Despite plenty of denials and excuses that were offered during a week in Dallas that needed a temporary seating debacle to draw attention away from the fact that the primary strategy for dealing with a North Texas ice storm consists of hiding under the bed and waiting for it to melt, the NFL now admits that Super Bowl XLV left something to be desired. Moving forward, the league plans to learn from those mistakes.
NFL senior V.P. Frank Supovitz recently visited Indianapolis, the site of Super Bowl XLVI, to ensure that plans were in place for a far more positive fan experience.
“I think any good business or brand wants to put their customers first, and it’s something we began to talk about immediately” after Super Bowl XLV, Supovitz told the Associated Press. “There were some well-documented cases about serving our fans well in Dallas, so that’s what this is really about.”
Supovitz also addressed fading concerns that the lockout could wipe out the game, pointing out that the bid permits the game to be bumped back a week, and acknowledging that if the full season is canceled Indy would get another Super Bowl.
“We have contingency plans on top of contingency plans, as the Commissioner has said,” Supovitz said. “Actually, we had a contingency built into the bid. So there is flexibility to hold the game on Feb. 12, if necessary. In terms of additional contingencies, Indianapolis would be able to host the Super Bowl as soon as possible in an unoccupied year.”
The next open date comes in 2015, and that’s surely why the league has not yet voted on a site for the first game to be played after the game is played in New Jersey. Given the current progress that is being made, hopefully the league will soon have a green light to award the Super Bowl XLIX to Tampa or Arizona.