What better city to host a Super Bowl than Chicago. The city boasts some of the best hotels and finest restaurants, not to mention the incredible shopping available to Super Bowl travelers.
Chicago has more to offer than New York, which will prove to be a logistical nightmare when Met Life Stadium, located in East Rutherford, N.J., hosts the Super Bowl in 2014. Weather aside, have you ever tried to pass through the Lincoln tunnel or cross the George Washington Bridge on a good day in New York City? Mayor Bloomberg will really be praying for good weather, because theres no guarantee for snow removal if state workers elect to protest state contracts again. The city that never sleeps came to a screeching halt with only a foot of snow a little over a year ago.
It sounds good to play the Super Bowl in the elements, but cold weather is problematic. When Pontiac, Mich., hosted the Super Bowl in 1980, cold weather hit record lows all week leading up to the game. All together now: How cold was it? It was so cold the San Francisco 49ers team bus broke down traveling to the game. The team walked the last quarter mile to make the game on time. The only comfort for the 49ers was the cozy environment of the Pontiac Silverdome, because the Cincinnati Bengals were a team geared to play in cold weather.
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When Ted Phillips signed on as the Bears' new president, following Michael McCaskey, his No. 1 priority was securing the Bears a new home at Soldier field. Phillips accomplished the goal very early in his tenure, but was it shortsighted for the city of Chicago? Discussions of a new domed stadium or retractable roof was pretty much off the table as costs would have supposedly been driven close to the dreaded billion-dollar mark. The rebuild cost rests somewhere between the 650-700 million range. There is still fallout over such a short sighted project.
In 2009, former mayor Richard Daley said the city had the right to charge amusement taxes on the sale of personal seat licenses for Bears games. Of course, seat license owners filed suit. The tax has risen from 7 percent to 9 percent since the Bears first sold PSLs prior to the 2003 season. (Source: Media Ventures) Dont mention naming rights to Daley, he went after the Chicago Bears for that too.
New Chicago mayor Rahm Emanual told the Chicago Sun-Times Dec. 8, 2011, the Chicago taxpayers are not an ATM machine and they cannot afford to be the financial backstop for Soldier Field bonds whenever the hotel tax falls short of rosy growth assumed a decade ago.
Doesnt everyone remember what was sold to taxpayers concerning the Soldier Field project? It was to attract new civic, cultural, religious and educational gatherings. The events of Sept. 11, 2001 pretty much destroyed hotel tax revenues, then a market crash in 2008 demolished it further. Old Soldier Field could not have come down faster with a wrecking ball than the financial destruction new Soldier field has weathered. But for all those explanations, taxpayers are currently on the hook for only a 5 million contribution per year.
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Rahm Emanuel is right to cozy up to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in hopes of Chicago hosting a future Super Bowl. He realizes Chicago hotels and restaurants would finally be footing the bill for the smallest capacity, unroofed, cold weather outdoor stadium ever built. Emanuel does have a catchy slogan to promote though, as I believe, new Soldier Field was dubbed the eyesore on the lake shore.