Super Saturday? Super Tuesday?
It could happen.
The NFL has contingency plans to move Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., from its scheduled date of Sunday, Feb. 2, in case of extreme weather conditions.
“There is a potential for a move-up or move-back scenario, depending on what we see coming,’’ Frank Supovitz, Senior VP of NFL Events, said Wednesday. “If we see something that is crippling to the region, then we’ll make a decision based on the intelligence we have at the time. How late we do that is going to be as late as possible.’’
The Super Bowl planning committee said it will do all it can to avoid moving the game’s date and they are prepared to deploy thousands of trucks and tons of salt to prevent snowy weather from interfering with the biggest football game of the year.
The stadium has several snow melters on hand that can clear the fields quickly, including one machine that can melt up to 600 tons of snow per hour, said the stadium’s CEO, Brad Mayne.
Removable snow chutes can funnel snow out of the seating and concourse areas, he said.
“As you can imagine, Mother Nature and her storms come in many different varieties,” Mayne said. “And so we have to be flexible in how we address each and every storm.”
Mayne pointed to the most recent storm to hit the region last week, which dropped 6.3 inches of snow and ice on the stadium just hours before the Giants hosted the Seahawks.
“Even though the storm ended just hours prior to kickoff, our experienced crew were able to have the stadium ready,” Mayne said.
The stadium plans to have up to 1,600 workers on standby for the Super Bowl, which is double the typical amount of personnel used in most storms.
With AP