San Francisco and Houston won the right to host Super Bowl L and LI, respectively. Congratulations are in order and for to Dr. John York, his son Jed York, SF Super Bowl Bidding Committee Chairman Daniel Lurie, as well as to Houston Texans Owner Bob McNair and the Houston Super Bowl Bidding Committee for their win as well.
How those two groups handled their wins on video stood in dark contrast to the the sad press conference that was given by Miami Dolphins’ Owner Stephen Ross, South Florida Super Bowl Committee Chair Rodney Baretto, and the South Florida Super Bowl Bidding Committee. I feel for them, because everyone remembers a winner, but not the loser. And this blogger was that loser when Oakland bidded to host the 2005 Super Bowl that Jacksonville won the right to have.
In 2000, after then-Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced that Jacksonville was the winner, we didn’t have a press conference for the loser, but there was one for the winner.
Losing a Super Bowl Bid competition is tough because no one gets to see the hard work you put in to it. But at the end of it all, you lost, and will be judged, to a degree, by your reaction. From that perspective, the South Florida Super Bowl Bidding Committee’s response was poor. They were understandably sad, and Mr. Ross and Mr. Baretto fought back tears, and not just because they lost, but because they believed they could still win, and were still smarting from Florida Speaker Of The House Will Weatherford’s blocking of a referendum that would have given Miami voters a chance to let the Dolphins use a hotel tax increase to fund part of the $350 million in planning improvements to Sun Lite Stadium, just over two weeks ago.
Thus, in the actual press conference, Mr. Ross and Mr. Baretto forgot to thank San Francisco, and said, “I think everyone in that room would have wanted to be in Miami.” Mr. Baretto called out the two politicians who led an effort to stop a vote on the use of hotel tax revenue. Mr. Baretto also said that by the “body language of the NFL staff, we had the better vote.”
Ouch.
That’s not something I would have said, but then who listens to me?
Thus, their overall press conference was unforgettably sad. Here’s two of the three of them on video, with the McNair video uploading as of this writing.
First, San Francisco’s Bidding Committee Press Conference:
Second, the contrasting Miami / South Florida Bidding Committee Press Conference:
Stay tuned.