Bob CollinsNo Super Bowl for you anytime soon, Minnesota, unless your team plays its way in.
The National Football League today gave Super Bowl L in 2016 to San Francisco, part punishment for Miami for not approving public financing of its stadium, and part reward for San Francisco (actually, Santa Clara) for practically paying for the entire stadium. The stadium authority in San Francisco borrowed $850 million from Goldman Sachs and US Bank to pay for the new stadium, construction on which started last year.
The league further smacked Miami when it awarded the 2017 game today to Houston. That’s a fairly old stadium as the stadium business goes these days — 11 years. Seventy-three percent of it was paid for with occupancy and car rental taxes, a ticket tax, and a parking tax. But it had also already hosted a Super Bowl — 2004.
Next year’s Super Bowl is being played in New Jersey, which is the league’s newest stadium, but wasn’t built directly with public funds. The 2015 game is in Arizona, which built a stadium for the Cardinals the same year as Indianapolis — site of the 2012 game — did.
If future Super Bowls are awarded to city’s where taxpayers foot the bill, Minneapolis may have a longer wait. Dallas, with the second-newest stadium, hosted the game in 2011, but is said to be competing hard for the 2018 game. The NFL, however, may not want to put the game in the same state two years in a row.
That puts Minneapolis in line — maybe — for 2018, although other cold-weather cities with a bigger profile — Chicago and, perhaps, Denver, might provide competition.
“The day’s events send a clear message to cities and teams: If your stadium is out of date, you aren’t going to get Super Bowls,” the NFL’s Around the League column said today.
