The NFL sent its regards to Broadway yesterday, awarding New York the right to host the 2014 Super Bowl in the new Giants-Jets Meadowlands stadium.
The league’s owners made history and a big statement in voting to let the Big Apple host its first-ever Super Bowl — it will be the first time the game is played outdoors in a cold-weather city.
“It’s about damned time!” crowed Bronx resident Lorelei Gliatta, 48, a Jets fan who was among the throng in Times Square watching NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s announcement on the Jumbotron.
“I hope I get tickets, though,” she quipped.
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It took NFL owners four secret ballots to decide, but the Giants’ and Jets’ proposal to be co-hosts of the biggest game in sports froze out competing bids by veteran hosts Tampa and South Florida to snatch Super Bowl XLVIII.
“I want to thank the NFL owners for having the confidence in our ability to host this game, and the guts to make some history,” said exultant Giants co-owner John Mara after the vote in Irving, Texas.
Super Bowl XLVIII is tentatively scheduled to kick off — most likely in the freezing cold, possibly in snowfall — on Feb. 2, 2014, in the new, $1.6 billion stadium in East Rutherford that will open this season.
The Super Bowl could pump $500 million into the metro-New York economy, according to some estimates.
The vote was a clear nod of appreciation to the Giants and Jets for building a state-of-the-art, 82,500-seat stadium without having tapped public funds.
It also overcame a longstanding bias for placing Super Bowls in warm-weather venues. Feb. 2 has a historical average high temperature of just 39 degrees, an average low of 25 degrees, and average snowfall of about a half-inch.
“I was born in New Brunswick, NJ, and I’m a Jersey boy, so to speak, so to bring something like this and to be involved with something this big is a tremendous thing for all people who live in our area,” said Jets owner Woody Johnson.
Giants treasurer Jonathan Tisch, whose father, Robert, co-owned the Giants with Wellington Mara until they both died in 2005, choked up in tears as he said, “I know that both of them would be so proud.”
“Are we happy?” Mayor Bloomberg yelled to the crowd in Times Square. “Another great day!”
“The biggest game in the world is coming to the biggest stage,” Bloomberg said. “If it snows, it snows. This isn’t beach volleyball — it’s football, for God’s sake.”
The mayor — who yesterday unveiled a sign renaming a stretch of West 48th Street “Super Bowl XLVIII Way” — also said the city welcomed the chance to host its share of a worldwide event and noted the Sept. 11 attacks.
“America came to the rescue of New York, and that’s something I think that New Yorkers have never forgotten,” Bloomberg said. “This is a little bit of our chance to say thank you.”
State economic development chief Peter Davidson told The Post that the under-construction Barclays Center in Brooklyn will be added to the list of venues hosting Super Bowl-week gala events, including the Javits Center and the James A. Farley Post Office.
The Jets’ Johnson wasted no time in raising the possibility of a Jets-Giants championship game in four years.
“We’ll try to be in that Super Bowl together,” Johnson said, turning to Jonathan Tisch. “Am I right?”
Even if the Giants or Jets don’t make it to the 2014 Super Bowl, their season-ticket holders that season won’t be shut out. NFL officials confirmed that each club will hold a drawing to sell a limited number of Super Bowl XLVIII tickets — likely fewer than 1,000 per team — to their respective 2013 season-ticket holders.
Additional reporting by Steve Serby and Rich Calder