The logo for the first outdoor Super bowl in a cold-weather venue was unveiled Tuesday -- a snowflake in icy blue and white, centered before the George Washington Bridge.
"I think that's great," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday. "A little snow would be great for us. But whatever comes our way, we're going to be prepared for it."
The game will take place in 2014 at MetLife Stadium. While the lowest Super Bowl kickoff temperature has been 39 degrees, average February temperatures at East Rutherford, N.J., are 24 to 40 degrees.
"It's football like it was meant to be played — in the open, exposed to whatever winter throws our way," the new print advertising campaign for the game states.
Goodell is hoping for light snow, and maintained the organizers will be prepared for foul weather.
"We're coming and playing in the winter, and I think that would be great," he said. "Some of our most memorable games were played in unusual weather circumstances. Winter and cold are part of football, and snow is also."
Given the venue, it figures to be a unique Super Bowl. The logo and advertising were unveiled at an 8 a.m. "power breakfast" news conference at The Modern, a restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art.
The print campaign starting Wednesday and a broadcast advertisement that debuts Sunday are brash, with a deep voice proclaiming: "A game so important, an event so monumental, a Super Bowl so historic it takes two states to host it." The campaign and logos were designed by Source Communications in New Jersey.
Both New Jersey and New York are featured. The TV ad includes Statue of Liberty with shoulder pads, and yard lines on a field on the GW Bridge. The logo has an "NY" and "NJ" flanking the flake at the span's base.
"We thought it would be both fun and direct to put the snowflake right into our major symbol," said Al Kelly, the former American Express president hired in April as chief executive officer of the host committee.
Kelly said fans should expect ticket prices above the $600 and $1,200 charged for this year's game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
"I expect our ticket prices will probably be the most expensive ticket prices of any Super Bowl that's been held," he said, "but I think that's a decision that sits with the NFL and it's a decision that hasn't been made yet."
NFL owners awarded the game to the $1.6 billion venue in May 2010, just as the stadium was opening.
"The world will be waiting for us to probably screw up on this because this is the first cold-weather Super Bowl," New York Jets owner Woody Johnson said. "It was very courageous of our commissioner, Roger Goodell and our fellow owners to vote yes on this — albeit on the fourth or fifth ballot."
