National Football League

Super Bowl planner recalls weather woes

Published Dec. 30, 2010 6:40 p.m. ET

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Jim Steeg handled the NFL's Super Bowl planning for two decades. He learned quickly that you can't plan for everything.

''The toughest thing is when we'd get that unexpected situation with weather,'' Steeg says, well aware that two of the next four Super Bowls will be staged in cold-weather cities, including an outdoor game in 2014 at the New Meadowlands Stadium. ''Atlanta in 2000 was just that. How often do you get an ice storm in Atlanta?''

Answering his own question, Steeg adds: ''Ironically, it happened twice in eight years, both with Super Bowls in Atlanta. When you are not prepared to handle that, it's a problem. When you are having Super Bowls in Minnesota and Detroit, they are used to it.''

They're also accustomed to heavy rains in Southern California, where Steeg now lives; his last Super Bowl was 2005 in Jacksonville. Last week's flooding at Qualcomm Stadium brought back memories Steeg would rather not have rekindled.

''I came out to San Diego before the 1998 Super Bowl and there was a torrential downpour in December, and the field was under water,'' Steeg recalls. ''Not as bad as last week, but bad, and we had a Super Bowl to get ready for. The stadium manager said they would figure it out, and I said, 'We can't have this happen.'

''Two days later I was in New York and he calls to say, 'We figured it out.' Turns out, when they went to put the trolley stop in outside the stadium, during construction they went through the drainage pipes and filled them with concrete. So there was nowhere for the water to run off.''

Can Steeg foresee a situation where a Super Bowl might be postponed by weather?

''I think anything is possible,'' he says, ''but the great thing I learned in my experience is that the people working on the thing do everything they need to. When we had the games in Minnesota and Detroit, I was more concerned with the traffic patterns at (Chicago's) O'Hare Airport because so many flights come through there.

''New York and New Jersey are so used to mobilizing for situations. The game, it will be like attending a Winter Olympics: dress warm, in layers, and enjoy. It's like going back to the old days.''

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