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Super Bowl short list: Tampa

Raymond James Stadium is one of three proposed sites if the NFL decides to play a full playoff schedule and move the game out of New Orleans.

[Times photo: Skip O'Rourke] Fireworks erupt from Raymond James Stadium during January's Super Bowl.

By DARRELL FRY

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 21, 2001

TAMPA -- Tampa is one of three cities being considered by the NFL as a possible replacement site for this season's Super Bowl, the league said Thursday.

Tampa, Miami and Los Angeles make up the league's short list of places to host Super Bowl XXXVI should the NFL decide to move the game from New Orleans in order to maintain its 12-team playoff structure.

And contrary to previous reports, moving the game is not farfetched, according to Jim Steeg, the NFL's vice president of special events. That is welcomed news to Tampa Bay area officials, who expressed eagerness Thursday to get the game.

"If they can't resolve the situation in New Orleans and they decide to move it, we'll be camped out on their doorstep," said Paul Catoe, president of the Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We'd love to have the opportunity."

Catoe said the area's Super Bowl Task Force members haven't been mobilized, but if the time comes, "We'll make sure we're ready and prepared."

Steeg said the NFL expects to make a decision by Oct. 15.

Catoe said the Tampa Bay area would have little difficulty accepting the game on such short notice. He said one of the league's biggest concerns -- hotel space -- wouldn't be a problem even though Tampa is hosting a large convention the weekend of the proposed new date (Feb. 1-3).

"It would be tight," Catoe said. "But I think we could make it work."

Steeg labeled as "not true" reports out of New Orleans that moving the game was extremely remote. He said there were only two scenarios that would keep the game in New Orleans: The city agrees to give up the game this season in exchange for a future Super Bowl date or the league scrubs its wild-card weekend and adopts a scaled-down, eight-team playoff format. "Neither of those scenarios seems very palatable," Steeg said.

Asked to describe the likelihood of moving the Super Bowl, Steeg said, "I can only say there's a chance."

Steeg said Tampa, Miami and Los Angeles were attractive because those areas have hosted Super Bowls. Tampa has hosted three Super Bowls, including in January. Miami has hosted eight Super Bowls, including 1999, and Los Angeles has hosted six.

"We see (Tampa) as a situation where we just dust off the plans," Steeg said.

The league is desperately trying to maintain its 12-team playoff format after rescheduling Week 2's regular-season games for the weekend of the wild-card games (Jan. 5-6); partly because fringe teams don't want to be eliminated from playoff contention early in the season and partly because the league might have to reimburse television networks $80-million for canceling the four playoff games.

Pushing the wild-card games back a week would mean either squeezing three playoff games into a nine-day span for some teams or pushing the Super Bowl back a week. That might be impossible to do in New Orleans because the Feb. 3 date conflicts with a convention of 30,000 car dealers, putting a crunch on hotel space.

The car dealers so far have turned down the NFL's offer to swap dates.

"But if the NFL were to consider covering the expenses and losses, we would have to take a second look at it," the organization's executive director, David Hyatt, told the Associated Press on Thursday.

As compensation, the NFL could promise New Orleans a future Super Bowl and offer to play the NFC and AFC championship games in the Superdome during the original Super Bowl weekend (Jan. 26-27). League officials have stressed their preference is to keep the Super Bowl in New Orleans, but they have begun contacting potential replacement sites as a precaution.

"We're looking at any and all options," NFC information manager Chris McCloskey said.

New Orleans officials are desperate to keep the game this season, saying they have invested "hundreds of thousands" of dollars in planning and have turned down a lot of business at area venues during the scheduled Super Bowl weekend.

The city hopes team owners, several of whom also own car dealerships, can help reach a compromise with leaders of the car dealers convention. But the city remains well aware of the prospect of the game being moved and is prepared to fight for it.

"That's an option," Saints owner Tom Benson told the New Orleans Times-Picayune when asked about the game being moved. "You're going to have my vote against it. We need about eight votes (from team owners). I think there are eight clubs out there that like New Orleans enough that we could block that."

Steeg said if the game were moved to one of the other cities, it probably would be a scaled-down version because of reduced planning time.

"You're not going to get all the corporate involvement like usual," he said.

Still, Catoe said he belives Tampa is the league's best option if it moves the game.

"We still have everything in place," he said. "We've got the task force members. We've got the sponsorships people. We could get the Bucs involved. The stadium would be ready. We've got the security people.

"Basically, everyone here knows what to do. And I think Tampa has one thing no other city does. We're the only city that has ever hosted a Super Bowl during a war (Super Bowl XXV, held during the Gulf War in 1991). We've been there, done that."

Still, area officials said they aren't getting their hopes up.

"I think they truly believe they're going to work things out in New Orleans," said Michael Kelly, who headed Tampa's last Super Bowl task force. "But if not, and they decide to reach out to other cities, we would love to do it."

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