Super Bowl 48 In New Jersey: It Makes Too Much Cents

Charles Klein

The National Football League announced that Super Bowl 48 will be held at Meadowlands, becoming the first cold weather outdoor stadium to host the biggest event in American sports. Meadowlands Stadium defeated Tampa, Florida on a simple majority after four rounds of voting at the NFL Owner's Meeting in Irving, Texas.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called the vote "a historic event for the league."

Organizers of the 2014 bid expect the Super Bowl to generate $550 million for the local economy. While neither the Giants nor the Jets will directly benefit from hosting the event at their grand-spanking new $1.6 billion spaceship, they will be given 109 of the 219 suites to distribute to season ticket holders.


Hosting the Super Bowl will also make selling the naming rights to the stadium much easier. Analysts expect the naming rights to go for around $500 million.

Meadowlands Stadium holds 82,500 seats at capacity and the Giants and Jets will split 6.2% of the ticket allotment given by the league. Typically host cities receive 5% and in the case of Super Bowl 48, Giants and Jets fans will each receive 3.1% of the tickets, which is about 2,557.5 tickets per team.

The organizers also noted that they intend upon integrating the Super Bowl with other yearly events hosted in New York City, such as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and Fashion Week.

Perhaps the New York/New Jersey bid was made easier by the presence Tampa native Dick Vitale, who in his city's video presentation implored voters to "Vote for Tampa, bay-bee!"

Of course all of this will just add to the city's flawed perception of being the birthplace of all things wonderful in America. The self-styled exceptionalism professed by New Yorkers will only become more nauseating as 2014 grows ever closer. And naturally, we will all have to listen to them claim that both of their teams will play in that game. I don't think either will, but that's for another post at another time.

The game being held in an "inclement" climate will open the door for the game to be held in other stadiums that are as deserving as Meadowlands Stadium to what is certainly the highest grossing event in American sports. Cities like Seattle, Boston, Kansas City, Washington, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh will now all be able to have a shot at repeating a similar feat to the one accomplised by the organizers from New York.

After electing a crackpot governor and losing out on the John Wall sweepstakes, the state of New Jersey really needed a pick-me-up. And this Super Bowl will go down like a gin & tonic.

I wanna be a part of it, New York, New Jersey...