My personal preference -- for a story like this -- would be to use a spadea for the walk-up the day of the game and then play the result on A1 proper. But that's because I tend to think of spadeas as a little soft for hard news like the hometown team in the NFL playoffs. However, if you're going to use a spadea, this is how you do it. Nice design; major impact.

This is a revolutionary idea. But I feel that this is now exactaly the biggest-news-of-the-day should be covered; rather, as Charles said, it should be on proper A1.

This would, however, be a great idea to add extra ad-space (on sections other than A1). Seriously, we wouldn't have to do a USA Today, and we can, perhaps, more revenue. If the reader is vexed by B1 ads, he can just remove this. It is both reader friendly, and also newspaper friendly.

As you can imagine, much debate here about spadea vs. front page. This was a weekend we were rolling out several new features in the paper, and at the same time, cutting some news hole. So we wanted to give readers something different. It would have been very neat to do a guide to the game spadea the day of. Press difficulties entered into the decision, and this is where we ended up. Lots of debate, too, about whether to make the front page work with the spadea(maybe in a three-col format), seeing as how half of it was covered up! A little weird in the box...but it sure looked different.

Charles beat me to the punch. If Charlotte is a "Panther-crazed town," I would expect this to lead the front page, not be relegated to a spadea. Or perhaps the spadea could have been designed as a "bonus" feature, such as a keepsake poster.

Still, the spadea itself is nicely done. I just think it looks a little strange competing with that centerpiece photo on A1.

I don't care for the Charlotte one (like others, I would've liked to have seen it on the actual 1A), but I really like the Cleveland one, how it's actually an extension of 1A that integrates with it.

One of the things I like about the spadea is that because it apparently has more coverage inside, it allows for more storytelling than you'd get in a 1A centerpiece. It also helps if the reader doesn't want / have time to dive into the minutia of sports analysis, but still wants the big picture. (Or, perhaps, in multi-reader households, where someone already has the sports section)

Question, Sarah: Was there much repetition of content between the spadea and the sports front?

I can understand the argument that it should have been on A1, but I think its a question of impact. By using the spadea format, I'll argue that the story and design has more impact than the predictable A1 treatment. This is the perfect type of story to do that with. I envision a fan buying the paper, pulling off the spadea and handing the rest of the publication to another reader (ie husband, wife, child or friend) so they can read the rest of the publication at the same time (including sports.) The only nitpick I have is that I'd like to have seen A1 designed in a way that meshes with the spadea a little more. Perhaps running the lead headline on the right side in 2 columns. That may have helped draw a few more readers in that didn't care about football.

I think that to be successful spadeas need to integrate into the page they wrap, not obscure it. The best ones have done that - Detroit Free Press, San Jose Mercury News, Virginian-Pilot, and, of course, Dave Kordalski's strokes of genius in Cleveland. If it's really meant to feel like an extension of the front page and not an advertisement, it would be nice if at least the nameplate carried through.

It would have been much better to design the page so that the spadea didn't obscure parts of stories. But other than that, this is a great way to deal with the Panthers story. I can't see blowing out the front page with the news that the team has made the NFL semifinals. Whatever happens this Sunday, the Panthers will be a much bigger story then than they are now. That'll be the time to give them good play on the front page proper. The spadea is bold and eye-catching, and it gets the Panthers story above the fold in the box. To me, it works.

I think it works both ways. If I were a non-journalist sports fan, I could say, "Whoa, look at the neat treatment they gave to the Panthers! I haven't seen anything like that before in this paper!" If I were a non-journalist reader who didn't care, I could say, "I'm glad they relegated that silly Panthers thing to a little piece of paper and left the front page intact with real news." The spadia lends itself to big, blowout coverage of non-news news (which, I'm sorry, is what a football team making the Super Bowl is). You wouldn't use a spadia for coverage of, say, a nuclear standoff in South Asia, but it works here.

Cool discussion going on here.

I'll point out that this win only put the Panthers a win from the Super Bowl ... meaning there's another game Sunday, and POSSIBLY the Super Bowl after that if they beat Seattle.

So maybe this works as an eye-opener to casual sports fans, and you work your way up to big A1 treatment for the NFC title game ... possibly carrying through some of the look and the furniture in the spadia. As Jonathan said, I think this communicates "this is something special!" pretty well. And as Linda said, it allows for more interesting content and storytelling than most A1 centerpieces could.

Aside from the news judgement-type arguments (which are very interesting), thumbs up to Sarah and her crew on the great execution of the spadia. Very eye-catching, awesome photo of Jake Delhomme.

Full disclosure: I'm a big Panthers fan

Let's not forget one big reason this works: You can sell a nice color, front-page advertisement.

I like the idea and, for the most part, the execution. If you've decided you are doing it no matter what, though, then I think you should try to design A1 to work with it. But perhaps we are being too picky. Does the fact it obscures A1 and cuts into the main photo mean readers will not pick it up? I doubt that. On the other hand, non-readers may be brought in by the unusual treatment.
And I agree it works with this type of story. A few years back our Journal Sentinel typically ran a dominant photo on Monday from the weekend's Green Bay Packers' game. It was quite predictable (Packer fever has understandably cooled this year). I often felt it was too much space and emphasis too give to a sports story. This solution would have been welcome.