S. Fla. Super Bowl Committee Unveils Bid Details
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – South Florida's Super Bowl Committee finally tipped their hand Thursday showing their bid to bring Super Bowl L (50) or LI (51) to Miami. Committee chairman Rodney Barreto ran through a powerpoint slide show inside the Miami Dolphins interview room.
"You would actually zip-line across the water, across the marina," he said as he pointed to a transparent football like zip-line that stretches across the Bayside Marina. T
he next slide showed an aircraft carrier parked next to the American Airlines Arena. They'll plan to honor the Navy while hosting football games on the air deck. The 18 blocks of Super Bowl Park, almost two miles of Downtown Miami shoreline, packs a lot of wow factor.
Slideshow: See Renderings Super Bowl Committee Events
There will be a train dropping guests off in the middle of it. Barges would be brought in to create more land.
"Floating clubs." Barreto said.
Then he had a bit of subliminal gaff.
"We were going to bring in barges," said Barreto.
Nicki Grossman with Broward tourism corrected him.
"We are!" said Grossman.
Barreto quickly repeated.
"We are!" Barreto corrected himself.
Throughout the presentation Barreto continued with the past tense.
"This would have been the main entry." he said.
Grossman interjected again, "Not would be. Will be."
Tourism folks had to keep reminding him he hadn't lost the bid. After the presentation Barreto admitted he's up against a lot.
"We are working on a Hail Mary and I'm hoping that the Hail Mary will come through," said Barreto.
While the bid is like nothing Miami or the NFL has ever seen, doubts on Miami's chances surfaced last week after losing a campaign in the Florida Legislature to publicly finance a stadium renovation.
The partial roof and new seats would have put Sun Life Stadium on equal footing with Santa Clara (San Francisco) - who's pitching a brand new stadium for the big game.
Dolphins CEO Mike Dee referred to it as the elephant in the room. He said they are trying to move forward.
"It's kinda of a coaching metaphor," said Dee. "You've gotta play with the guys in uniform. We've got to go to Boston with the stadium that we have and do the best we can. And compete against two very hungry communities with newer facilities."
Tourism officials were the most optimistic. Grossman, whose county won't see a single sanctioned NFL event appeared to be on the committees biggest cheerleaders. She explained they understood the stadium renovation plans relied heavily on a Miami-centric plan. She tried to rally the audience saying "Broward County says bring it on!"
Bill Talbert, head of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau sported sunglasses throughout the conference. The sunglasses are Talbert's trademark, "It's always sunny in Miami", statement.
"We've submitted the best bid that we can in every aspect that will give South Florida the best chance of prevailing." Talbert said.
Still it won't be up tourism folks to pitch. Rather it's Barreto and a few more surprises he plans to unveil in Boston.
He remains hopeful.
"I think we pushed the bar way up there and I think someone is going to have to take a pause before they just vote against us." Barreto said.
All the extravagant details are now in the hands of NFL owners. The 32 owners will meet in Boston May 21st to decide who gets the Super Bowl.
