtime rules to encompass the regular season. The rules that were adopted at the March meetings — ones that do not allow the team to win with a field goal on the opening possession — are in place only for postseason games.

The NFL Players Association has said the new overtime format must be collectively bargained with the players. The league has rejected that notion, contending that the owners merely must seek the players' input on the matter and have done that. The issue could become increasingly contentious if the owners extend the new rule to the regular season. 

 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also is likely to address a Supreme Court ruling against the league Monday in its quest for antitrust protection. Justices said the league must be considered 32 separate teams — not one big business — when selling branded items like jerseys and caps.