NFL Strikes a Super Deal

The NFL and car dealers reached an agreement Wednesday to switch convention dates, meaning this season’s Super Bowl will be played Feb. 3 in New Orleans, a week later than originally scheduled.

Delaying the game became a necessity when the league postponed Week 2 games in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The league now has ample time for a full slate of wild-card games Jan 12-13. The divisional playoffs are scheduled for Jan. 19-20, and the conference championships Jan. 27.

“We deeply appreciate the willingness of Phil Brady and America’s new car dealers to work with us,” NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said, referring to the president of the National Automobile Dealers Assn.

To facilitate the swap, the league agreed to pay NADA $7.5 million and match as much as $500,000 in NADA donations to Sept. 11 relief efforts.

Had the league condensed the playoff field from 12 teams to eight, it would have owed TV networks as much as $80 million. So the swap with NADA came relatively cheap.

Still, considering NADA books its annual conventions 10 years in advance and now must rework more than 500 contracts on short notice, this was no small request.

“It’s monumental, extraordinary,” NADA spokesman David Hyatt said of the date switch. “But then, unfortunately, we’re all living through some difficult times requiring serious minds with can-do attitudes.”

If the NFL was unable to delay the game a week and keep it in New Orleans, the Rose Bowl was the No. 1 alternate site. Also under consideration were Miami, Tampa and Giant Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

One problem to be resolved is how New Orleans will cope with the later date, which puts the game into the first weekend of Mardi Gras. Sixteen parades are scheduled to roll through New Orleans streets on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the two days before the game and the day of the contest.

Last year, when the game was in Tampa, that city’s Gasparilla festival snarled traffic Saturday afternoon and evening.

Parade organizers met with members of the hotel industry, city leaders and police officials to discus logistical problems the Super Bowl would create.

Along with the parades, they need to work out arrangements for the carnival balls that accompany them, and for large blocks of rooms.

Police Superintendent Richard Pennington said his biggest concern would be two Sunday parades in New Orleans, and those can be rescheduled. Arthur Hardy, publisher of an annual Mardi Gras guide and an authority on the celebration, said there is some discussion of pushing all the parades back to the previous weekend.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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NFL Schedule Changes

JAN. 5-6 Final weekend of regular season. (Games originally scheduled for Sept. 16-17)

JAN. 12-13 Wild-card playoff round

JAN. 19-20 Divisional playoff round

JAN. 27 Conference championship games

FEB. 3 Super Bowl at New Orleans