Our man in Miami reports that South Florida Super Bowl organizers did a little trash-talking about North Texas leaders at a press conference on Monday.
Rodney Barreto, who is heading up the Super Bowl XLIV Host Committee, said that eight months ago he got a call from Arlington’s mayor, who told him the North Texas host committee was in “a bit of disarray” because there was too much turf warfare going on among competing government entities. Barreto said he advised Cluck to “get all the politicians off the committee, and let the [convention and visitors bureau] handle it.”
At that, Nicki Grossman, of the Fort Lauderdale CVB, chimed in:Â “If North Texas is consumed by bureaucrats and small-minded thinking, they’ll never get another Super Bowl.”
I just got off the phone with Robert Cluck, the mayor of Arlington. I asked about what he said to Barreto. He responded, “I didn’t make that call. I’ve never heard of him.”
Cluck was willing to grant that there were some difficulties early in the process of bringing together the dozens of municipalities that will help the region to host Super Bowl XLV next year.
“I think it’s more historical than anything. There has been a lot of competition, and competition is good, except when you have a big event like this one–you don’t want to compete with each other. You want to compete with other regions. I think we understood that early on, and again, there was no open warfare,” Cluck said.
And he never spoke with anyone in South Florida about struggling for regional cooperation.
After the press conference, Barreto and Grossman both indicated that they consider Arlington’s $1 billion palace to be the biggest threat among competitors for future Super Bowls. North Texas leaders have made no secret of the fact that they hope to join the rotation of cities that regularly host the game. Some Miami leaders are already using the possibility of losing out to Cowboys Stadium to try to convince the public to finance renovations to Dolphins Stadium.
Sunday’s game will mark the 10th time the Miami area has hosted the Super Bowl. (That’s the most for any region, though New Orleans will equal the mark when it hosts in 2013). Will Arlington get its second before South Florida claims No. 11?
