NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The National Football League says it has considered contingency plans in case a serious storm slams the Tri-State area around Super Bowl time.
NFL senior VP of events Frank Supovitz said during a press conference Wednesday that the big game, scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium, could be moved up to Saturday or back to Monday — or even later if necessary.
Still, Supovitz would welcome a little winter weather.
“Let it snow,” he said, according to ESPN.
Just not too much.
“I think watching NFL football in the snow is really romantic,” Supovitz said. “It’s great, it’s exciting and if you’ve ever done it you know that. It’s also a right of passage for you as a fan to have done it at least once. And this is a Super Bowl right? So I think it’s going to be amazing. I think it would be better if it snowed a little bit during the game. I think it’ll just make it more memorable.”
The game in East Rutherford, N.J. will be the league’s first outdoor Super Bowl in a cold-weather city, CBS 2’s Otis Livingston reported.
Supovitz said on WFAN radio earlier this year that the NFL has alternate plans in place “for every game on any given Sunday.”
“The great likelihood is that we’re going to be kicking off the ball at 6:28 on Super Bowl Sunday,” he said June 11 on the “Boomer & Carton” show. “That’s what we’re focused on. But we also know that we have to have contingency plans.”
The Farmer’s Almanac predicts heavy rain, snow and strong winds for game day, Livingston reported.
On Wednesday, the NFL also detailed parts of its weather preparedness blueprint for Super Bowl XLVIII, which will include an army of snow plows and a piece of equipment capable of melting 600 tons of snow per hour.
MetLife Stadium CEO Brad Mayne said there will also be three industrial snow melters capable of liquefying 80 and 150 tons of snow per hour, as well as six plows with ice melt spreads, WCBS 880’s Levon Putney reported.