It’s been fun this week tracking the University of Phoenix roof status for the Super Bowl. We heard the roof would be open for the game if weather permitted. However, the threat of rain proved to be enough to keep the lid closed. Oh, well. The important thing is the Giants won… and the Patriots lost. All is well with the world.
It has been reported all week that the retractable lid over University of Phoenix Stadium will be open for Sunday night’s Super Bowl, if weather permits. That “if” seems to have gotten much bigger. The Arizona Republic reported Friday that the Glendale area could be hit by a “cold wet storm that may last from late Sunday afternoon through Monday morning.” Weather.com is reporting a 30 percent chance of rain with a high of 58 degrees at kickoff. 
The Arizona Republic has an interesting story on its Web site about the prep work required to make University of Phoenix Stadium look spectacular for Super Bowl XLII. The process includes an army of field maintenance pros. As you probably know by now, the field can be moved in and out of the stadium, allowing the natural grass to grow outdoors. Pretty cool, eh? Here are a couple of paragraphs from the story:Four weeks ago, a team of 35 people replaced the field with 1.4 million pounds of new Alabama-grown sod. Since then, the Tifway 419 hybrid Bermuda grass has received round-the-clock care, including maximum sunlight and watering. The NFL finished painting hash marks, the league shield and team logos over the weekend.
"If the grass doesn't look good, the rest of the event doesn't look good," said Jimmy Fox, co-owner of Chandler-based Evergreen Turf, which installed the sod. "It has become a high priority for the NFL to make sure the field looks good."
I've received a lot of hits here in the past week from folks wanting to know if the roof over the University of Phoenix Stadium will be open during Super Bowl XLII. According to news stories I've read, the roof will be open if there's no rain or threat of rain when the game kicks off at about 4:20 p.m. local time. According to CBS Channel 5 in Phoenix, there is a 30 percent showers with temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s at game time. You can watch the Channel 5 forecast here. My guess is NFL officials, stadium officials or whoever is in charge of making the call on about the roof, will do their best to keep the thing open. Reports I've read say the roof can close in about 12 minutes. So, unless the roof malfunctions and gets stuck open, there's no chance we'll have repeat of last year's rainy Super Bowl.
Here’s a quickie before I hit the sack: Profootballtalk.com is reporting that the roof at University of Phoenix Stadium will be open for Super Bowl XLII if there is no chance of threatening weather on game day. So there is no chance of rain falling on the Super Bowl stage as it did a year ago. According to profootballtalk.com, the roof can be closed in 10-15 minutes.
