National Football League

Hushed seconds and then the 'Super' explosion

Published May. 26, 2010 12:41 a.m. ET

foxsports

Let the celebration begin. For once, the Jets and Giants teamed up for a win.

NFL owners voted Tuesday to play the 2014 Super Bowl in the new $1.6 billion Meadowlands Stadium in what may very well be the first cold weather championship for the world's biggest football game.

The league made a special exception for the Giants and Jets to bid on the game, and supporters of both teams held their breath when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made the announcement after the fourth and final vote of the owners.

As soon as Goodell said New York and New Jersey, there were roars, screams, cheers and clapping. The crying towels were thrown away. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie high-fived Jets center Nick Mangold and Giants guard Chris Snee.

``It's about time they pick a site that has some luster and pizazz,'' said music promoter Jeff Colon, 48, of Brooklyn, who watched the announcement on one of the giant TVs in New York City's Times Square. ``I think true football fans will be able to enjoy the game.''

Two Florida cities - Miami and Tampa - and Meadowlands organizers delivered final presentations to the owners on Tuesday in Irving, Texas and the balloting was close. No one got the 75 percent needed on any of the first three ballots. Miami was eliminated after the second and the NY-NJ group won the majority needed on the fourth vote.

``Nobody knows how to host an event like the greatest city in the world,'' Giants quarterback Eli Manning said. ``The Super Bowl is the greatest event and I think meant to be played on the greatest stage. I'm happy for John Mara and Steve Tisch and their families and for Woody Johnson and the Jets. They have invested greatly in this region, and it's good to see them rewarded and New York and New Jersey rewarded.''

Mangold said the reward would extend beyond the $550 million economic bonanza for the region. Talking in a style that would make Jets coach Rex Ryan proud, Mangold predicted a game that area fans would love.

``Put my stamp on it, this will be the first two home teams playing in the Super Bowl,'' he crowed.

Ryan, naturally, also applauded the decision.

``To me, it's a no-brainer when you consider that this vote helps two teams, the Jets and the Giants,'' he said. ``Add in the fact that you have as good a stadium as there is in the league and no one is going to complain about this not being a great Super Bowl, because you're in the best city in the world.''

The Super Bowl is expected to bring hundreds of millions of dollars to New York City, in part from an estimated 250,000 visitors expected to attend the NFL Experience public trade show, said Chris Heywood, a spokesman for NYC & Company, the city's tourism arm. About 50,000 to 60,000 people are expected to stay in the city's hotels, while media sponsors and corporate sponsors also will be adding their cash to the mix.

``We're the city that hosted the greatest game ever played more than 50 years ago, and we'll be ready for Super Bowl XLVIII,'' New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. ``Our restaurants, stores and hotels will be ready. Our pubs, cafes and attractions will be ready. And if it snows? We'll be ready for that too.''

Bloomberg said 48th Street would be renamed 48th St.-Super Bowl Way in honor of the upcoming game.

The outspoken Christie was ready for questions about people inevitably saying 'New York got the Super Bowl.'

``Those comments would come from the geographically challenged, because I'm looking out that door, and it's New Jersey, and I look where that stadium is, and it's New Jersey, and when everybody gets on the train or in their cars or on buses, they're going to be coming to that game in New Jersey,'' the first-term governor said, adding that the selection of the stadium might be the impetus he needs to run for a second term in November 2013.

``This is not a competition between us and New York, what this is, though, is New York is going to have to live with the fact that, when the game comes up, they're going to say: 'Live from East Rutherford, New Jersey.'''

As Christie addressed about 200 people in Redd's Restaurant and Bar, Eddie Marthinson and Paul Helwig sat at the bar and drank some beers. All they wanted to talk about was football.

Helwig, 63, of Woodridge, said he has watched every Super Bowl on television. The only one the Jets' fan missed was when the Jets played the Colts in Super Bowl III.

``I was in a rice paddy in Vietnam,'' Helwig said. ``I listened on the radio at four in the morning.''

Marthinson, a 66-year-old Giants fan, said he was at the Colts-Giants title game at Yankee Stadium in 1958.

``Football is supposed to be an all-weather sport,'' he said. ``Some of the greatest games in NFL history have been played in the cold.''

Dennis Robinson, the chief executive of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority in the Meadowlands, where the new 82,500 seat facility is located, said the weather would not be a problem, noting the Jets' final home game this season was played just six hours after a major snowstorm ended.

``This is the icing on the cake after 34 years,'' Robinson said. ``This is the ultimate worldwide event. We've had a papal visit, the World Cup, the Final Four and now the Super Bowl in 2014.''

Some of the greatest games in NFL history have been played in the cold, including the Giants' NFC championship win over Green Bay in January 2008, when the temperature plunged to about minus 25.

``Nobody wants to play in the cold,'' Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis said. ``But New York City - there's something special about this city, man. It's one of the best cities in the world, so why not have a Super Bowl here?''

Added Giants defensive end Justin Tuck.

``The biggest game and the biggest market? We should've done this years ago,'' he said.

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Associated Press writer Megan K. Scott in New York contributed to this report.