Fans can get piece of history
By Rich Fisher, The Packet Group
Cranbury’s favorite entrepreneur, David Andres, is at it again.
Stadium Associates, a company started in December, 2008 by Andres and three other partners passionate about sod, is cultivating the latest gem in sports memorabilia — game-used Super Bowl XLIV Sod.
Collectors and football fans now have the chance to show off a unique prize and boast “This is where it happened. . .literally.” They will be alluding to a piece of sod from Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIV™ at Miami’s Sun Life Stadium, and “it” will refer to a special moment that occurred on that grass during the game.
”We are excited to allow fans to ‘own’ a piece of the Super Bowl,” Andres said. “Whether you’re lucky enough to go or you watch on TV like most fans, owning this collectible will preserve the memories for a lifetime.”
If that doesn’t seem impressive, you haven’t been paying attention. As recently as last year, we saw how famous a playing surface can become.
Was there a more documented piece of sports real estate in 2009 than that strip of Arizona Red grass on which Santonio Holmes landed his tiptoes to win Super Bowl XLIII?
The moment Holmes made that catch to give the Steelers a championship, that sliver of land was filmed and photographed from every angle by seemingly every media outlet. It was shot from both afar and so close you could see blades of grass splitting.
The sod was a star.
Thanks to Stadium Associates (stadiumassociates.com) – which recently signed a licensing agreement with the NFL to sell game-used sod, beginning with Super Bowl XLIV™ – fans have the opportunity to put such famed land on display in the home, office, or anywhere they choose.
”We are connecting fans to their team through grass,” Andres said. “Game-used Super Bowl Sod is a first-ever and will be sure to grow in value as an NFL piece of history.”
After the game, sections of the field will be removed and portioned into 3×3-inch squares available for purchase today. The plots include approximately 50,000 pieces of the painted Super Bowl XLIV™ logo at midfield, 75,000 pieces of the Colts and Saints painted end zones and up to 144 pieces on which the game’s “Special Moments” occurred.
Those moments could include anything from the launch point of a Peyton Manning pass, the end of a Pierre Thomas touchdown run, a Jeremy Shockey touchdown catch, Dwight Freeney sack, Darren Sharper interception or Gary Brackett fumble recovery.
The “Special Moments” will be chosen by Stadium Associates and the NFL
Orders for the midfield logo and both end zones are now being accepted. Anyone pre-ordering those sections up until Sunday’s kickoff get free shipping and first crack at the even more historic “Special Moments” turf.
A list of “Moments” will be e-mailed Tuesday morning exclusively to those who have pre-ordered. The user name and password protected access will available until 10 a.m. Thursday, when the public can select what might be left.
There is no obligation to buy a “Special Moment”, but when the 144 hunks of history from each moment are gone, they can never be reproduced.
Once the sod is sectioned, it will be freeze-dried for permanent preservation and encased in an ultraviolet glass display case. The case includes a photograph from the game showing the field, a description of the event that took place on that particular piece of sod, and all relevant statistics. An Officially Licensed Product hologram from the NFL is included.
The Super Bowl and Pro Bowl, which was played at Sun Life Stadium this past Sunday, are the only two games that will ever be played on the freshly laid field at the stadium.
Co-Founded by entrepreneur David Andres of Cranbury, N.J., Stadium Associates is in its second year of operation. It is also licensed with Major League Baseball and The Collegiate Licensing Company, and currently makes available sod from all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums and from the 2010 City BCS National Championship Game played in The Rose Bowl Stadium.
Now, it is offering up the surface from the biggest game of all.
To pre-order pieces of endzone or midfield logo Super Bowl sod, log on to http://stadiumassociates.com.