February 5, 2013

Officials of the Superdome and its utility company say they will hire outside experts to investigate why power failed for 34 minutes during the Super Bowl.

The announcement by the stadium's management company, SMG, and Entergy New Orleans came two days after the outage halted play in the third quarter of the game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers.

Documents show stadium managers were concerned last fall about power lines feeding into the Superdome. Replacement work was done just weeks before the NFL championship game.

On Tuesday, the contractor who performed the work declined to comment.

Arthur Westbrook of Allstar Electric referred all questions to the management company that runs the stadium.

Later Tuesday, city leaders planned a briefing on the city's performance during Super Bowl week.