North Texas bid beats Indy, Arizona for 2011 Super Bowl
Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The 2011 Super Bowl will be played at the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium in Arlington, Texas. Indianapolis and Glendale, Arizona also bid for the game.
NFL owners voted Tuesday for the North Texas group, which had Hall of Famer Roger Staubach lobbying on its behalf. The Cowboys' $1 billion stadium seats more than 100,000 and will open in 2009. It has about 27,000 more seats than the other stadiums involved.
The Indianapolis bid featured the Colts' domed stadium opening in 2008 and was backed by a Top 10 list by David Letterman. Arizona hosts the 2008 Super Bowl on Feb. 3 and hosted the 1996 Super Bowl in Tempe.
Texas has hosted the Super Bowl twice, in Houston in 2004 in the Texans' new stadium and in 1974 at Rice Stadium. Indianapolis also lost to Minneapolis in bidding for the 1992 game.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
North Texas lands 2011 Super Bowl
By Andrea Ahles and Charean Williams
Star-Telegram Staff Writers
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Touchdown, North Texas!
The NFL announced today that the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington will host the 2011 Super Bowl, beating out Indianapolis and Arizona for the big game.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made the announcement about 1 p.m. Central time.
Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, who orchestrated the winning bid for Super Bowl XLV, said he was ecstatic for the region, but now the real work begins.
In order to host the Super Bowl, the region will need to gather more than 10,000 volunteers and raise more than $20 million from private donors.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones noted that the new stadium will be able to seat 100,000 fans for a Super Bowl.
Staubach’s 12 1/2 minute presentation included a 4-minute video that highlighted Texas’ strong football tradition and pointed out that Dallas is where the late Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt and the late Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm merged the AFL with the NFL with a handshake in 1969.
“We’re going to have a good time in North Texas,” said Staubach, who called the decision the “thrill of a lifetime.”
The Cowboys new $1 billion stadium, set to open in 2009, helped persuade the owners to award the game to the Metroplex.
In addition to seating 100,000, it will have more than 300 suites, making the ticket revenue alone from the Super Bowl millions more than Indianapolis and Arizona, which only meet the NFL Super Bowl requirement of 70,000 seats.
Here is a running account of events leading up to Tuesday's announcement:
1:08 p.m. -- Roger Staubach calls the decision "a thrill of a lifetime."
1:03 p.m. -- Commissioner Roger Goodell has officially announced that the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas, will host the Super Bowl on Feb. 6, 2011.
12:56 p.m. -- North Texas has been awarded the Super Bowl bid in 2011. Details to come.
12:55 p.m. -- Activity has begun outside the owners room. A Colts executive was just overheard saying that Indy didn’t get it.
12:37 p.m. -- The voting has begun, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. To review, the voting is done by secret ballot and could take at least four rounds.
12:03 p.m. -- The Indianapolis contingent emerged and summarized its presentation, which included a video of Indiana native David Letterman ticking off a Top 10 list of reasons why the Super Bowl should be held in their city.
The No. 1 reason: "Because his mom can have a kickass tailgate party," committee chair Fred Glass said.
"It went fabulous," said Glass. "I feel like we put our best foot forward and we'll accept the outcome."
Tony Dungy, who coached the Colts to a Super Bowl victory last February, said he was more nervous Tuesday than he was before the Super Bowl.
"You could just feel all the preparation that went into it," said Dungy, who led the Indianapolis effort. "I think our committee did a great job in presenting our best foot and represented Indianapolis well. I hope it goes well. This would be even more special (than winning the Super Bowl) because everyone in our city would get to enjoy it."
All three committees are now waiting upstairs in holding rooms.
The NFL will spend five minutes presenting its own facts and figures, then each of the three owners gets five minutes to speak.
The voting will then begin.
When the decision is made, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will walk upstairs and inform the winning city.
11:45 a.m. -- A wrap-up of the proceedings so far:
Staubach spoke for seven minutes to begin the North Texas presentation, and then the owners watched a four-minute video that emphasized Texas’ passion for football. Then Staubach summed up for about a minute.
The entire presentation took 12 1/2 minutes, and the owners applauded Staubach at the end of the presentation.
Arizona gave the second presentation. After its bid, Mike Kennedy, chairman of the Arizona bid committee, had this to say: “Arizona is the best Super Bowl venue in the U.S., year-in and year-out. We are in the Super Bowl business.”
Indianapolis went last.
Now comes the owners' vote.
All the voting is done by secret ballot. If one venue gets 75 percent of the votes in the first round, then it gets the game.
If not, there is a second vote, and the venue with the lowest vote total is eliminated.
Then there is a third vote, with one venue needing 75 percent of the votes to win.
If neither venue gets 75 percent, then there is a straight majority vote to pick the site. Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels said he didn’t know what would happen if there was a tie in the fourth vote
11:30 a.m. -- Fred Glass, head of the Indianapolis bid committee, said they have raised more than $25 million in cash to host the Super Bowl.
"We feel great," he said, shortly before his committee was to take its turn with the owners. "We’re ready. We have a great program."
Super Bowl host committees are required to come up with funding for certain events and operational costs, estimated to be about $20 million to $30 million.
The North Texas committee has made no announcements about its fund-raising.
11:20 a.m. -- Roger Staubach emerged from the meeting room and said, "We feel real good about it."
"I was more nervous getting ready to go into this room than I was in the waiting room for the grandchild,'' said the Hall of Fame quarterback.
Staubach said the North Texas committee showed the owners a four-minute video presentation during its allotted 15 minutes.
"Our bid is excellent," he said. "It's not going to be about the bid falling short."
11:11 a.m. -- Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy walked into the meeting area with the Indianapolis contingent, wearing a beige suite and red tie with yellow triangles. He was accompanied by, among others, Fred Glass, president of the Indy bid committee; and Tony George, who runs the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Indy committee will go last.
11 a.m. -- Just before 11 a.m., members of the North Texas bid committee stood outside the door waiting to enter to make their pitch.
Roger Staubach, who wore a black suit, blue and white striped shirt and black tie with white polka dots, was among those waiting.
Also spotted was Rosie Moncrief, wife of Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief. A new NFL rule bans mayors and governors from attending the meeting, but Moncrief and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk were invited to join Staubach in Nashville. Two members of Jerry Jones’ family, his wife, Gene, and daughter Charlotte Anderson were there, as were Robert Dale Morgan, who worked on the successful Atlanta and Houston bids, and members of the Cowboys public relations staff.
Anderson is executive vice president of the Cowboys.
George Bayoud, president of Bayoud & Co., a real estate investment company, and lead lead negotiator in the Cowboys’ stadium deal was also in attendance.
Only five people from the bid committee were actually allowed to enter the room: They were Staubach, Moncrief, Anderson, Bayoud and Dan Petty, president and chief executive of the North Texas Commission.
Gene Jones and other members of the Cowboys staff also went inside.
10:15 a.m. -- It’s a rematch from the 1970s today at the NFL owners meeting.
Cowboys fans hope Tony Dungy won’t cause North Texas to fumble away the chance to host Super Bowl 2011.
Dungy, the Indianapolis Colts coach and former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back, will present part of his city’s bid, and Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach will pitch the Metroplex to the league ownership.
In Super Bowl XIII, Dungy forced a fumble as part of the Steelers' 35-31 win over the Staubach-led Cowboys.
At 11 a.m., bid committees from North Texas, Arizona and then Indianapolis will make their pitches.
Dungy, dressed casually Tuesday in brown slacks and a mock turtleneck, said he's proud to be involved in Indianapolis’ bid.
“I’m just talking from my heart about the city of Indianapolis and my experiences there,” Dungy said as he waited in the lobby of the Loews hotel in Nashville. “I think we’re going to have a great stadium. We’ve got a great owner and a great city. We’ve put on some big events, and I think we do a great job.”