their bids with NFL officials, answer questions and make adjustments April 10 in Philadelphia where the NFL will holds its three-day business summit meetings.
Then the big presentation is scheduled for May 22-23 at the NFL Spring Meetings in Nashville, Tenn., the individual committees' last chance to lobby the owners before they officially vote to award Super Bowl XLV on May 23.
Not until then will we know if a Super Bowl is coming to the new Cowboys stadium. Not until then will we know if North Texas will play host to a non-partisan championship event since the NCAA Final Four was held in Reunion Arena in 1986. Oh there's been an NBA Finals in Dallas, as well as two Stanley Cup Finals in Dallas and MLB playoffs in Arlington. There's been NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball all-star games here, as well as annual NASCAR races and PGA golf stops. And of course, NFL playoff games at Texas Stadium.
But really, nothing the magnitude of a Super Bowl, which Green says demands "massive requirements" to be met to even bid for the event. Take for example hotel rooms. The North Texas committee already has agreements with area hotels for 21,000 rooms during that Super Bowl week. It has contracts with area golf courses to hold some mandatory golf tournaments. Sites have been found for indoor and outdoors rehearsals for the Super Bowl halftime show. Because of the recalcitrant North Texas weather that time of year, indoor practice facilities must be provided for the participating teams, and at this point one will be the Cowboys' tension structure out here at The Ranch while the second likely will be held at either of the future indoor facilities expected to be build of the campuses of SMU and TCU.
The NFL also requires 850,000 square feet for the NFL Experience, and because of the iffy weather the first week in February in these parts, that event must be held indoors. The Dallas Convention Center would be the only facility big enough to accommodate that event.
And while the NFL will choose from a list of potential area hotels to house the competing teams, NFL officials, media and the Media Center - hub of Super Bowl week activity - Green also pointed out the North Texas committee had to contract with a bowling alley to play host to an annual Super Bowl week bowling tournament, if you can believe that.
Also, the committee has been working on anti-gouging resolutions from the neighboring cities, making sure hotels restaurants, taxi cab and limo companies don't try to take advantage of the influx of visitors.
(That is a nice touch since several restaurants in downtown Jacksonville, Fla., for Super Bowl XXXIX actually charged diners a "seating fee" on top of the meal and tip, and meal prices were hiked from what was advertised on Internet site menus.)
As Green points out, Super Bowls generally attract 200,000 visitors for the week of activities, while maybe only 80,000 get to go to the games. But if awarded this game, that figure likely will swell closer to 100,000 in the Cowboys' expandable-seating facility.
The good thing going for North Texas, now that the city of Dallas finally threw its hat in the ring to support the Super Bowl bid, is the regional effort taking place. Six area cities have passed resolutions to waive governmental fees to better take part in the effort - Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, Irving, Grand Prairie and Grapevine - along with participation from Dallas and Tarrant Counties.
So as you can see, this is not the Cowboys' Super Bowl, nor is it the City of Arlington's, even though the game will be played in what is turning into the entertainment capital sandwiched between Dallas and Fort Worth. The bid committee's North Texas name seems appropriate.
In fact, what North Texas is trying to pull off is exactly what South Florida has been since the Dolphins moved out of the Orange Bowl into their new stadium north of Miami and just south of Fort Lauderdale: A regional effort, and in South Florida's case, a 35-mile spread between Fort Lauderdale to the north and Miami Beach to the south.
Green says just turn that sideways, and you have the same situation here in North Texas, stretching between Dallas to the east and Fort Worth to the west, with the stadium and DFW
