You just know it’s Super Bowl Bid Time when a media type screws up the news about which NFL city’s bidding for the game versus what NFL city. In this case, the example is the Wednesday announcement at the Fall NFL Owners Meeting that, well, it’s better to present NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s exact words:
Our Super Bowl Committee met yesterday afternoon and presented to the ownership this afternoon. There will be three bid cities for Super Bowl L and LI – Houston, San Francisco, and South Florida. The bids will be presented and owners will vote on both of those games at the May meeting in 2013. The owners will vote between San Francisco and South Florida regarding Super Bowl L. Owners will then vote at the same meeting on the host of Super Bowl LI between Houston and the runner-up from Super Bowl L.
The NFL’s already setting San Francisco up to fail before it gets out of the gate. First, and contrary to media reports, San Francisco is actually up against not one, but two seasoned Super Bowl Bid Cities: Miami and then Houston. But get this, the city with the most experience in housing Super Bowls other than New Orleans is Miami or what the NFL folks call “South Florida.”
Between New Orleans, which will host Super Bowl XLVII February 3rd, 2013, and Miami, which hosted the Super Bowl in 2007 and then again in 2009, the Super Bowl has been played in either area 20 times – there are 47 Super Bowls.
San Francisco starts its quest for the Super Bowl knowing that it does have one attractive element: a new stadium. The NFL has a policy of giving Super Bowls to cities that build new venues. But what makes this interesting is that, unlike the recent past, the NFL didn’t give San Francisco its own year slot. The league’s making SF compete for it.
In other words, the NFL didn’t say “The 20-something Super Bowl will be played in San Francisco” – period. That’s really odd.
So, even with the new stadium, San Francisco could wind up losing to Miami and then it goes up against Houston. Now, San Francisco could beat Houston, but they have to beat Houston Texans Owner Bob McNair.
Mr. McNair’s one of the NFL’s most popular owners, a great businessman and salesman, and a terrific Super Bowl host. I had a great time at the Houston Super Bowl in 2004. Beating Houston’s going to take some doing. If SF doesn’t – it’s lost and has to try again. That would be a rare happening for a city with a new stadium not to land a Super Bowl it bid for – I can’t remember a time when something like that went down before – but it’s a very real scenario for San Francisco.
By now, you may be wondering how I know so much. It’s because I came to within eight NFL Owner votes of bringing the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland – we lost to Jacksonville. Since then, this blogger has attended eight Super Bowls, eight NFL Drafts, and is a loyal member of the NFL Family.
And neither San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee or 49ers CEO Jed York has called on me for advice.
Stay tuned for part two.