Mark Miles (praying for cold weather?)
Did the prospect of free golf help Indianapolis snag Super Bowl XLVI? That’s the story according to Mark Miles, Chairman of the 2012 Super Bowl Host Committee. At a recent gathering at the Skyline Club in Indianapolis, Miles related the story about what went into the bid process for hosting the Super Bowl. He explained that among the countless pages of instructions that any host city has to follow were these two inquiries:
1) List the best golf courses in the area, and…
2) How much will Super Bowl visitors be charged to play those courses?
Free golf? Bring your orange balls.
Obviously, these are standard questions asked of any city vying to host the Super Bowl. But the assumption is it’s going to be a warm-weather city. For Indianapolis, Miles was able to easily answer the first with courses like Crooked Stick and Wolf Run. But he said the answer to the second question was even easier: $0, counting on typical Indiana winter temperatures to make the courses unplayable. He said he couldn’t be sure that the prospect of free golf was the deciding factor for the NFL’s selection committee. Asked later if Indy should get an unseasonable warm spell during Super Bowl week would he stand by his free golf offer, Miles said, “Sure”.
Indiana Golf Online 