Recap: Arizona Wins Right To Host 2008 Super Bowl - kidsnewsroom.org

This is a recap just to have it in the blog record and for review ...

Arizona, and a stadium not due to be completed until 2006, have been awarded the right to host the 2008 Super Bowl, beating out rival bids by Tampa Bay and Washington, DC. With 24 of the 32 team owners voting for Arizona, the locale won the bid on the first ballot.

This past week, Sun Devil Stadium, current home of the Arizona Cardinals, pulled-out the red carpet and hosted a Monday Night Football game which paired the Miami Dolphins against the San Diego Chargers. The game, moved from San Diego due to the wildfires still ravaging the area, went off with only minor difficulties, the largest of which was ticket distribution. In order to fill the 65,000-seat stadium, the Cardinals, with approval of the NFL, opened the stadium to any and all, free of charge. Asking only for small donations at the door, to benefit fire relief, the effort raised over $500,000. Needless to say, such last-moment, selfless planning by the Cardinals did much to cement their new stadium as the appropriate choice for the 2008 Super Bowl. Nevertheless, it should be noted that a Super Bowl has never been hosted at a cold-weather stadium without a roof; hence, our nation's capital has never seen a Super Bowl match-up first hand.

Paul Tagliabue, in response to the rumors that the Monday Night game was the sole reason why Arizona won the Super Bowl bid, addressed the press: "It certainly didn't hurt, but the fundamentals here are much more important. Rome was not built in a day, and this Super Bowl was not built on Monday night."

The Cardinals new stadium, being built just outside of Phoenix, is slated to have some of the most high-tech features for a football venue. A retractable roof, among the most highly touted.