No, Philly, You’re Not Hosting a Super Bowl

Since this year’s Super Bowl will be played, domeless, in New Jersey, there’s speculation that cold-weather championships could be a regular part of the NFL’s future. Commissioner Roger Goodell doesn’t sound too (ahem) hot on that idea:

Though New Jersey is hosting a Super Bowl next month, Goodell said other cold-weather sites like Philadelphia and Buffalo shouldn’t get their hopes up.

“I think this is obviously innovative and it’s something new, but it’s also unique because it’s New York,” Goodell said in an interview with former Associated Press White House correspondent Ben Feller at the 92nd St. Y. “This is a stage, we have two teams here. Every city can’t host a Super Bowl just because of the sheer enormity of this event. And it’s not just a football game. We have a week full of events, we probably have well over 150,000 coming in to the New York region for this event.

“Will we look at other Super Bowls in cold-weather sites? I think we’ll wait and make that evaluation later.”

Let’s face it: This January, at least, would you rather spend a week in New Orleans (where the temperature, this arctic week, is still a relatively balmy 43 degrees as of this writing), San Diego (53 degrees), Miami (68 degrees!) or … Philadelphia (22 degrees)?  The Linc is great. It’s also for very, very dedicated fans.

Granted: This is an odd week. But wintertime isn’t really tourism time in Philly, is it? Andy Reid will probably coach in another Super Bowl before Philadelphia actually hosts one.