Whitlock: New field could make us Super...

[DaWolf]

New field could make us Super

JASON WHITLOCK

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — We could be host to a Super Bowl. We really could.

If there's one thing I learned while suffering through a Super Bowl week in Jacksonville, it's that Kansas City has enough to entice NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue to bring sports' biggest showcase to our town.

All we need is a new stadium with a retractable roof and a few more hotels. We already have everything else, including the people with the necessary clout to broker such a deal.

Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver pretty much put the deal together that brought Super Bowl XXXIX to Jacksonville. Wayne Weaver is no Lamar Hunt.

If the Hunt family told Tagliabue that the promise of a Super Bowl would make it easier for Kansas Citians to build the Chiefs a new football palace, the commish would guarantee us a Super Bowl within the next 15 years. During his state-of-the-league address on Friday, Tagliabue mentioned Kansas City as a smaller market city that could play host to a future Super Bowl.

He obviously doesn't think Arrowhead Stadium could handle the game. Tagliabue has a great deal of respect for Kansas City as an important NFL market. The league is well-aware of KC's season-ticket base and football passion. It's important to the league that the NFL remains strong in Kansas City.

Tagliabue doesn't want to see an ugly, drawn-out fight for a new football stadium here. No one associated with the NFL wants to make any threats about the Chiefs possibly moving to Los Angeles. If a Super Bowl would make building a $500 million stadium easier on KC taxpayers, then I'm sure Tagliabue would be willing to do whatever he could to make it happen.

And with a little help from the Hunt family, Kansas City could get a small trinket of appreciation — a Super Bowl — from the league for building a new stadium.

Given Hunt's history and ties to the NFL, given the fact that he came up with the name “Super Bowl,” if Lamar Hunt asked the league to play a Super Bowl in his favorite NFL city, the league would bend over backward to do so. Super Bowl week in KC could be a celebration of Hunt's football legacy.

The reality is the league owes the Hunt family a Super Bowl. Wayne Weaver can get a Super Bowl, but Lamar Hunt can't? I don't think so. There's a reason the AFC championship trophy is named after Lamar Hunt. He's one of the 20 most influential and important people in the history of the league.

After Bistate II failed, it became obvious that we are going to be asked to build the Chiefs a new stadium. You can whine about the unfairness of it all. You can complain that the billionaire owners should finance their own playpens. And there's no question that the Hunts should ante up, but the reality is that KC taxpayers will have to finance a significant portion of a new stadium.

So let's get something a little extra out of it. Let's get a Super Bowl.

We can do it. Besides Florida weather, Jacksonville doesn't have one thing on Kansas City. And for much of Super Bowl week, the weather in Kansas City was actually better than the cold, rainy weather in Jacksonville.

Jacksonville had to have cruise ships dock near downtown just so it would have enough hotel accommodations for the week. Major, nighttime parties were held underneath tents in parks. Hooters was a destination spot. Out behind the media hotel, The Adams Mark, it looked as if Jacksonville was holding a weeklong county fair. Jacksonville is small time.

Right now, with The Plaza, River Market, Westport, 18th and Vine, the casinos and Gates Bar-B-Q, we have far more to offer than Jacksonville. By the time we add a new downtown arena and KC Live district, we'll feel like Las Vegas compared with Jacksonville.

And you know what? People still had a good time in Jacksonville. The celebrities still showed up and held parties. Snoop Dogg, John Travolta, Will Smith and all the other beautiful people attended the game. They'll all head up to icy and crime-ridden Detroit next year.

The location isn't all that important for a Super Bowl, particularly if the game isn't being played in New Orleans or San Diego. All we really need is a new stadium and for Lamar Hunt to request the game.