Roger Goodell is a Lousy Houseguest

Yesterday at a luncheon in Miami aimed at promoting the Superbowl, Roger Goodell had some comments for the Miami Dolphins and owner Stephen Ross about Landshark Dolphin Stadium.

"“They’ve done a great job hosting Super Bowls here in the past,” Goodell said. “The key thing is to make sure the stadium is state of the art and that it can compete with the stadiums in some of these other communities. They are moving to another level in some of these stadiums.”"

So pretty much we invited Roger Goodell into our home so he could tell us, via an underhanded compliment, how much nicer the neighbor’s place was and that if we wanted him to keep coming over we needed to do more with our house. That’s just bad manners.  All kidding aside though, I understand the business aspect of football and that the people who can actually afford Superbowl seats like only the most cutting edge of amenities. Great. Unfortunately though this puts Stephen Ross and the Dolphins in a position where now there’s almost an obligation for them to spend a bunch more money to renovate the stadium. Keep in mind the team just finished a 250 million dollar renovation a couple years ago.

"“We’re looking at different ideas,” Ross said. “We’re still in the planning stage, and it’s premature to talk about dollars. We know it’s hard to put up dollars in South Florida in this economy. We’re trying to keep it as low as possible and work with the league. We’ve got to show a package. That’s what we’re looking to do — put together a package.”"

This is where I wish Ross, or someone from the city of Miami or, even Governor Charlie Crist since he recently offered a solution to Jacksonville’s attendance problems, would call the league out on its BS. Miami is hands down one of the premiere Superbowl destinations for one very significant reason that has absolutely nothing to do with stadium amenities. February is probably the coldest month in the whole year and Miami is usually warm (by the rest of the country’s standards) around that time of year. It also happens to also yield beaches and a great night life. Miami has a culture that is one of a kind. If all the city of Miami was willing to offer was a decrepit old Orange Bowl (RIP) the Superbowl would STILL sell out.

Dolphins Stadium (it will revert back to Dolphin Stadium before the Pro Bowl and Superbowl because of an Anheuser-Busch contract with the NFL that supersedes it) should be renovated when the time is right and the ownership is ready to. Not when Roger Goodell says. I think the man has done a lot of good things for the league, but to say Miami must continue to dump money into its stadium if it wants to continue hosting Superbowls, especially when its clear it’s still a highly popular destination for the Superbowl, may be overstepping his bounds. With the amount of revenue that a Superbowl generates for a city I’m sure it’s arguable that it’s almost akin to blackmail. I won’t go that far but I will say it seems like he’s leveraging the profitability of hosting a Superbowl in order to try to strong arm the Dolphins into spending more on their stadium.