ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996 TAG: 9601230052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: SPORTS EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C.
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
THE NORTH CAROLINA city lacks hotel space and the right January temperature, but it's trying to lure the Super Bowl anyway.
Charlotte's cool January temperatures might conspire to keep the city from landing a Super Bowl. That is, if its lack of hotel rooms doesn't undermine Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson's dream first.
Despite the odds, Richardson is taking the first steps toward landing a Super Bowl sometime in the 21st century.
And with developer Johnny Harris spearheading Charlotte's bid to land the NFL's biggest party, who's to say it won't happen?
Harris, a part owner of the Panthers, led the successful drives to bring the ACC basketball tournament and the 1994 NCAA Final Four to Charlotte.
``You certainly want the Super Bowl,'' Harris said. ``If it's at all possible, Jerry and the ownership group will do anything they can to put Charlotte in the position to have it.''
Richardson acknowledges it will be an expensive undertaking, tapping millions from public and private sources.
``What I do know is the hurdle we're going to have to get over is an expensive proposition,'' Richardson said. ``The community will have to step up. I don't know how much, but the payback is off the charts.''
For Charlotte, the main obstacle is hotel space.
``You need an area that probably has 25,000 to 30,000 hotel rooms within an hour's drive of the stadium,'' said Jim Steeg, the NFL's executive director of special events. ``I don't know what the numbers are, but I'm pretty sure Charlotte is way short of that. That is the No.1 hurdle.''
Mecklenburg County has about 14,000 total hotel rooms, according to the Charlotte Convention and Visitors Bureau - about half what the NFL requires.
The NFL spells out what a city must have to be a hold for a Super Bowl in a 12-page set of guidelines. Most of it is devoted, in painstaking detail, to the quantity and quality of hotel and meeting space needed for league officials, their guests, the players and the media who will flock to town for the game and the hoopla that surrounds it.
Other requirements: up to 1,000 buses; 500 limousines; helipads capable of accommodating 350 landings on game day; dibs on at least half the stadium's luxury suites; and the use of two 18-hole golf courses, preferably with greens fees waived.
In addition, the guidelines enumerate 24 ``enticements'' the NFL will accept from cities lobbying for the game. Among them: free use of the stadium, free hotels, waivers of all taxes on tickets and a share of parking and concession revenue.
Richardson has turned over these guidelines to Harris, whom he has asked to spearhead the effort.
``We've begun trying to get things together now,`` Richardson said. ``I've talked to Paul [Tagliabue], the [NFL] commissioner, about it. He's supportive of our idea.''
NFL owners will vote on a site for Super Bowl XXXIV, the game for 2000, in October.
Super Bowl dates have been awarded through 1999, to New Orleans ('97), San Diego ('98) and San Francisco ('99).
Asked if Carolinas Stadium would need any improvements for a Super Bowl bid, Richardson said, ``By the time we get there, we'll probably have to freshen it up some. We're talking about at least four or five years out.''
Charlotte also will need a major building boom in that time to meet the NFL's requirements.
Then there's the question of the weather - somewhat trickier to address.
The NFL requires any city with a mean January temperature below 50 degrees to have a domed stadium in order to play host to a Super Bowl.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines KEYWORDS: FOOTBALLby CNB