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Super Bowl riding on intangibles
Topping Phoenix, Houston for 2012 event may hinge on league politics, other details
Jennifer Whitson - jwhitson@ibj.com
February 16, 2008
If Indianapolis gets in the game for the 2012 Super Bowl, the nuts and bolts of the city’s bid likely won’t be much different than those from expected competitors Houston and Phoenix.
All three stadiums are about the same size and were built since 2000. All three metropolitan areas have more than the 25,000 or so hotel rooms required by the National Football League. And all three have enough entertainment venues to handle the parties surrounding the NFL’s biggest event.
The difference will be in the details, intangibles like the atmosphere in the host city. And then there’s league politics. And the weather.
“It tends to boil down to: Where do the NFL owners really want to go?” said David Carter, principal of Los Angeles-based Sports Business Group and director of the University of Southern California’s Sports Business Institute. “We know what we ought to do, but … sometimes we do something that’s more fun.”
Indianapolis bid last year on the 2011 game, losing in a narrow vote to a bid from North Texas, where Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is building a 100,000-seat stadium.
Officially, city leaders are evaluating whether to try again, but most expect Indianapolis to submit a bid this spring. One observer said the city stands a better chance this year.
“I think they have a real shot at the 2012 bid,” said consultant Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based Sportscorp Ltd. “The competition this time around just isn’t as tough.”
Indianapolis has challenges, to be sure. Business-development opportunities are more limited here than in warm-weather climes where golf outings are an option. And large, outdoor events geared toward the public are at the mercy of Mother Nature.
But the city does have strengths: its brand-new Lucas Oil Stadium, its experience hosting major sporting events and its ace in the hole: Colts owner Jim Irsay’s popularity with other owners.
And then there’s the atmosphere wild card. Unlike the other two likely bidders, Indianapolis would offer the NFL and football fans a compact event, with 4,500 of its 32,000-plus hotel rooms downtown and a number of entertainment venues within walking distance of the stadium.
In fact, the Super Bowl, which draws more than 100,000 visitors to the host city, would take over Indianapolis. Last year’s bid proposed making downtown a “Super Bowl Village.”
“We like our chances of creating an extraordinary festival atmosphere,” said Mark Miles, who’s leading Indianapolis’ Super Bowl team. Miles is president of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and has sports-industry chops, having led the host committee for the 1987 Pan American Games and spending 15 years as president of the ATP Tour, the governing body of men’s tennis.
Houston
The only city that’s been definitive about its plans so far is Houston, where Texans owner Robert McNair and other civic leaders said Jan. 30 they will be bidding.
Houston has hosted two Super Bowls, including the 2004 game, when Janet Jackson had her infamous “wardrobe malfunction” and Adam Vinatieri kicked a last-minute field goal to put the New England Patriots over the Carolina Panthers.
The city bid again in 2005 to host the game, when owners awarded the 2009 game to Tampa and the 2010 game to New York contingent on a new stadium’s being built. When that stadium fell through, Houston bid on the 2010 game but lost to perennial favorite Miami.
McNair told the Houston Chronicle that the city stacked up well against the competition, but Miami persevered when Dolphins team owner Wayne Huizenga offered each NFL owner use of a yacht for a week at the 2010 game.
The strength of Houston’s bid is its facilities. Its Reliant Stadium is about the same size as Lucas Oil Stadium, which can be ramped up to 74,000 seats for the big game.
But Reliant is part of an enormous, 350-acre complex that includes a 1.7-million-
square-foot convention center, an 8,000-seat arena and 26,000 parking spaces. That would mean plenty of space for the parties and events host cities must accommodate, such as the roughly 1-million-square-foot NFL Experience theme park
.
“Few, if any, sites in the country can offer what Reliant Park can,” said Shea Guinn, president of SMG-Reliant Park, which manages the stadium and surrounding facilities.
The complex is about seven miles from downtown, so the event would be spread out, but it is easily accessible from other parts of the city. And Houston has a commuter rail line that runs from the stadium to downtown and to the shopping and restaurant district.
And although Dallas will host the 2011 Super Bowl, Guinn said owners still could decide to come to Texas for consecutive games.
“It’s not unprecedented,” he said. “They’re playing Florida two years in a row.”
Phoenix
Much like Indianapolis, leaders in Phoenix have expressed an interest in bidding but haven’t committed to pulling the trigger. Super Bowl Host Committee Chairman Mike Kennedy told IBJ he hoped to have a decision by Feb. 15.
Phoenix hosted this year’s game and also bid on the 2011 Super Bowl.
But events at this year’s Super Bowl—held at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.—were so spread out that the town didn’t have a festive feel, some visitors said.
“Aside from being at the game and seeing people in jerseys, you didn’t get that much of a Super Bowl feel,” said Robert Tuchman, president of New York-based TSE Sports and Entertainment, which arranges travel packages for businesses. “People want to feel all the energy and excitement.”
Still, there was an upside: Traffic wasn’t bad and business people who wanted to host their own events at hotels easily found room. In fact, the spread-out feel was a selling point in the area’s bid, which was billed as Arizona’s, not Phoenix’s, Super Bowl, Kennedy said.
“We have the benefit of space and we worked to involve our entire community from the east [of the state] to the west,” Kennedy said, in part to fight the perception that the game is an elitist event for “out-of-town rich people.”
“It’s picking your poison. If events are all together, people can’t get around,” he added.
It cost Arizona $17 million to host the 2008 game, with 80 percent coming from private-sector donations and the rest from city and state taxes. But with the economic slowdown, officials already are talking about using more public money. But some pushback is surfacing from those who question using tax dollars to pay for an event most taxpayers can’t afford to attend.
Indianapolis
While Houston and Phoenix would bring the warm weather and relatively spread-out events, Indianapolis’ draw would be a newer stadium and a compact downtown experience.
“We’ll be much more geographically focused and bring a whole additional level of opportunities for Hoosiers to be part of it,” Miles said. Last year’s bid included plans for a mega-concert at Conseco Fieldhouse the night before the game, an extra Indianapolis pitched that has since become an NFL requirement.
Fellow committee member Jack Swarbrick, an attorney with Baker & Daniels LLP, agreed that buzz would build as fans swarm Indianapolis.
“I prefer an event that takes over the city,” Swarbrick said. “The unique design of our mile square [downtown] means it becomes an event home or village.”
And by 2012, the city is slated to have more than 4,500 hotel rooms physically connected to Lucas Oil Stadium—something that could lessen concerns about the February weather.
The cold still will be a hurdle, though. Detroit hosted the 2006 game, and “that was not lauded as a great time or a great place to be,” USC’s Carter said.
Tuchman concurred.
“I think Indianapolis would do a superb job, but in the end, it may be all about the weather,” he said.
In its 2011 bid, the city proposed setting up tents for many events held outdoors, like VIP tailgate parties. It’s a solution that would drive up the city’s expenses, but local businesses last year pledged $25 million to support the effort and most are expected to renew their commitments.
Although it hasn’t hosted a Super Bowl, Indianapolis has experience with other large events—from the Pan Am Games and the NCAA’s Final Four basketball championships to the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400.
“Nobody has our experience, and that’s not intended to be in any way a negative comment,” Swarbrick said. “We host the two largest single-day spectator events in the world every year.”
Indeed, the city has honed the muscles needed to direct logistics and line up volunteers.
And observers say Indianapolis would bring heart to the game.
“In terms of the people, Indianapolis would give it the best support because it’s a sports town and the fan absolutely will get into it,” said Tuchman, the sports-travel expert.
And there’s also still the hope that NFL owners will recognize that both Phoenix and Houston already have had a chance to host the big game and may want to reward Indiana and the Colts for their $700 million investment in Lucas Oil Stadium.
“I think it’s very appropriate that Indianapolis be afforded the same opportunity,” Swarbrick said.
In fact, when the stadium project was under discussion in 2005, then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said the new venue would put the city in the running to host a Super Bowl.
Owners are scheduled to vote on the 2012 game at their May 19-21 meeting in Atlanta. Bids aren’t due until April 1, so there’s still the possibility that other cities could join the fray.
Miles said the scuttlebutt at this month’s Super Bowl was that neither Tampa nor Miami would bid again so soon. And while New Orleans would be a sentimental favorite, the Saints still are in talks to extend the team’s lease beyond 2010, a requirement for bidding. •
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Off-season outlook: Dallas Cowboys
by Sports Xchange
February 15, 2008, 2:51 PM EST
As the Cowboys appear to be putting the finishing touches on the 2008 coaching staff, a question is starting to arise.
Is this Wade Phillips' staff?
Or is this staff being put in place for Phillips' suspected replacement Jason Garrett?
What's true is that the speculation regarding Garrett being promoted to head coach at the end of next season or the first sign of trouble isn't going away.
That was true when owner Jerry Jones gave Garrett a $3 million annual contract — equaling Phillips' salary — to shun head coaching offers in Baltimore and Atlanta.
That perception has only gained more steam as the Cowboys have gone about the business to fill four coaching vacancies.
It started when the Cowboys signed Hudson Houck as offensive line coach. Houck worked with Phillips in San Diego but his true connection is to Garrett. He was with the Cowboys when Garrett was the backup quarterback on the 1995 Super Bowl team. He also coached with Garrett in Miami with the Dolphins.
The Cowboys followed that move with the hiring of former Browns defensive coordinator Todd Grantham as defensive line coach.
On paper it seemed like a good fit for Phillips because Grantham has experience coaching the 3-4 from his days with the Browns and with the Texans, where he was defensive line coach under 3-4 guru Dom Capers.
Then there was the news that the Cowboys are bringing back Dave Campo as secondary coach. While Campo is a quality secondary coach, he has no experience in the 3-4.
Recently Phillips told everyone at the Senior Bowl who would listen that he wanted a secondary coach with 3-4 experience. Jones even said three coaching openings gave Phillips a chance to hire coaches who were in line with his philosophy.
But yet, when Campo made a call to Jones about returning to Dallas to be close to his family, he suddenly emerged as the only candidate for the secondary coaching job.
Again, Campo has no ties to Phillips or the 3-4 but he has ties to Garrett from his days as a Cowboys assistant and Cowboys head coach.
The linchpin to the whole deal however appears to be the team's interest in Capers as a possible linebackers coach. Capers is the former head coach with the Texans and the Panthers. He is the former defensive coordinator with the Steelers, the Dolphins and the Jaguars.
He is a definite 3-4 guru who could bring some things to the table to go along with the Phillips 3-4.
Again he has more ties to Garrett than Phillips. He coached with Garrett with the Dolphins and was the man Garrett had handpicked to be his defensive coordinator if he had taken a head coaching job in Baltimore or Atlanta.
On paper the Cowboys appear to be making several good hires with former coordinators and former head coaches.
"I was there, and I know how it is," Phillips said about moving from being a head coach to an assistant. "You see what the head coach goes through, and you want to be the best assistant you can be for him. Being a head coach and an assistant again, it makes you a better assistant."
And on paper it seems like a win win for Phillips. If the coaches are successful, he will be successful.
But it will be hard to outrun perception and keep it from becoming reality.
The bottom line is the Cowboys are headed into a new stadium in 2009. So if things don't work out, they will be looking to make a change before going into a new stadium.
Jones wants Garrett to be his head coach one day. The question is now is when will that day come.
During the 2008 season if the Cowboys struggle?
After the 2008 season if the Cowboys don't reach the Super Bowl?
What's certain is that his staff is already in place.
Notes, quotes
» Dave Campo never thought he would be coming back to Dallas after being fired as head coaching following three 5-11 seasons.
He is the only Cowboys' head coach to never make the playoffs. He is only the second head coach in league history to return to a team as an assistant after being fired as head coach. The other was Gunther Cunningham with the Chiefs.
But Campo, 60, who has family in Dallas, never lost his love for the Cowboys organization. He came to Dallas in 1989 with Jimmy Johnson from Miami as a quality control coach before being the secondary coach for two Super Bowl title teams. He was the defensive coordinator of the 1995 Super Bowl title team, a job he held until he was named head coach in 2000.
"I got the same office I had when I came in 1989. I looked out the window, and it was the same view," he said. "Then I looked in the mirror; it wasn't exactly the same. It was a deja vu kind of thing.
"I'm a Cowboy," he continued. "Whether it was good times or bad times, I'm glad to be back here. Period."
Coaching carousel
The exodus to Miami is finally over. Three Cowboys assistants have joined offensive line coach Tony Sparano, who was hired as the Dolphins head coach last week. Secondary coach Todd Bowles has been named assistant head coach/secondary in Miami. Linebackers coach Paul Pasqualoni has been named defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers made a lateral move as the Dolphins defensive line coach. All had offers to return to the Cowboys but chose to leave for a promotion/or a raise. The Miami Cowboys now consist of those three plus Sparano to go along with former head coach Bill Parcells, scouting director Jeff Ireland and NFL scout Brian Gaine. Parcells is the Dolphins vice president. Ireland is the Dolphins general manager and Gaine is the director of pro scouting. The Cowboys have already hired Hudson Houck as the offensive line coach. They are using the Senior Bowl this week to identify and interview coaches for the defensive line, linebackers and secondary positions. They were denied permission to speak with Atlanta secondary coach Emmitt Thomas and they lost potential defensive line coach Ed Orgeron to the Saints.
Free-agent update
The Cowboys have six unrestricted free agents and five restricted free agents. No one will likely get the franchise tag.
The unrestricted free agent priorities are:
» LT Flozell Adams - He made the Pro Bowl for the fourth time in five years. The Cowboys still don't believe he plays to his full potential. He is up in age and the Cowboys must decide how much he is worth to bring him back. They have three young tackles on the roster but none have proven to be capable of playing left tackle. They would like Adams back but at what price. They can move Leonard Davis to tackle.
» S Ken Hamlin - Hamlin hit the jackpot when he signed a one-year deal with the Cowboys. He has now made the Pro Bowl and is ready to cash in on a free-agent deal. The Cowboys will give him a contract extension. His play and leadership are invaluable.
» RB Julius Jones - Came into the season looking to secure his future in the Cowboys backfield. He had the lowest rushing total of his career, gaining only 588 yards and was replaced as the starter by Marion Barber. He will likely not come back. He is an unrestricted free agent.
» S Keith Davis - He is the Cowboys' best special teams player but he is looking to get a starting role at safety. That is not possible in Dallas so he will test the free-agent market.
» CB Jacques Reeves - Was liability in the secondary as the third corner and the Cowboys will be looking for an upgrade. Look for him to land in Miami with former Cowboys secondary Todd Bowles, who is also his brother in law.
» CB Nate Jones - Had a nice run and is very versatile. But the Cowboys will look for younger players who have an upside. Jones was never going to be a starter in the league.
The priority restricted free agents include:
» RB Marion Barber - His agent is Drew Rosenhaus and he will be looking for a long-term deal. The Cowboys will give Barber the highest tender at $2.56 million, which would net them a first- and third-round pick if he goes to another team.
» DE Chris Canty — He will get a first-round tender of $2.01 million. But they will likely try to get him to sign a contract extension. Look for the deal in the ballpark of the five-year, $20.5 million deal that nose tackle Jay Ratliff got.
» LS L.P. Loudeceur — The Cowboys had no faulty snaps on punts and field goals. He will return.
» RB Tyson Thompson — He lost his job as the primary kickoff returner and he is not a part of the regular offense. He might get a low tender but will likely not make it out of training camp.
» G Joe Berger — Will get the low tender. He is backup guard. He will be hard-pressed to make it out of training camp next season.
Feeling a draft
The Cowboys have two first-round picks: No. 22 from the Cleveland Browns and their own at No. 28. They will focus on a running back, a receiver and a cornerback on the first day of the draft. They need a young playmaker at receiver to take over the lead role once Terrell Owens departs in a year or so.
Team needs
Wide receiver: Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn are both 34. The Cowboys need to get younger at the position.
Cornerback: They need to upgrade at third and fourth corner. Jacques Reeves was a liability at the third corner last season.
Running back: Julius Jones likely won't be brought back. The Cowboys need someone to share the load with Marion Barber, who is the new starter but has never carried the load by himself, even in college.
Medical watch
» SS Keith Davis had successful surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle. He should be ready for minicamp.
» WR Terry Glenn is expected to have microfracture surgery on his right knee. It could force him to retire.
Unit-by-unit analysis
QUARTERBACK: Starter — Tony Romo. Backup — Brad Johnson.
Romo had the best season of any quarterback in Cowboys history. He made the Pro Bowl for the second straight year. And he signed a six-year, $67 million contract to be the Cowboys quarterback. But all was not well. For the second straight year, his numbers declined down the stretch. He had a 54.1 quarterback rating in the final four games, including the playoffs. The Cowboys were 1-3 in those contests. And despite his success, he will mostly be remembered for the trip to Mexico with celebrity girlfriend Jessica Simpson and the game-ending turnover in a playoff loss for the second straight year. Focus and finishing are what Romo needs to work on for next season.
RUNNING BACKS: Starter — RB Marion Barber, FB Oliver Hoyte. Backups — RB Julius Jones, RB Tyson Thompson, FB Deon Anderson.
The Cowboys ran the two-back system for the entire regular season. Jones was simply the starter in name only. Barber, the so-called backup, got the bulk of the carries and had a breakout season. He finished 975 yards, averaged 4.8 yards per carry and made the Pro Bowl. He had 129 yards as the starter in the playoff game and will be the starter next season. Jones came into the season rejuvenated by the departure of Bill Parcells and looking to secure his future as the Cowboys starting running back. Now he has probably played his last down as a member of the Cowboys. He is an unrestricted free agent and will not be re-signed.
TIGHT END: Starter — Jason Witten. Backups — Anthony Fasano, Tony Curtis.
Witten finished the 2007 season with his fourth consecutive Pro Bowl selection. He set a club tight end record with a team-best 96 catches for 1,145 yards. No tight end in team history has caught more passes in a season than Witten and only two in NFL history have caught more passes in a season. Fasano, however, has not lived up to expectations since being drafted in the second round last season. He could see time taken away from him next year by the emerging and improving Tony Curtis.
WIDE RECEIVERS: Starters — Terrell Owens, Patrick Crayton. Backups — Terry Glenn, Sam Hurd, Miles Austin.
Terrell Owens might have been the team's MVP this season. He set a team record with 15 touchdown receptions but his big-play ability is what drove the Cowboys' explosive offense. That fact was most evident during the team's late-season collapse and playoff loss. With Owens injured with a high-ankle sprain, the Cowboys offense was not the same. Patrick Crayton developed into a capable No. 2 receiver with career highs in yards, catches and touchdowns. Glenn missed 15 games with a knee injury and was not a factor when he returned. He will likely not be back. Hurd and Austin did not show that they can be regular contributors in the offense. The Cowboys must target a receiver in the draft and free agency.
OFFENSIVE LINE: Starters — LT Flozell Adams, LG Kyle Kosier, C Andre Gurode, RG Leonard Davis, LT Marc Colombo. Backups — G Cory Proctor, G Joe Berger, T Doug Free, T Joe Martin, T Pat McQuistan.
The Cowboys offensive line was as big a key to the team's success as Romo and Owens. They simply wore teams down with their size, especially in the second half. Davis finally lived up to his enormous expectation and made his first Pro Bowl. He will be joined in Hawaii by Gurode and Adams, who might be making his final appearance as a Cowboy. Adams is an unrestricted free agent. The Cowboys must decide if they are going to re-sign him, trust McQuistan, Martin or Free to step up or move Davis to left tackle.
DEFENSIVE LINE: Starters — LE Marcus Spears, NT Jay Ratliff, RE Chris Canty. Backups — NT Tank Johnson, NT Jason Ferguson, DE Jason Hatcher, DE Stephen Bowen.
The Cowboys were solid if not spectacular up front. Ratliff proved to be a keeper at nose tackle after replacing the injured Jason Ferguson and getting a multi-year contract extension. Spears did not have the breakout year he hoped but he was solid against the run and Canty might be coming into his own as a disruptive force up front. Hatcher shared the end position with Spears and could get more time in 2008. The Cowboys didn't get the impact they hoped out of Johnson, who took awhile to get in football shape after being suspended for the first eight games of the season.
LINEBACKERS: Starters — OLB Greg Ellis, OLB DeMarcus Ware, ILB Bradie James, ILB Akin Ayodele. Backups — OLB Anthony Spencer, ILB Kevin Burnett, ILB Bobby Carpenter.
Ware was the team MVP on defense with 14 sacks. Combine his numbers with Ellis, who had 12.5, and the Cowboys had one of the league's best pass-rush tandems. Ellis got his numbers despite missing the first three games of the season and not starting until Week 5 because of a torn Achilles he suffered last year. James was the anchor in the middle. He led the team in tackles and was the defensive captain. Ayodele disappeared in 2007 after having a solid 2006. He will be pushed for the starting job next season by Burnett. Carpenter remains a bust and might be cut or traded in the offseason.
DEFENSIVE BACKS: Starters — CB Terence Newman, CB Anthony Henry, S Roy Williams, S Ken Hamlin. Backups — CB Jacques Reeves, CB Nate Jones, S Pat Watkins, S Keith Davis.
Newman, Williams and Hamlin made the Pro Bowl, but that doesn't come close to telling the story. Newman and Henry were hobbled by injuries for much of the season. Newman's ability to overcome and make the Pro Bowl is quite notable. Hamlin was the quarterback in the secondary and was the second-best free-agent addition behind Leonard Davis. Williams, on the other hand, might have had his worse season as a pro. Teams targeted him for big plays and the Cowboys took him off the field on some passing downs. He made the Pro Bowl by default. Reeves was forced into action because of injuries and while he didn't embarrass himself, he was often exploited by other teams. The Cowboys need to spend a first-day pick on a cornerback.
SPECIAL TEAMS: K Nick Folk, P Mat McBriar, LS L.P. Ladouceur, KOR Miles Austin, PR Miles Austin.
Folk came out of nowhere to make the Pro Bowl as a rookie while McBriar is simply one of the best in the game. Ladouceur didn't get his name called a lot because he made bad snaps, which is a good thing. Crayton leaves a lot to be desired as a punt returner and Austin was average at best on kickoff returns. Both areas need to be upgraded for next season.
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