Houston, Jacksonville to Host Super Bowls
A T L A N T A, Nov. 1, 2000 -- Jacksonville’s ship came in today.
With the help of some shipping companies who will bring in 10cruise ships to help provide rooms, NFL owners voted to bring theSuper Bowl to north Florida for the first time.
Jacksonville beat out Miami, which has played host to eightSuper Bowls, in a closely contested race for the 2005 game.
As expected, the owners gave the 2004 Super Bowl to Houston andthe 2006 game to Detroit, rewarding both cities for building newstadiums. Neither had opposition.
Cruise Ships Will Expand Lodging
That wasn’t the case for Jacksonville, which required fourballots to become one of the smallest metropolitan areas to landthe biggest one-day event in American sports.
“This raises us to a first-tier city,” said Wayne Weaver,owner of the Jaguars.
Jacksonville, with a metro population just over 1 million,earned its first Super Bowl even though the NFL had seriousconcerns about a lack of hotel space and airline flights.
The city will dock at least 10 cruise ships near Alltel Stadiumon the St. John’s River, adding about 8,000 rooms to its downtownhotel capacity. Sydney used a similar tactic during the Olympics.
“I think the membership bought into that,” Weaver said.“We’re going to give them a different and unique experience.”
Also, three airlines agreed to triple flights to Jacksonvilleduring the Super Bowl week, ensuring fans will be able to get inand out of the city.
“There was a sentiment for diversity, a change of scenery,”said Art Modell, owner of the Baltimore Ravens. “Miami will alwaysbe a part of the Super Bowl rotation, but Jacksonville deservedit.”
Miami brought a delegation that included former Dolphins coachDon Shula and ex-quarterback Dan Marino.
Oakland also bid for the 2005 game but was given little chancebecause of its feud with Raiders owner Al Davis. The Californiacity, seeking its first Super Bowl, was eliminated on the secondballot.
Second Super Bowl for Houston
Detroit’s delegation was led by Mayor Dennis Archer and racingteam owner Roger Penske.
“Fortunately, a lot of the owners knew Roger Penskepersonally,” Archer said. “That was a nice touch.”
Houston was represented by Mayor Lee Brown and Bob McNair, ownerof the Texans expansion team that will begin play in 2002.
As part of his $700 million entry fee, McNair was promised aSuper Bowl as soon as possible. It will come at the end of theTexans’ second season at their new 69,500-seat retractable roofstadium, under construction next to the Astrodome.
Houston first played host to the Super Bowl in 1974 at RiceStadium. The city split with the NFL in 1996 when the Oilers leftfor Tennessee, but today’s decision brought the reconciliationfull circle.
“It shows the strength of the city and the resiliency of thecommunity to go through such a downer and turn it around in such ashort period of time,” McNair said.
Revitalized Detroit
Detroit also is getting its second Super Bowl. The 1982 game wasplayed at the suburban Pontiac Silverdome.
The 2006 Super Bowl will be held at a new downtown domedstadium, 65,000-seat Ford Field. The $315 million project isscheduled to open in 2002, luring the Lions back to the city.
“This really speaks volumes about how the city is comingback,” Archer said, adding that he hopes the NFL’s decision wouldconvince Major League Baseball to award an All-Star game toDetroit.
The NFL raised some concerns about Detroit’s ability to meet therequirement for 17,500 hotel rooms within an hour drive of thestadium. The city is counting on three casino hotels that have notbeen built.
“Fortunately, we’ve got ample time to fill in the blanks,”Archer said.
New Scheduling Formula Approved
During their three-day meeting at a downtown Atlanta hotel, theowners also approved a new scheduling formula when the Texanscreate a 32-team league.
The league will abandon its current six-division alignment andgo to eight four-team divisions — four in each conference.
Under the new format, each team will play six games within itsdivision (home-and-away against the other three teams), four gamesagainst another division within its conference, four games againsta division in the other conference and two games within theconference based on the previous year’s standings.
Those final two games were the main sticking point, with someowners wanting to preserve them for traditional or regionalrivalries after realignment — Jets-Giants, Raiders-49ers,Dolphins-Buccaneers, Chiefs-Rams and so on.