I always thought it would be cool to have the Superbowl here. Now that we do I realize more and more everyday that you do not really want to have the Superbowl where you live. It is a bunch of crap for everybody who lives here. It is not the fault of the Superbowl that we are snowed in but it makes the crap the Superbowl causes even worse.
We are having "rolling blackouts". What they are is when they deliberately cut the power off in one section of the metro area for 15 to 30 minutes and then cut it back on and cut it off in a different section for 15 to 30 minutes etc..etc..etc.. constantly. Why? So there will be enough juice for the Superbowl. Why they are using so much juice now I have no idea but they are. I don't even want to think about how bad it will be on game day.
There are tons of specially trained police here. Guess what they are specially trained for? Human trafficking. I never knew this but they say that the Superbowl is like the NAMM show of human trafficking. I guess the people who go to the Superbowl regardless of what town it is in are the biggest customer base for people who sell other people. Or at least that is what the cops say anyway. They have signs all over town with a dedicated number to call for suspected human trafficking. If that is true I would rather not have it around here.
Also, you can't drive almost anywhere in the Arlington city limits right now. I don't even want to think about what it will be like on game day. You can't get a hotel room right now. There are about 20 times more cops than usual everywhere. All kinds of stuff I could live without. You don't want to have a Superbowl in your city.
We are having "rolling blackouts". What they are is when they deliberately cut the power off in one section of the metro area for 15 to 30 minutes and then cut it back on and cut it off in a different section for 15 to 30 minutes etc..etc..etc.. constantly. Why? So there will be enough juice for the Superbowl. Why they are using so much juice now I have no idea but they are. I don't even want to think about how bad it will be on game day.
There are tons of specially trained police here. Guess what they are specially trained for? Human trafficking. I never knew this but they say that the Superbowl is like the NAMM show of human trafficking. I guess the people who go to the Superbowl regardless of what town it is in are the biggest customer base for people who sell other people. Or at least that is what the cops say anyway. They have signs all over town with a dedicated number to call for suspected human trafficking. If that is true I would rather not have it around here.
Also, you can't drive almost anywhere in the Arlington city limits right now. I don't even want to think about what it will be like on game day. You can't get a hotel room right now. There are about 20 times more cops than usual everywhere. All kinds of stuff I could live without. You don't want to have a Superbowl in your city.
The blackout's yesterday were very unpleasant. Not too mention nobody can drive on the ice. Kinda ironic how the ice storm and the Superbowl fell on the same week? Sorry to say, not a football fan, so the Superbowl is just a very expensive game to me.
Cheer up Peckerwood, just a few more days and it will be over. 🙂
Cheer up Peckerwood, just a few more days and it will be over. 🙂
Just wait till the F1 circus get's into Austin.... of course, Austin isn't really part of Texas, so I guess that local disaster will be viewed in a different light, much like anything that goes on in say, Louisiana or Arkansas, kind of "well what did you expect?".
We already hit 7 degrees yesterday morning. I have never seen -13 degrees here. I have seen a windchill of -13 degrees. -13 degrees with no wind at all is not that uncomfortable. On the other hand as high as 45 degrees with 40 mph wind is cold as a mothertrucker.
Warpedhifi, you mean they are even doing that in Denton? It is even worse than I thought then. I would have thought Tarrant and Dallas counties only.
I have been driving around on it but not on the freeway. I would not advise anybody to drive around on it but my truck is a 1989 model with 280,000 miles on it so it would not be the end of the world if I totaled it. Or if I got it stuck somewhere. I have been stuck a bunch of times but eventually made it out. Its strange this time because where it should be lots of ice isn't and where it shouldn't be lots of ice it is. The most busy intersections are where the ice is heaviest and the least traveled roads are the clearest ones.
Warpedhifi, you mean they are even doing that in Denton? It is even worse than I thought then. I would have thought Tarrant and Dallas counties only.
I have been driving around on it but not on the freeway. I would not advise anybody to drive around on it but my truck is a 1989 model with 280,000 miles on it so it would not be the end of the world if I totaled it. Or if I got it stuck somewhere. I have been stuck a bunch of times but eventually made it out. Its strange this time because where it should be lots of ice isn't and where it shouldn't be lots of ice it is. The most busy intersections are where the ice is heaviest and the least traveled roads are the clearest ones.
The capitol of Texas where the government runs the state is not really Texas? I do know what you mean (what goes on in the streets and bars in some areas) but it really is Texas. Parts of Austin are largely different than most of Texas (the parts with the most people who are not from Texas) but a lot of Austin is more like Texas than anywhere.
It is true that I have seen people doing things in the middle of the street in Austin and not being arrested that would get them arrested for sure here or even if it didn't somebody would beat the living tar out of them but I haven't seen that kind of stuff all over Austin. Just certain areas. Austin is the most liberal town in Texas but Austin is not liberal. It is very conservative unless you go back to when Texas was completely dominated by democrats for about 150 years or so. At least 100 years. Even when dominated by democrats it was conservative. Texas democrats are conservative. It is completely dominated by republicans now. They may be less conservative though.
It is true that I have seen people doing things in the middle of the street in Austin and not being arrested that would get them arrested for sure here or even if it didn't somebody would beat the living tar out of them but I haven't seen that kind of stuff all over Austin. Just certain areas. Austin is the most liberal town in Texas but Austin is not liberal. It is very conservative unless you go back to when Texas was completely dominated by democrats for about 150 years or so. At least 100 years. Even when dominated by democrats it was conservative. Texas democrats are conservative. It is completely dominated by republicans now. They may be less conservative though.
I may be quite a bit North of you guys, but the reason you are having rolling blackouts is due to several of your power plants being knocked offline because of the weather.
While I think the decision to keep the stadium up instead of things like hospitals is questionable, the reality is that the power draw for the event isn't quite big enough to suddenly cause the issues that are happening.
It is extremely unlikely the infrastructure was not put in to support something like the Superbowl when the stadium was built.
Aside from shore power, multiple entertainment generators are brought in to ease the load of all the broadcast trucks. Most of them with a backup running in parallel on standby.
While I think the decision to keep the stadium up instead of things like hospitals is questionable, the reality is that the power draw for the event isn't quite big enough to suddenly cause the issues that are happening.
It is extremely unlikely the infrastructure was not put in to support something like the Superbowl when the stadium was built.
Aside from shore power, multiple entertainment generators are brought in to ease the load of all the broadcast trucks. Most of them with a backup running in parallel on standby.
I grew up in Miami, host city for 9 Superbowls. 4 were played in the Orange Bowl which lo longer exists. 5 were played in the new stadium that has a new name every year. It is 7 miles due south of my house. Last year they decided to have the Pro Bowl and the Superbowl in the same location so they could sell mega-expensive 10 day long party packages. Guess what? That didn't work, the Pro Bowl was so undersold that they started selling tickets at McDonalds for $10 each! Sherri and I were going to go but it was an ugly rainy day.
Yes the Suberbowl sucks up all available hotel rooms in Dade and Broward county for very high prices. The Superbowl was responsible for killing off the second bigest hamfest in the country. How? The Miami Hamfest has been on the first weekend in February for like 40 years. The NFL schedule has been expanding, it was 13 games, then 16 games, add in one or two bye weeks and the superbowl falls on hamfest weekend. When the ham guy wants his $50 hotel room but it is now $250 he doesn't show up. A lot of cheap services that you rely on like janitorial and catering arent available, so the hamfest dies.
Yes there are a lot more than the usual number of cops on the street, plenty of idiots out there to keep them busy too.
Yes the Suberbowl sucks up all available hotel rooms in Dade and Broward county for very high prices. The Superbowl was responsible for killing off the second bigest hamfest in the country. How? The Miami Hamfest has been on the first weekend in February for like 40 years. The NFL schedule has been expanding, it was 13 games, then 16 games, add in one or two bye weeks and the superbowl falls on hamfest weekend. When the ham guy wants his $50 hotel room but it is now $250 he doesn't show up. A lot of cheap services that you rely on like janitorial and catering arent available, so the hamfest dies.
Yes there are a lot more than the usual number of cops on the street, plenty of idiots out there to keep them busy too.
If that is the case I completely missed it on the news or in the paper. Which ones were knocked offline?
I am not saying that you are wrong but I went back and read the newspaper articles and none of them said anything about any place being knocked offline or downed power lines. I realize that does not necessarily mean it didn't happen. They just refer to the "outages" which were done on purpose because of too much current being drawn. Is it just a coincidence that the the Superbowl is here at the same time too much current is being drawn and that it is exempt from the rolling blackouts? If it were a power plant knocked offline wouldn't it affect the Superbowl too? If the Super Bowl had enough generators to run itself why are they exempted from the rolling blackouts?
Interestingly Hospitals haven't complained but hotels and defense contractors have.
Interestingly Hospitals haven't complained but hotels and defense contractors have.
There's a couple of inches of snow on the streets here. I am grinning ear to ear since (souvenir of my last home in Montana) I am the only person in Austin with snow tires.
Austin's culture is entirely different than the rest of the state. Maybe because of all the people here who aren't from Texas; it's a VERY international community. Maybe because of the dominance of the University (largest employer in town). Maybe because of the enormous numbers of R&D centers (National Instruments, 3M, IBM, Dell, Samsung, Sun...) staffed with lots of imported highly educated people. Is the insanely good music scene here cause or effect? The regular jokes about this on King of the Hill crack us up.
The first thing one notices when going from any other place in Texas to here is that in Austin, the ratio of chrome Longhorns to chrome Jesus fish on cars is about 50:1. In Dallas or Houston or even San Antonio, it's the reverse.
Austin's culture is entirely different than the rest of the state. Maybe because of all the people here who aren't from Texas; it's a VERY international community. Maybe because of the dominance of the University (largest employer in town). Maybe because of the enormous numbers of R&D centers (National Instruments, 3M, IBM, Dell, Samsung, Sun...) staffed with lots of imported highly educated people. Is the insanely good music scene here cause or effect? The regular jokes about this on King of the Hill crack us up.
The first thing one notices when going from any other place in Texas to here is that in Austin, the ratio of chrome Longhorns to chrome Jesus fish on cars is about 50:1. In Dallas or Houston or even San Antonio, it's the reverse.
The worst impact of the Super Bowl here (I live 5 miles north of the monstrosity) is that crews are spending so much time clearing roads that are ingress/egress to the stadium or the downtown Dallas/Fort Worth areas that residential areas (the part where the local tax payers live) are untouched.
Just the opinion of one baseball fan.
Just the opinion of one baseball fan.
When in doubt - follow the money......... I'll venture a wager that somewhere - someone - is making a buck off of it - 😉
My guess is that directly the Superbowl is a huge loss of money for the City but they figure it will make them money in the long run just for putting them in the spotlight. I mean they are spending money like I have never seen before for this game. I don't really see how they could make a profit directly.
Arlington is not a really well known city. It is just starting to become a fairly large city. Nobody outside Texas would know about it if it hadn't been where the Texas Rangers play forever. I mean it is in the middle of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex but they didn't put its name in the title. It is not yet a 500,000 population city which is where they usually draw the line of what is considered a big city. I think they have maybe 350 to 400 thousand people or something like that. But they have grown very fast. They didn't have anywhere near that many people 20 years ago. I think it is about the 7th or 8th largest city in Texas.
I don't keep up with football anymore but when I did Green Bay was my favorite team. They are owned by their fans and not by some rich corporate dork. Green Bay is a really blue collar town and those two things make the team pretty unique or used to anyway and probably still does. So I hope they win. They have some of the most dedicated fans in football or at least they used to and I would think they probably still do.
They won the first two Superbowls. Back when I did really follow football Dallas was an extremely winning team and Green Bay was not a very winning team but Green Bay always beat Dallas. I remember one year Green Bay only won one game and Dallas only lost one. Green Bay beat Dallas that year. Dallas hates them. I am sure that is still true. They are likely to experience some hostility from the crowd if there are many locals there.
For some reason the two teams played each other only once every three years back when I was into it. I never remember Dallas beating them. I used to go to see the game whenever Green Bay came here and cheer for Green Bay. It wasn't that dangerous because I was too young to beat up and get away with it. That was when John Brockington was running back for Green Bay. He was good.
I couldn't tell you one players name on either team playing Sunday though.
Arlington is not a really well known city. It is just starting to become a fairly large city. Nobody outside Texas would know about it if it hadn't been where the Texas Rangers play forever. I mean it is in the middle of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex but they didn't put its name in the title. It is not yet a 500,000 population city which is where they usually draw the line of what is considered a big city. I think they have maybe 350 to 400 thousand people or something like that. But they have grown very fast. They didn't have anywhere near that many people 20 years ago. I think it is about the 7th or 8th largest city in Texas.
I don't keep up with football anymore but when I did Green Bay was my favorite team. They are owned by their fans and not by some rich corporate dork. Green Bay is a really blue collar town and those two things make the team pretty unique or used to anyway and probably still does. So I hope they win. They have some of the most dedicated fans in football or at least they used to and I would think they probably still do.
They won the first two Superbowls. Back when I did really follow football Dallas was an extremely winning team and Green Bay was not a very winning team but Green Bay always beat Dallas. I remember one year Green Bay only won one game and Dallas only lost one. Green Bay beat Dallas that year. Dallas hates them. I am sure that is still true. They are likely to experience some hostility from the crowd if there are many locals there.
For some reason the two teams played each other only once every three years back when I was into it. I never remember Dallas beating them. I used to go to see the game whenever Green Bay came here and cheer for Green Bay. It wasn't that dangerous because I was too young to beat up and get away with it. That was when John Brockington was running back for Green Bay. He was good.
I couldn't tell you one players name on either team playing Sunday though.
Just saw on the news that 5 people were injured by falling ice at the Superbowl. It said they were taken to John Peter Smith hospital. JPS is in Fort Worth. From the stadium to JPS would take 30 minutes on a day with no horrible traffic for the superbowl or ice and snow covered roads. I bet it takes them at least an hour maybe a lot more. There are hospitals in Arlington. I wonder why they didn't take them there?
Imix500 they did eventually say in the paper that a couple of power plants went offline a long ways from here but keeping the power on at the Superbowl was why we had to get the rolling blackouts. They said it was caused by the temperature and not the ice and snow. Natural gas powered generators were not starting up because of the temperature.
Usually the blackouts around here are caused by downed power lines and it almost always happens in the spring or summer. I don't really understand why they don't just bury all of them. I know it makes it harder to service them but it would also make them rarely have to be serviced wouldn't it?
Usually the blackouts around here are caused by downed power lines and it almost always happens in the spring or summer. I don't really understand why they don't just bury all of them. I know it makes it harder to service them but it would also make them rarely have to be serviced wouldn't it?
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