So magnificent was the Winter Carnival ice palace of 1992 that we — carnival-goers — marched across the Wabasha Street Bridge to view its initial lighting, followed by fireworks. Across the river, the Super Bowl was gearing up and not much attention was paid to the Winter Carnival, which was thought by the Bowl planners to be quaint but possibly too colloquial for the brie and mineral-water set that was gathering for the football championship.
“You all just stick to your carnival and leave the Super Bowl to us” was essentially the message the Super Bowl Task Force had for its St. Paul members, including Bob Carter, who was heading up the carnival that year.
OK.
So, with the help of great volunteers and laborers and cheerleaders too numerous to mention, St. Paul got an ice palace that year, and it was a stunner. It made the cover of USA Today the week leading up to the Super Bowl alongside a front-page photo of the Metrodome, which, by comparison, looked like a North Korean architectural mistake.
Well, it drove them nuts in Minneapolis. That quaint and colloquial ancient carnival was stealing some national attention. Calls were placed. Could some time be set aside for the NFL owners to come on over in limousines and have a private viewing of the palace?
No.
An estimated 3 million people viewed the palace that year, and there was no way that carnival organizers were going to put up road blocks to stop traffic so the freebooters could wander around inside the thing with their champagne glasses.
Well, times change, and we must change with them. An ice palace in 2018 — the carnival will be 132 years old! — probably won’t photographically shame the new football stadium, which looks like a crystal ship sailing into the Arctic.
Besides, five will get you ten that the current Super Bowl task force is not dismissing St. Paul or the carnival this time around.
So, the time has come. We need a permanent ice palace on Harriet Island, not to steal any Super Bowl thunder from Minneapolis, but to enhance it. I am given to understand that we are regional now and my pining for civic rivalry is neither useful nor even much wanted. I am to be a good boy now and play along, and I am willing to make that concession. It is a big deal to have won the chance to host the Super Bowl, even though I cannot resist pointing out that we have no idea what it will cost or if it will mean even 10 additional cents to the average server at the average bar, much less the average plumber or candlestick maker.
But it is coming and we need to be a part of it, not an afterthought. There is no better way to have a seat at the table than to have a barn-burner of a Winter Carnival and a permanent ice palace with nightly fireworks and light shows and concerts and what have you. The sky is the limit. Speaking of which, our permanent ice palace — built of glass blocks, I would imagine — should be tall and spired, with rooms and wings inside, maybe even one of those parklets outside where people could sit on the deck in the dead of winter and toast a frosty one to Vulcanus Rex, the true king.
Now, I know the planners have much in store for the week or weeks leading up to the game. But we have a leg up on not only embracing the fact that it will be winter, but that we will be used to gathering outside. I don’t see them asking to be brought over for private tours this time around. I see them wanting to be in St. Paul and building the carnival into the program.
I started a Super Bowl blizzard novena in 1992, but that was immature of me and I will do no such thing in 2018. Congratulations to Minneapolis — to all of Minnesota — for getting the game, and here’s hoping that you enjoy St. Paul and make it part of your schedule, because we are going to go all out.
Aren’t we?
Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5474. Soucheray is heard from 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays on 1500ESPN.
Copyright 2014 Pioneer Press.