Lawless
government? No respect for NFL rules and mandates, either. From nj.com’s report
“HowMetLife Stadium scored Super Bowl 2014, bringing the big
game to N.J.”:
It took four votes and
more than 10 years.
Kickoff for the 2014
Super Bowl is now [less than] two weeks away, and the NFL has already taken
possession of MetLife Stadium.
. . .
It’s been a long march up
the field already, marked by quiet, behind-the-scenes lobbying and phone calls,
getting the enthusiastic support of the state’s governor, and raising millions
from sponsors for what will be the most expensive Super Bowl in history.
The bidding
specifications for this year’s Super Bowl, obtained by The Star-Ledger,
mandated tens of millions in expenses that would be borne by whoever won the
honor of hosting the game. The 127-page document outlined everything from the
minimum size of the stadium (the NFL mandates a seating capacity of at least
70,000, after an allowance of 3,000 seats for camera and production locations),
to power and lighting needs.
Keep all those “NFL mandates in mind. Here’s another mandate
[emphasis added].
And it required a climate-controlled
domed stadium "if the historical average daily temperature over a
10-year period in the host city on the week of the game is below 50
degrees" — a mandate that needed agreement from the owners to at least a
one-time exception before a cold-weather Super Bowl with a view of the New York
skyline was even possible.
Obviously, as with Obamacare, some mandates are more equal than others.
[Jets owner Woody
Johnson] said the only real negative he heard about was the weather.
"If you embrace the
weather as we have, it doesn’t sound so bad. We’ve had bad weather at previous
Super Bowls," Johnson said he argued. The message was drilled home
repeatedly. "New York knows how to do this," he said he told other
owners. "We’re experts at it."
Tell that to residents on Manhattan’s upper east side. Brrrr.
