SUPER BOWL NOTES : Let It Snow, Let It Snow: Dome Is Ready

They have had 65 inches of snow here since October. And as recently as 24 hours ago in Minneapolis, it was 12 below zero.

But as the Super Bowl XXVI tourists began arriving Sunday, a week before the kickoff, the sun was out for a while, and the temperature had risen to 25.

“Isn’t it a nice day?” Minneapolis host committeemen and women remarked, greeting all visitors.

And nobody seriously disagreed. For, on Halloween eve, there was a 28-inch snowstorm here, and it could have happened again.

It could happen any time.

Regardless, the game will go on. It is to be played in the 72-degree Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, where the NFL’s two best teams, the Washington Redskins and Buffalo Bills, will meet Sunday.

Happily, the dome’s 10-acre plastic roof survived the Halloween blizzard, when the record snow, all 28 inches, fell in 24 hours.

Said Metrodome Executive Director William Lester: “We haven’t had a (roof) deflation since 1983.”

That’s comforting.

The snow that was piled up around the Metrodome in November has all been removed, as have the snow piles on the curbs and sidewalks for blocks around.

So if a blizzard hits late this week, Lester said, the new snow can be piled up easily, enabling the team buses to get through before the kickoff.

An army of snowplow drivers and other maintenance people is standing by to get the 65,000 ticket-holders to the game.

“We’re confident we can hold it in any kind of weather,” Lester said.

To make sure that stadium electricity is uninterrupted during a blizzard, the Northern States Power Co. has installed two substations with separate transmission lines. The Metrodome also has its own emergency generators.

The goal is to avoid a power failure for even an instant. Such a calamity would delay the game, Lester said, because the stadium’s high-intensity field lights must be cooled after even the briefest interruption. The cooling process takes 20 minutes.

The teams will work out for the last time in Buffalo and Washington this morning and fly to Minneapolis this afternoon. Under NFL rules, they are required to be at the Super Bowl scene on the Monday night the week of the game, and, therefore, available for questioning early Tuesday by an expected 1,500 members of the media.

Last year, the Bills went directly from the AFC championship game to the Super Bowl, which was played after the normal seven-day regular-season layoff instead of this year’s 14-day hiatus, which has been usual for the Super Bowl in most of its 26 seasons.

Marv Levy, the Buffalo coach, likes the present arrangement better than the one-week arrangement.

“It’s too tough to do this thing in seven days,” he said. “There are too many distractions. I know there will only be a one-week (layoff) before the Super Bowl next year in Los Angeles, but I much prefer two weeks.”

For Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs, this will be his fourth Super Bowl in 10 years.

What did he learn about game preparation at the first three?

“I learned that the coaches have to (finish) work on the game plan before you leave home--before you get to the (Super Bowl) madhouse,” he said.

“You don’t give the plan to the players until the week before the game. But you’ve got to have it in before you get to (Minneapolis).”

Ralph Cindrich, a Pittsburgh sports lawyer-agent, commissioned a survey of draft-eligible players who are considered prospects for the NFL lottery this spring.

Of 400 players surveyed, 100 replied. These were among the findings:

--98% want an agent who has represented players they know.

--80% consider NFL owners fair in negotiating compensation and benefits with new players.

--89% will count on agents to advise them on investment decisions.

--99% expect a career in pro sports.

--98% are leaving college well prepared, they say, for careers outside of sports.

--69% oppose the NFL’s proposed payroll cap-wage scale.

--82% favor mandatory AIDS testing.

--44% believe their take-home pay on $1 million would range from $950,000 to $750,000.

--76% weren’t aware that they would have to pay more than $300,000 in taxes on $1 million.

“(College football players) face unique problems,” Cindrich said. “Those problems need to be addressed by (somebody).”

Some of the things you might not know about Minneapolis:

--The city has 15 parks, an acre of parkland for each 43 residents.

--Within the city limits, there are no fewer than 22 lakes.

--The Lakers got there name because of all those lakes. The franchise was moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in the 1960s.

--There is more shoreline here than in California, Florida and Hawaii combined.

--Per capita personal income in Minneapolis is third-highest among U.S. cities.

--The average winter temperature is 27, which has yet to be reached this winter.

--Three Minneapolis pro teams (football, basketball and baseball) play their home games within a six-block area downtown. Only the hockey team is based in the suburbs.

--Minneapolis has more live theaters per capita than any U.S. city except New York City.

--The hotels are all sold out this week, but Minneapolis residents are offering ample bed-and-breakfast accommodations. Details: 612-297-6985.