The announcement of where Super Bowl LII would be on Tuesday had many layers to it. There was Indianapolis, who had put together a great experience for the game in 2012. There was New Orleans, who had never lost when being a finalist for the game being 10-for-10. Finally there was Minneapolis, who had not hosted a Super Bowl in over 20 years.
Many experts believed that New Orleans would win because of how many times they had already hosted the game. In the end though, the NFL owners decided that the new stadium in Minneapolis was going to be the spot for the league’s biggest event and announced that the game will be held there on Feb. 4, 2018. This is the pitch used by the Minneapolis committee to win the game.
The excitement level in the Twin Cities went through the roof with the announcement and now the city knows that it can prepare for the Super Bowl at the new Vikings Stadium. This boils down to the new stadium in the end. NFL owners love putting games at newly finished stadiums like what they did for Super Bowl L and the 49ers’ new building. It took all four votes for Minneapolis to win with the final vote coming between New Orleans and Minneapolis.
Obviously, the owners wanted the game in a different site in the end that had the new stadium and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell basically said that after the vote was announced. The last time the Twin Cities hosted the big game was Super Bowl XXVI when the Washington Redskins beat the Buffalo Bills. There has been a stigma about playing the game in cold weather cities for years but that was busted with the games in Indianapolis and the New York/New Jersey area over the past couple seasons. Here are Goodell’s thoughts about the game in a cold weather region.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g2Yx9JDOM8
The new stadium that is replacing the Metrodome is scheduled to open in 2016 which means it will be in its second season when the Super Bowl arrives early in 2018. There was a lot of public money put into the stadium project and now those fans get to have the biggest game on the sports calendar right in their backyard. There is zero doubt that they will embrace the opportunity to show the sporting world what the Twin Cities can do. Hopefully, the weather that week holds out and there aren’t any blizzards on the horizon.