NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Organizers of February’s Super Bowl insist the blackout in the 3rd quarter was just a glitch that should not cast any sort of permanent shadow over the big game and how the city handled it, but at least one national company is having some fun with the blackout.

“There are times when it’s really important to leave the lights on,” goes the radio ad for Motel 6, “When you’re hosting a championship football game that’s watched by just about everybody on the planet.”

Of course, Motel 6 is known for its “Leave the light on” slogan which provides a prime opportunity to take a swipe at the Super Bowl.

“We’ll leave the light on for you — unlike some stadiums we could mention,” the ad concludes.

The mayor’s office says it’s not concerned about the ad.

Entergy released a written statement when asked to respond to the ad.

“New Orleans did an incredible job hosting the Super Bowl and once again proved why it is the best location to host a wide variety of major events. We are sure that both the game and the week of activities leading up to it will be remembered for the warmth, hospitality and friendliness shown by locals to visitors from across the country,” the statement reads.

We also contacted workers with the Superdome and tourism industry for comment but received no response.

The recent Super Bowl/Mardi Gras combo and the 2 or 3 weeks that surrounded those big events were probably the biggest – as far as economic impact – in the history of our city and surrounding area.  The two events together exceeded $750 million of economic impact for the region.

In preparation for last month, New Orleans wisely spent hundreds of millions of dollars improving infrastructure and sprucing up our city.  From modernizing our airport, to cleaning up the appearance of our interstate, to replanting neutral grounds, we spent a lot of tax payer money on cleaning up New Orleans … and that’s great.   I’m just wondering, did anyone think about maintaining these new improvements to our city?

It’s great to clean up for a Super Bowl, Final 4, or a Pope’s visit; but the bigger question is: how do we keep it clean or maintain these improvements?

In gambling an over/under is the total points scored by both teams.  You can either bet the teams will score over or under that number.  What do you think the over/under is, as far as time is concerned, for how long it will take the train trellis over I-10 by the cemeteries to be tagged again with graffiti?   A week?  A month?

It’s great that the city “cleaned up” for theses major events, but we need to make sure we maintain out improvements.

It appears there is some good news and some bad news concerning the power outage at the Superdome during Super Bowl 47.

The good news first: I don’t think the city will be penalized for the incident.  The NFL and its team owners love coming to New Orleans and that hasn’t changed, even with the power outage.  The city has set itself up for a return visit of the big game, maybe as soon as 2018.

Now for the bad news: the entity most responsible for the power outage, during arguably the most important event in the history of the city, is none other than our power company, Entergy.  They are responsible for the blackout and no one else.

Entergy says the cause of the blackout was a faulty “switchgear relay,” essentially blaming a parts manufacturer out of Chicago.  That company, S & C Electric, says the part worked as designed and it was Entergy at fault for not having the relay set properly to receive a higher electrical current.

Either way, the buck stops with Entergy.  They purchased a part that malfunctioned, as they claim, or they incorrectly had that part calibrated, as the manufacturer claims.  Faulty part or not, it is ultimately Entergy to blame.

When Super Bowl XLVII was in New Orleans, the story didn’t stop on the field. Even though it wasn’t Mardi Gras, fans of the Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints enjoyed the sights and sounds in the French Quarter the weekend prior to Super Bowl 47.

NEW ORLEANS – Mayor Mitch Landrieu says the 34 minute power outage in the middle of the Super Bowl will not overshadow the game or the week leading up to it in New Orleans.

But the company that operates the dome, SMG, is vowing to get to the bottom of the problem and it’s bringing in a private engineering firm to act as a third-party investigator.

“We will leave no stone unturned,” said Entergy New Orleans CEO Charles Rice while standing next to SMG’s Doug Thornton.  Both men vow their companies will cooperate fully to find the source of the glitch.

Rice and Thornton agree the problem occurred at the point where Entergy’s responsibility for delivering the power ends and SMG’s begins.  The question is– on which side of that line did the problem begin?

SMG says during rehearsals for the halftime show, some power was lost.  But he says that is a common occurrence whenever a show first arrives at the Superdome and workers must determine its electrical needs.

“And yes, we had a couple of fuses blow.  There were a couple of circuits that were overloaded, but it had nothing to do with the power outage.  It’s totally unrelated,” Thornton said.

Just as the city made infrastructure improvements leading up to the game, so did SMG and Entergy.  Those improvements included new feeder cables that Thornton says meet all the necessary specs.

“We do not believe at this point that those are the root cause of this problem, but we will be investigating and testing to be certain,” he said.