Dallas to host 2011 Super Bowl Game
23/05/2007 |
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National Football League owners voted to play the 2011 Super Bowl in the Dallas Cowboys’ new $1 billion stadium that’s being built in Arlington, Texas.
Owners, meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, selected the city over Phoenix and Indianapolis, Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a news conference. The vote from today’s balloting wasn’t disclosed.
It will be the first Super Bowl held in the Dallas area. The new stadium, scheduled to open in 2009, will seat 80,000 and can be expanded to 100,000. Like Texas Stadium where the Cowboys play now, the new venue’s dome will be open in the middle.
Also today, the NFL said it will perform baseline brain tests on all players for the first time as it tries to reduce concussions. In addition, the league is launching a new plan to support retired players who need medical care, and will invest at least $4 million in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Owners reached their decision about the 2011 Super Bowl after hearing a 15-minute pitch from each host site and a five- minute presentation from the owner of each city’s NFL franchise. Cowboys Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach delivered the presentation for the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Committee.
Staubach said the potential size of the stadium helped the bid. The Arizona Cardinals’ stadium seats 73,000, while Indianapolis’s would seat 70,000.
Super Bowl Festivities
The Super Bowl features a week of festivities, corporate parties and special events, including the NFL Experience theme park that draws tens of thousands of visitors annually. The Super Bowl has been played twice in Houston, most recently after the 2003 season.
Phoenix is scheduled to host the Super Bowl after the 2007 season. The game then moves to Tampa in 2009, and to Miami for a league-record 10th time in 2010.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP estimated that February’s Super Bowl in Miami generated about $195 million in direct spending in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in south Florida.
Addressing criticism of the NFL’s brain-injury committee, Goodell told owners that baseline brain tests this season will help doctors treat players who suffer concussions and determine when they can return to the field.
Goodell also said the league has formed an alliance with its players union, the NFL’s retired players association, the NFL Alumni Association, NFL Charities and the Pro Football Hall of Fame to coordinate medical support services for ex-players. Several NFL-related groups had been working independently in recent years to provide medical assistance, and Goodell said the new system will be more effective.
Goodell also said the league is making “an investment in the history of our game,” in giving $4 million to the 44-year- old Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The investment in the facility could rise to $8 million, Goodell said.
(Source: Bloomberg.com
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