Next Year’s Super Bowl Could be on SATURDAY

Super Bowl Saturday

If a major rain-, sleet- or snowstorm hits the New York/New Jersey area around next year’s Super Bowl weekend, the NFL has prepared a contingency plan: play it on Saturday. One of Sports Business Daily’s sources spoke on the NFL’s preparation for Super Bowl 2014:

We have to look at all the angles: storm arriving day-of-game, storm arriving prior to game, storm arriving after game.

Super Bowl XLVIII is set to take place at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, home to the Jets and Giants.

Unlike Florida stadiums or the dome in New Orleans, the New York area is vulnerable to massive winter storms (Nemo, anyone?). One complication associated with problematic weather is airport closings, which could keep football fans from coming in on Super Bowl weekend and cripple the surge in tourism dollars — which is the whole point of hosting the Super Bowl, right?

NFL vice president of security Jeffery B. Miller gave his thoughts on this predicament to Sports Business Daily:

You know it will be a lot cooler, but there will be a lot of people and transportation issues regardless. When you have a lot of moving parts and large crowds, you are moving on transportation systems already overloaded with daily commuters, so you’ve got some issues to deal with.

But there could a silver lining in this contingency plan. Tired (read: hungover) football fans could finally rest on the day after the Super Bowl if it falls on a Saturday.