BY GINA G. SCALA

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Whenever a decision is made to go against the grain challenges are likely to follow.

For the National Football League, the first challenge for the 48th Super Bowl was selecting an outdoor venue for a variety of reasons; including weather. Throw in the location, the northeast, and weather consideration could play a significant role.

The latest fly-in-the-ointment could be the no-fly zone above MetLife Stadium, which is flanged to the north by Teterboro Airport and to the south by Newark Liberty International. The stadium, home to Big Blue and Gang Green, sits within two air hubs that make New Jersey and New York the most congested airspace in the nation. More than 100 million people travel through Newark, JFK, and LaGuardia airports annually.

The real challenge will be in managing the onslaught of private jets flying into Teterboro airport, not so much before the game day but definitely in the hours following the game. It’s conceivable not everyone will fly into the private airstrip at the same time ahead of Super Bowl 48. The same, however, isn’t true about everyone wanting to leave at the same time after the game.

Coupled with air traffic backups, if the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) decides to also limit commercial flights at Newark Liberty, well, the tarmacs could look like the Garden State Parkway on a Saturday in the summer.

All of this, of course, is just speculation until the FAA announces its plans for handling air travel for Super Bowl week; especially in the aftermath of the game. To be fair, though, the federal agency’s decision could be moot if Farmers’ Almanac is correct and a heavy winter storm hits.

Whether that prediction comes to fruition is something only time can tell. In the meantime, the Port Authority of New York and Jersey, which is responsible for the air space above the two airports, is reaching out to airport officials in other Super Bowl cities to see how similar situations have been handled.

There are two things for certain: the Port Authority will require reservations for private aircraft landing at Teterboro during Super Bowl week and this would never happen on the Jetsons; their aircrafts collapsed into briefcases.