Pop superstar Beyonce can't catch a break. First, her lip-synced version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at U.S. President Barack Obama's second inauguration drew flak, and then her Super Bowl XLVII half-time show was accused of blacking out the SuperDome. Fortunately for her, the NFL confirmed Monday morning: Her high-powered show had nothing to do with the power outage.
Goodell said,
There's no indication at all that the halftime show had anything to do with this.
While both the league and the city are still investigating the issue, Goodell was quite clear about Beyonce's non-role in the issue.
In fact, Superdome manager Doug Thornton said that the halftime show used generators. In addition, house lights were dimmed during the event, lowering the stadium's power usage during her show.
A statement issued shortly after the game by New Orleans utility Entergy and SMG, the Philadelphia company that manages the 73,000-seat Superdome, answered questions with big question marks, saying, "We're not sure."
Shortly after the beginning of the second half of the Super Bowl in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, a piece of equipment that is designed to monitor electrical load sensed an abnormality in the system. Once the issue was detected, the sensing equipment operated as designed and opened a breaker, causing power to be partially cut to the Superdome in order to isolate the issue.
Lights weren't completely cut in the stadium due to -- generators.
Despite the issue, Goodell lauded the job New Orleans did hosting Super Bowl XLVII. He indicated the power outage would not hurt the city's chances of hosting another Super Bowl in the future.
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