Tweet

Super Bowl Then and Now - Super Bowl XLV

Guest post by: Linda Burson

Article Overview: Because Super Bowl XLV has a special significance for the people living North Texas. Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, has orchestrated the building of the new Cowboys Stadium and played a major part in bringing Super Bowl XLV to Dallas/Fort Worth on February 6, 2011. This article appears in the February 2011 issue of Mazon Associates' Building Bridges newsletter for our clients and others.

Super Bowl Then and Now - Super Bowl XLV

Professional football as we know it began in 1920 with the 14-league American Professional Football Association (APFA), which became the National Football League (NFL) in 1922. The NFL had no serious competition until 1960 when the American Football League (AFL) became a major power. Following years of bitter rivalry for players and fans, the two organizations were forced to broker a gradual merger deal to avoid financial ruin, and by 1970 theymerged into a single football league of 28 teams and took the name of the National Football League, The new NFL was comprisedthe National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC), each with 14 teams. The first Super Bowl started as a way for the champions of the twofootball conferencesto determine who was really the"Number One" champion. The game took place on January 15, 1967 (concluding the 1966 football season) at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Nearly 62,000 fans were in the stadium to witness the Green Bay Packers topple the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. Millions more watched the new bowl game on TV, and thus a new football tradition was born.

Originally, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle wanted to call the game, "The Big One." During the discussions to iron out the details, Lamar Hunt, one of the AFL's founders, had jokingly referred to the proposed inter-league championship as the "Super Bowl," after watching his kids play with a Super Ball, a toy manufactured by Wham-O. Hunt only meant for his suggestion to be temporary until a better one could be found; nevertheless, the name became permanent. The small, round ball is currently on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Today, the day on which the Super Bowl is played is considered a de facto American national holiday called "Super Bowl Sunday." The date for the game was gradually moved from the second Sunday in January to the first Sunday in February to accommodate the 1978 expansion from 28 teams to 32 teams, the expansion of the pre-Super Bowl Playoff field from 8 to 12 teams, necessitating the addition of a third round of playoffs, the addition of the regular season bye-week in the 1990s, and the decision to start the regular season the week following Labor Day. Super Bowl Sunday is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day, and in most years it is the most-watched American television broadcast, drawing an average audience of 106.5 million worldwide viewers in 2010. The winning team receives the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named after the coach of the Green Bay Packers, who won the first two Super Bowl games and three of the five preceding NFL championships (1961, 1962 and 1965). The trophy was named following his death in September 1970.

Super Bowl XLV will be the 45^th annual championship game of the modern-era, culminating the winner of the 2010 football season, and will be played on February 6^th at the new state-of-the art Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It is estimated that 250,000 avid football fans will be in attendance (both inside and outside of the stadium) to cheer on thePittsburg Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. These teams have never played each other inthe Super Bowl.

The Cowboys Stadium covers a total of 73 acres (the stadium site overall encompasses 140 acres), and officially opened as a sports and entertainment venue on June 6, 2009. The 3 million-square-foot stadium has an approximate capacity of up to 100,000 fans and, as the largest NFL venue ever built. The stadium boasts the most spectacular column-free room in the world, stretching a quarter-mile in length. Designed to be open or closed in only 12 minutes (depending on weather conditions), the expansive retractable roof, supported by two monumental arches, soars 292 feet above the playing field andmeasures approximately 660,800 square feet --the largest of its kind in the world! When closed, the roof and structure, consisting of 14,400 tons of structural steel (equivalent to the weight of 92 Boeing 777s) encompasses 104 million cubic feet of volume, making it the largest enclosed NFL stadium in the world. The stadium alsofeatures the largest retractable end zone doors in the world. Each has a five-leaf, clear, retractable opening measuring 120 feet high by 180 feet wide. The five 38-foot panels take only 18 minutes to open or close. The center-hung four-sided LED video board is the world's largest at 72 feet high by 160 feet wide, equaling 11,520 square feet per side or 23,040 square feet of sideline displays --it would take 4,920 52-inch flat panel TVs to equal the size!

The selection of the Cowboys stadium as the venue for Super Bowl 2011 was made in the year 2007. Arlington fought competition in the form of bids from Glendale, California and Indianapolis, Indiana. The location was revealed to the public by the owners of the NFL onMay 22,2007. For the nine-month periodof June 15, 2010 untilFebruary 6, 2011, a 30-mile section of highway along which Cowboys Stadium is located has been renamed the Tom Landry Super Bowl Highway in honor of the Dallas Cowboys' coach Tom Landry (1924-2000). It is estimated that Super Bowl XLV will bring an expected 150,000 to 200,000 visitors to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. An estimated 62 percent of these people will be CEOs or the companies' key decision-makers. About 4,500 visitors will be credentialed members of the media. Tens of millions more will watch the game on television, where the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex will be on display. Some of these visitors/viewers may decide to relocate or open operations here as a result, creating new jobs and opportunities for North Texans.

Related Articles
  Time for Apple to release a 25th anniversary Mac
  Assumptions Anyone?
  What the Super Bowl Teaches Us About Successful Branding
  What Does Your Gut Say?
  Super Bowl Ads Super Marketing or Super Waste of $
  The New Standard for Superbowl Ads
  What a Little Boy's Clarity of Purpose Teaches Us About Success
  The Cost of Creativity
  Teamwork
  How to create better marketing than the world's largest companies
  How to create marketing that is better than Fortune 1000 companies
  Great Sales Management Advice from Football's Greatest
  Don't Just Think PR, Do PR
  In Business, You're Either A Necessary Evil Or You're Not Necessary At All
  Beware the salary sacrifice trap
  Employer's obligations to pay superannuation in Australia
  How to Discover the Champion in You and Achieve Your Goals
  Leadership Development: There’s a Cow In My Cereal
  Voice and EMail Caffeine Your Electronic Tool to Originality
  Five Personal Branding Lessons from the Grammy Awards

Article Tags: building bridges, dallas cowboys, jerry jones, mazon, new cowboys stadium, super bowl, super bowl xlv



Related Forum Posts
Victoria's Secret - Too Sexy? - This will be upsetting for some men. I just heard a report about Victoria's Secret and it was interesting. Their sales were down drastically in the 4th quarter of 2007 and the report was about how they are thinking the company has gotten too far away from the heritage that made it the blockbuster company it is. They are thinking the ads etc have become too sexy and the plan (at the moment) is to make the ads more sophisticated. That would be like the Super Bowl commercial which was very tasteful, but very different from any Victoria's Secret I've seen lately. Who do you all think the current sexy ads are targeting? I think its the men that they hope will buy these items for their female significant others. I hate to give Omarosa any kudos - but most women aren't "sold" on an item by an ad of a near naked sexy woman. Shri
Re: Super Mario Dethroned - You people are crazy. Super Mario will NEVER be dethroned! Vive la Mario & Luigi! I'm sorry, but remembering those days playing Super Maria for Nintendo and wondering when I would finally hit the last level and be able to beat the evil dragon for my perfect princess will never die. Wii is fantastic, but I'd still prefer the rights to Mario - if even for sentimental value.
Video Resources - Awesome resources - thank you Andy. I've been working on the book trailer creation and promotion chapters in my next promo book and this info is wonderful. There will be a couple more links to resources included in the book. Can you tell us some more about the Super program? I'd have to run it on my desktop after looking at the system requirements. It looks like it will do all sorts of things. Shri
Re: How To Be Rich - [quote="TheRainmaker":tst8wsa8]Sounds great. What exactly have you found to be eye opening??[/quote:tst8wsa8] The first eye opener was measuring wealth by your total assets 1 Million - 2 Million Pounds The Comfortable Poor 2 Million - 5 Million Pounds The Comfortably Off 5 Million - 15 Million Pounds The Comfortably wealthy 15 Million - 40 Million Pounds The Lesser Rich 40 Million - 75 Million Pounds The Comfortably Rich 75 Million - 100 Million Pounds The Rich 100 Million - 200 Million Pounds The Seriously Rich 200 Million - 400 Million Pounds The Truly Rich 400 Million - 999 Million Pounds The Filthy Rich Over 999 Million Pounds The Super Rich
Possibilities abound! - Hey All, Ok, I am now in a position to see something profound. I've been involved in the automotive field as a hobbyist for years. My first car as a 1974 Dodge Charger SE. 318, dual exchause, 340 cam, black with black leather interior (yes, it was 10 deg hotter INSIDE that outside during the summer...). Moved onto a 1972 Dodge Dart. 4 door, slant six motor (upgraded to a Super Six), manual drum brake, manual steering, V8 Leaf springs, Rallye Rims. Then onto a 1987 Plymouth Caravelle. 2.2 Turbo, 14psi (approx 180HP), painted like a Viper GTS (Blue with two white stripes), in fact, I called it a Caravelle GTS. The car was fun and taught me lots about 'modern' engines and turbos. I've recently met someone who make a performance intake valve (the part that lets the gas/air mixture into the engine) and I am seriously impressed with the product. I am working a deal to get a set installed on a vehicle to have some hard data for results. He wants me to be a distributor for him after we spoke on the phone for an hour about cars and life. Seriously considering it. I also then spoke with another company that makes performance parts for turbo cars (allowed my Caravelle to go from 145HP to 180HP) to talk about being a channel for his valves. He is interested and also having some problems. These are 'good' problems for an entrepreneur to have though. See, his company started as a hobby and is now taking up a lot of his casual time (he has a day job). He doesn't want to take it to a full-time job as he simply wants to enjoy the sport. He is considering selling it. Now, to add into this mix a 3rd company that both of the above ones do business with and compliment each other very nicely. This 3rd company is 'bigger' than both as they are more of a retailer with more products (main stream with all three is turbo-related with a heavy slant towards Dodge vehicles). When I sat there looking at all 3 sites in Firefox (loved tabbed browsing!) I got this giddy and excited feeling that there is a Severe opportunity to make one large combined company all marketed under one brand. I can see it, I can feel it, I can freaking smell it. I have no way to execute it. So, my question to the community is where to start? I have always been a car enthusiast, in fact, much longer than I've played with computers. To me, this is an awesome chance to bring another passion of mine to life and help everyone in the hobby field at the same time! I am at the mercy of my peers for direction.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Why Use an Advertising Agency

How to Improve Your Time Management

Steps For Starting A Small Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.