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Jan. 30, 2000 SportsLine wire reports |
ATLANTA -- Chris Robinson stood in the park adjacent to the Georgia
Dome, a couple of fingers in the air and an increasingly desperate look on his
face.
The Nashville man figured wintry weather in Atlanta would enhance his
chances of getting tickets to the Super Bowl. But Sunday's meltdown quickly
turned this into a seller's market.
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"There's a lot more people buying than selling," said Robinson, who made the four-hour drive to Atlanta with his younger brother and a friend, John Reese. "Look around. Everyone is holding up their hands. It's crazy."
After a week of brutally cold temperatures and forecasts that up to four inches of snow might fall on Atlanta, the weather turned out to be just a minor sidelight for Sunday's game between the Tennessee Titans and St. Louis Rams.
Freezing rain coated the city with a thin layer of ice, but it largely melted away before kickoff as temperatures climbed above 32 degrees for the first time in two days. Fans who had been warned to expect the worst happily emerged for some good, old-fashioned tailgating.
While the unusual weather had some scalpers selling tickets for as low as $300 -- below the $325 face value -- others were charging twice the price closer to the stadium.
Marti and John Kelly arrived more than seven hours before kickoff. The St. Louis couple joined some 20 other Rams fans for chicken and barbecue in a parking lot near the stadium, hardly concerned by the 34-degree temperature and thick clouds obscuring nearby skyscrapers.
"It's a little colder than we would have liked," Marti Kelly said. "But we get this kind of cold in St. Louis all the time. What's the difference?"
The Rams fans, in a gesture that smacked of team loyalty and heating ingenuity, burned a Titans flag before heading to the stadium.
"There were a bunch of Titans fans across the street," said John Kelly, who clutched a Rams flag and had the distinctive horned helmet painted on his cheeks. "They were all staying in their cars, complaining about the cold weather. What a bunch of wimps."
But a bunch of Tennessee fans didn't even wear coats to the game, wanting to show off team jerseys bearing the number of their favorite players. They didn't seem at all bothered by the frosty conditions.
"I wish they would hold another Super Bowl here," said Robinson, wearing No. 90 in honor of Jevon Kearse. "I would come back. Shoot, it's cold in Nashville. It's cold everywhere."
While there were some slick spots on bridges and overpasses, the Georgia Dome was packed long before kickoff. Roads were clear and the city's rapid-transit system ran smoothly.
As many as 50,000 Georgia customers lost power as breakers froze and tree limbs snapped, but those outages were concentrated south of Atlanta. Downtown hotels, packed with Super Bowl visitors, experienced few problems. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport was open. Delta Air Lines, the city's major carrier, reported only a few cancellations, mostly in cities along the Eastern seaboard that were stricken by the storm as it moved up the coast.
Some fans wondered what all the fuss was about.
"It got a little stupid," said Bryan Padgett, a Rams fan from Springfield, Ill., who drove to Atlanta on Friday. "They were talking people out of doing anything."
John Kelly smiled incredulously at some of the things he had seen since arriving in Atlanta on Thursday.
"They were closing down highways yesterday and we were driving all over the place with no problem," he said. "You've just got to know how to drive in it."
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| Titans fan Allison Carver escapes the cold for a bite in her tent at the Georgia Dome.(AP) |
There were still shards of ice on grass and pinestraw outside the Georgia Dome, but that didn't stop fans from tossing footballs, snapping pictures and lingering to hear a band that belted out, "Play That Funky Music." Someone even brought a beach ball.
Salt was sprinkled on steps and sidewalks to prevent fans from slipping, but it merely crackled under their feet as they trekked across the damp walkways.
Robinson said he encountered more problems the week before, when another ice storm crippled north Georgia while he was trying to get to Jacksonville for the AFC Championship game.
Driving his mother's car, Robinson lost control on a slick interstate and brushed a guardrail, causing $5,000 in damage. But he still made it to Florida and managed to land a ticket.
The ride to Atlanta was trouble-free but tickets were hard to find. Reese managed to land one for $600, but the group still needed two more and faced fierce competition.
"We've been to every home game," Reese said. "We've been to every playoff game. Now, we can't get into the Super Bowl."
There's never a winter storm when you need it.
AP NEWS
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