The Company That Manages “Blackout Superdome” Is Based in Conshohocken
Desperate for scraps of Super Bowl glory, Philadelphians have been floating some pretty lame trivia lately: John Harbaugh was once an assistant coach with the Eagles; the Eagles beat the Ravens way back in Week 2. Cast aside those morsels now. It turns out that the company that has managed the New Orleans (er, Mercedes-Benz) Superdome since 1977–i.e. the company that manages the stadium that went completely dark during the biggest sporting event on the planet–is based in little old West Conshohocken, PA. Here’s what SMG had to say about the blackout, in a joint release with the energy company that provides power (or doesn’t!) to the stadium:
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.Backup generators kicked in immediately as designed. Entergy and SMG subsequently coordinated start up procedures, ensuring that full power was safely restored to the Superdome.