NFL's 2011 Pro Bowl might be played at Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington

NFL's 2011 Pro Bowl might be played at Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington
January 3
Dallas Morning News
"Mayor Robert Cluck said he's 90 percent sure the 2011 NFL Pro Bowl will be played in Arlington, just a week before the region hosts its first Super Bowl.

This week, the league announced that it was breaking its long-standing tradition of holding the Pro Bowl in Hawaii the week after the Super Bowl. The 2010 Pro Bowl will instead be held in Dolphin Stadium a week before the South Florida Super Bowl.

An NFL spokesman said no decision has been made about the 2011 game.

"We have information that suggests that we'll get it in '11," Cluck said about the Pro Bowl. "I think I have a good reason" to believe that.

He declined to comment further about his source of information.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league wasn't willing to commit to any site yet for the 2011 Pro Bowl. He said all options are still being considered, and there's no timeline for selecting a location. It's possible, McCarthy said, a decision could be made after seeing how well the South Florida Pro Bowl fares.

"The idea is to experiment, to see how it works for fans, players, network TV and our sponsors," McCarthy said. "The idea of having it the week prior [to the Super Bowl] could generate even more excitement for the game."

Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels said he didn't know how soon the NFL would decide on future Pro Bowl games or whether league officials were leaning toward having one in Arlington.

In a news release Tuesday, NFL officials said Aloha Stadium in Honolulu will remain in the Pro Bowl rotation. McCarthy said no decision has been made about how often the game would return to Hawaii.

Aloha Stadium has been the home of the Pro Bowl since 1980. No city has hosted both games in the same year since Los Angeles had the inaugural Super Bowl in 1967 and the Pro Bowl was played there a week later.

Texas Stadium was the site of the 1973 Pro Bowl, the only time that game has been played here.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell previously told The Associated Press that having the all-star game after the Super Bowl made it "somewhat anticlimactic." The other three major team sports leagues have their all-star games during their seasons.

"There may be advantages to going out on the highest note in sports, which is the Super Bowl," McCarthy said.

With the new 2010 schedule, he said, players from the two Super Bowl teams would be excluded from the Pro Bowl. That would give the players more rest and reduce the chances that they could get injured.

McCarthy said it's hard to say what the benefits and drawbacks would be for having the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl a week apart in the same city. The Miami experiment will help the league understand better how this schedule would affect both games.

Cluck said he sees a benefit to having the games in the same city. He said the infrastructure is already in place to host a mega-event, so the Pro Bowl would be an extension of that.

"We "
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