sports super bowl comes to jersey 82 The QUEE NS Courier • january 31, 2013 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com s but city will score big BY TERENCE M. CULLEN [email protected] Are you ready for some football? New York is. On Thursday, January 24, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans for Super Bowl XLVIII — slated for February 2, 2014 at MetLife Stadium — including a slew of festivities in the week leading up to the big game. Though the game will be played in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Big Apple is expected to see a boost in tourism from the thousands of fans and media that come for the football championship. Broadway will be renamed “Super Bowl Boulevard” for the festivities, as many of the week-long celebrations will be hosted in Manhattan. The epicenter for the celebrations will include nightly concerts, the Vince Lombardi Trophy display and, among other things, past and present football greats. “New York City is already the nation’s Super Bowl champion of tourism destination and next year around this time hundreds of thousands of fans from across the country and around the globe will converge on our region to see the NFL’s best,” said Bloomberg at a press conference, flanked by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “All these activities are going to show our city’s best face to people from around the world and will make being in New York for the Super Bowl truly memorable.” Bloomberg has promised next year’s match up will be a hometown rivalry between the stadium’s two tenants: the New York Giants and the New York Jets. Both teams, however, failed to make the playoffs this season. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, announced plans for festivities attached to Super Bowl XLVIII, which is set for February 2, 2014. (Below) New York Jets owner Woody Johnson spoke to the attention New York City will get. This will be the first twostate hosted Super Bowl, in which the stadium is home to two teams. In a nearly 50-year history, this will be the first game in the northeast and an open-air arena in the cold weather. “For the New York/New Jersey Super Bowl, we’ve embraced the opportunity to create plans that are as big, bold and unique as New York City and the surrounding region itself,” Goodell said. While MetLife can hold about 80,000 fans, Goodell said the league is partnering with both states to create events, specifically in Manhattan, for the hundreds of thousands pouring into the area for the big game. “As we begin our one year countdown to game time, we look forward to Super Bowl Week, which will kick off the energy, excitement, and economic value associated with the big event,” said Al Kelly, president and CEO of the Super Bowl XLVIII Host Committee. Queens is already gearing up for the festivities, as several hotels have already gotten phone calls to reserve rooms nearly a year in advance, said Rob MacKay, who oversees the Queens Tourism Council. “Of course, the Super Bowl will be played in New Jersey, but it’s going to be great for Queens,” MacKay said. “Already, tourists are booking hotel rooms in the borough, probably because we offer reasonable prices with all the luxuries of Manhattan hotels. Plus, we are about to start putting together travel packages with restaurants and cultural venues so visitors can enjoy Queens to the fullest. Also, I Photos by Spencer T. Tucker/Flickr can’t wait to show off the borough to journalists. Football will be very good to Queens.” Super Bowl XLVIII A touchdown for tourism
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