Super Bowl Date Change a Real Possibility Should Bad Weather Hit the Area, League Officials Say
With the Super Bowl just over a week away league officials have been forced to consider the possibly of changing the date of the big game should poor weather persist.
Eric Grubman, the NFL's vice president of business operations, addressed concerns that the league would have to change the date of the game if bad weather hits the area and insisted that public safety would be a main factor in making that decision.
"What goes into whether deciding to (move) it, first of all, is public safety," Grubman told reporters outside MetLife Satium on Wednesday. "Unless it was a state of emergency which affected public resources in a way that made it impossible to get the resources here, or any kind of declaration by any of the authorities from the states involved that made it difficult to travel safety to and from the stadium, we would absolutely respect that."
Officials said that if snow falls on Super Bowl Sunday the big game could be played Friday, Saturday or Monday.
"Our aim is to play it at 6:30 p.m. [Sunday] and we are going to have every possible resources in place to do that along as conditions are safe," he added. "But if not, we have contingent plans with a lot of options available to us."
The NFL has contingency plans in case the Super Bowl is affected by bad weather and one of the leading options proposed has been to reschedule the championship game.
Still Officials stated that they are prepared to handle some snow given that there are 821 trucks and 60,000 tons of salt at the ready, but a major weather system could prove too much for crews preparing for the big game.
Still, whether forecasts will be watched closely as the event draws near with several different options being discussed. Current estimates stated that roughly half a million people will come visit the region the week of the Super Bowl with 80,000 fans expected at MetLife Stadium on Feb. 2.
