All the talk about the 2014 Super Bowl coming to New York is
balderdash.
Yesterday, the 2014 Super Bowl was awarded
to the New Meadowlands Stadium, which, surprising to some, happens to be in New
Jersey.
The hubbub surrounding this
announcement--especially in New York--is confounding. I don't understand how
people think that the Super Bowl is coming to New York.
The Meadowlands is not New York.
Listen to one idiot quoted in today's
Newsday, a Long Island newspaper that declared on its front page: "2014
Super Bowl Coming Here" (Long Island is in New Jersey--I didn't know
that): "I want it to be in New York because everyone has a chance to see
it."
Well, if it were in Miami, everyone would
have a chance to see it too. Turn on the TV, dummy! And do you think because
it's in "New York" that you are actually going to get tickets?
And, of course, New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg--who years earlier dropped the ball on the proposed West Side
Stadium, which would have been the home of the Jets, who now share the
Meadowlands Stadium with the Giants--glommed onto this announcement, stating
that it would be a boon to New York City's economy.
If it is being held in New Jersey, how can
that be?
Here is what economist Andrew Zimbalist
said: "I think this is not great news for the New York City economy. The
NFL likes to pretend it is."
As long as the NFL allows the charade to
continue that New York City has two football teams--the Giants and the Jets
still proclaim they are from New York--this stupid idea that two New Jersey
teams are actually New York teams will continue. The fact of the matter is that
New York City has no--meaning zero--teams in the NFL. The only New York team is
the Buffalo Bills, who play as far away from New York City as Cleveland is.
Just let me get it through people's heads
again--a Super Bowl which is being played in New Jersey has nothing at all to
do with New York City.
And the people who think that it does are
having delusions of grandeur or delusions of gridiron or something like that.
Hindsight being 20/20 ....
ReplyDeleteWhile the game itself was played in the Meadowlands, and one of the team's stayed in the hotel across the street from my Jersey City office, most of the hoopla was in Manhattan. Most of the fans booked Manhattan hotels, ate in NYC restaurants, went to NYC tourist spots. Broadway reorganized its schedule so that Super Bowl tourists could take in a show. The city made a fortune.
They may have, but the game took place in New Jersey. There are no New York City teams in the NFL, even though the league would like us to believe that there are two of them. I am sure New Jersey also made a killing, too.
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