NJ announces sites for 2014 Super Bowl events
New Jersey, NFL announce locations for several 2014 Super Bowl events
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Both teams that reach next year's Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium will stay at hotels in New Jersey and train at the New York Giants' and New York Jets' practice facilities, Gov. Chris Christie and the NFL announced Thursday.
Other venues announced Thursday included Newark's Prudential Center, which will host Super Bowl media day, and the Meadowlands Racetrack, which will host the NFL's pre-game tailgate party.
Super Bowl XLVII will be held next Feb. 2, the first time the NFL's championship game will be played outdoors at a cold-weather site.
Media day, scheduled for Jan. 28, will be held away from the game site for the first time in the Super Bowl's history, the league said. The Prudential Center, home to the NHL's New Jersey Devils, is about 12 miles from MetLife Stadium.
The NFC team will train at the Timex Performance Center, the Giants' training facility on the MetLife Stadium grounds. The AFC team will train at the Jets' practice facility in Florham Park, about 15 miles away.
"Hosting the big game on February 2 and its many celebratory lead-up events during Super Bowl Week is a major win for the state, its tourism and economic developments," Christie said in a statement.
The NFL's pregame party will be held adjacent to MetLife Stadium inside the grandstand at the Meadowlands Racetrack, where the state hopes to offer legal gambling on the game. Christie signed a sports betting bill into law last year, but the four major pro leagues and the NCAA sued to stop it. The issue is scheduled to be argued in front of a federal judge next month in Trenton.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has joined the heads of the other pro leagues and the NCAA in strenuously opposing allowing New Jersey to legalize sports gambling.
