In the other football news last Tuesday, the NFL awarded the 2018 Super Bowl to Minnesota. Apparently the stiffest competition came from Indianapolis, which meant that the owner who got four felony charges knocked down to two misdemeanors got beat out by the one who's already had a judge call him a racketeer.
It was kind of inevitable, really. This year's Super Bowl in New York was kind of a flop by NFL standards (never mind the weather, where they dodged a bullet) for the simple reason that nothing in New York is ever bigger than New York. The NFL doesn't like it when it's not the biggest dog in the room, and that's never going to happen in NYC. So it only made sense that they were going to go someplace where the Big Game would be The Big Deal.
Cities like that are generally more willing to go along with the ridiculous demands the NFL makes in exchange for hosting, like, say, tax dispensations and freebies out the yin-yang.
Of course, Super Bowl selection is a big deal these days. It's a big mark of pride, even if the financial impact never seems to quite measure up to what was promised, and the expenses of adding Super Bowl-specific infrastructure always seem to run a little high. And surely, more public expenditure on sports is exactly what Minnesota needs after the disaster that was the financing of the Vikings' stadium.
But hey, in four years they get the game, and the parties, and all the cameras in the world. Which is all that's important, right? Right.
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