The NFL announced today at the owner's meetings in Atlanta that Indianapolis will be the site of the super Bowl XLVI. Their new $650 million stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium, will be opening in the coming season. It will tough to have any outdoor parties in Indy in February.
Another interesting thing being discussed at the meetings in the possiblity of increasing the regular season to 17 games and eliminating a preseason game. This sounds like a great idea to me. There is no reason to play 4 preseason games and another regular season game would increse the revenues. That would hopefully be a Kleenex for the owner's tears and help avoid a strike.
Here is what Roger Goodell had to say about the proposal:
"It would create new revenue," Goodell said. "Our thought process was we might reduce preseason by a game in return for that. Actually, the players would still play the same number of games. It could give us an opportunity to play a higher quality of football."
NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw said the players will be for it if they get paid for a 17th game:
"No, it's great to have more revenue," Upshaw said. "Any discussion we've had with them about playing another game, they've always said, they would like to do it, but they don't want to pay for it. They say, 'Why should you be concerned, you get 60 percent?' But we also get paid on games played.
"We're not going to agree to play an extra game and not get paid for it. That's what they want us to do," he said. "That discussion is going to be very short."