Bon Jovi to Kick Off Football Season

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/01/2002 at 12:30 PM EDT

New York's Times Square usually holds its big party on New year's Eve, but on Sept. 5 the city will help kick off the 2002 National Football League season with a big blast in Times Square featuring Bon Jovi and other stars, reports the Associated Press. The festivities, which the NFL is calling the "world's largest tailgate party," will occur about five hours before the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers play the first game 10 miles away in the New Jersey Meadowlands. It is also being seen as a way to help the financially beleaguered New York, which is still trying to recover from the events of last Sept. 11. "What the city gets out of that event is a lot of money to help fund (a planned) ceremony downtown for 9/11 and a lot of money to help in the redevelopment of downtown," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters, according to the AP. "It also showcases New York to the world and helps tourism." NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told the news service that a "significant amount" of the NFL and NFL Players Association's $10 million Sept. 11 disaster relief fund would go to "appropriate organizations in the city, chosen with help from the city, to help those indirectly or directly affected by the events of Sept. 11." After performing in Times Square, Bon Jovi is due to hop a helicopter to Giants Stadium to perform a halftime show, Rob Shuter, a spokesman for the band, told the AP.