Pasadena Has a Super Chance

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Sunday he is “a little less optimistic” the league can swap dates with a car dealers’ convention and keep this season’s Super Bowl in New Orleans.

That further opens the door for Pasadena to host the game, as the Rose Bowl has emerged as the No. 1 alternative site.

Tagliabue, attending the Giant-Saint game at the Meadowlands, said he plans to make a trip to New Orleans this week to continue talks with the National Automobile Dealers Assn., which has its convention there the week of Feb. 3, the date the league wants to play the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl is now scheduled for Jan. 27, but delaying it a week would allow for a full slate of playoff games. The notion of squeezing the wild-card games into a tighter time schedule, as proposed by Denver Coach Mike Shanahan, is still a possibility but seems to be losing steam.

Manipulating the schedule has become a necessity after the league postponed its Week 2 games because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those games will be played the weekend of Jan. 5-6, which had been reserved for wild-card games.

Although the league is willing to compensate NADA to help cover the cost of changing dates--an inconvenience that could cost $10 million or more--it might not be enough to avoid a logistical quagmire.

Interestingly, the NADA takes pains each year to schedule its convention so as not to conflict with the Super Bowl, because so many of its members either watch or attend the game. In fact, three NFL owners are car dealers--Miami’s Wayne Huizenga, New Orleans’ Tom Benson and Minnesota’s Red McCombs--and Detroit’s William Clay Ford is a descendent of Henry Ford.

Of course, those connections have no bearing on whether an incredibly complex situation can be resolved.

“The discussions I had this week showed that, from the standpoint of the dealers and their convention, it’s a complicated thing to change dates,” Tagliabue said. “And it’s a complicated thing to expect 30,000 to 50,000 people to be able to readjust their calendars and just all of a sudden be able to do things on a new set of dates.”

It’s unclear how far the NFL will go to keep the game in New Orleans. The Super Bowl pumps an estimated $310 million into a local economy, and there are rumblings of class-action lawsuits by businesses in New Orleans in danger of losing money if the event is moved. Some people familiar with the negotiations are questioning whether the league actually plans to uproot the game, or merely wants to apply maximum pressure on NADA to make things work.

The Rose Bowl, which has hosted five Super Bowls, has risen to the top of the contingency plans for several reasons. Miami and Tampa also are being considered. The league’s most pressing concern in picking a site is ensuring security, Tagliabue said.

“Everyone says [the Rose Bowl is] ready,” he said. “We’re talking about a lot of logistics in a time of a national emergency with security considerations that are paramount. So I can’t say anyone is ready. We’re working with a lot of different people on a lot of different contingencies.”

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York has proposed bringing the Super Bowl to Giants Stadium as a way to boost morale in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Tagliabue didn’t dismiss the suggestion.

“The priority is rebuilding the hope of the people of this city--which I think is a resilient group of people, who are coming back real strong,” he said. “But also the other priority that the government has in this area right now would make it complicated.” Although Tagliabue has set an Oct. 15 deadline to make a decision, all indications are he won’t wait that long. His verdict could come early this week.