Meadowlands Tailgate Party 2014 Aims to Jersey up the Super Bowl

Today James Cassella, the mayor of East Rutherford, stood in front of the train tracks near Park Avenue with other local officials and expressed his disappointment with the Super Bowl.

He gave his approval for Super Bowl game signs to go up in the borough. There are no signs. He finds that odd.

“I’ve always believed from day one this was going to be a New York event,” said Cassella. But couldn’t New Jersey get a bigger piece of the action, he asked? “I just thought that New Jersey would receive a little more.”

But Cassella’s real purpose in being there was to tout a grassroots celebration that will serve as a local pre-game spot. With the help of corporate sponsors, that party will run the mo
ing and afteoon before the Super Bowl starts. Called the Meadowlands Tailgate Party 2014, it is the latest in locally organized New Jersey parties for the Super Bowl.

East Rutherford officials have defiantly stuck by the line that it’s their Super Bowl, played in a stadium in their town (“If there’s one thing we have over New York City, we have the Super Bowl,” said Cassella. “They don’t.”) Yet as with most New Jersey events put together by towns, East Rutherford can’t use the game’s name, but does hope its party will benefit from the mass of people who will be in and around the borough come Feb. 2.

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Amy Kuperinsky
The Star-Ledger