No Concerns Over Blackout Repeat, Say New Orleans Super Bowl Leaders

Super Bowl XLVII could be remembered for many things; the first Super Bowl where the coaches were brothers, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis’ last NFL game, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco dueling San Francisco 49ers young star Colin Kaepernick and a halftime performance from Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child.

But what most remember from the Ravens’ 34-31 win was when the Superdome went dark. The Ravens’ Jacoby Jones had returned a kickoff 108 yards to make the score 28–6; a few plays later as the 49ers started their next drive, the lights went out and the game was delayed 34 minutes.

The blackout was later blamed on a relay device installed to prevent a power failure. Entergy, the electric company in New Orleans that powers the Superdome, says it has several layers of redundancy this Super Bowl so there’s backup if something breaks.

“We have to own the moment because it happened, but I think we have to be able to give people all the reasons why they should be comfortable that it won’t happen again,” said Marcus Brown, Super Bowl Host Committee chairman.

Memories of that game — and how things were fixed quickly and efficiently — are still strong with Frank Supovitz, then the NFL’s senior vice president of events and who organized hundreds of events in more than two decades combined as a senior executive for the NFL and NHL.

“I think it shows that a good team that’s empowered, well trained, well-rehearsed both operationally and creatively, has the ability to handle just about anything that comes their way,” said Supovitz, the founder of Fast Traffic Events & Entertainment who served as The Event Doctor columnist in SportsTravel for years. He and former Madison Square Garden and Staples Center general manager Robert Goldwater in the fall released the third edition of “The Sports Event Management & Marketing Playbook.”

Since that game has been more than a decade of Saints games, plus dozens of major sporting events and concerts including Beyonce and Taylor Swift, without issue. There’s also the number of renovations — including lighting — made throughout the Caesars Superdome.

“At the time there were these old halogen lights in the Superdome that had to warm up,” Brown said. “It took 25 minutes to warm up. That is what caused a long delay. … the renovations have changed all that. So we couldn’t have that same problem again. And we won’t.”

And for Supovitz, being back in New Orleans brought the opposite of a shiver down his spine.

“I have a soft spot in my heart for New Orleans,” he said. “I love coming here as a fan, I love coming here to work, I love coming here to put events on. It’s not weird at all. Every Super Bowl has its own unique personality and its unique challenges.”