The National Automobile Dealers Association has yielded to America's National Football League in a clash of dates caused by the terrorist attacks.

Paul Browning, of Grant Thornton Motor Retail, which is organising a trip to NADA's 2002 convention in partnership with Automotive Management, said: “NADA has had to move the convention forward a week. Our visit to New Orleans will now be between January 26-29.”

The NFL was forced to start its season a week late because of disruption after September 11. This meant the Super Bowl – one of America's biggest sporting events – needed to be on February 3 which clashed with the convention.

Garel Rhys, automotive professor at Cardiff University Business School, said at a Grant Thornton NADA reunion: “The convention demonstrates dealer power in the US where manufacturers bend the knee in supplication. American dealers have strong rights over retaining franchises. It is nothing like the position in Europe.”