The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the NFL will announce whether the Super Bowl will return to northern California. It would be the first time since Stanford Stadium hosted Super Bowl XIX, when the 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-16 in the 1984 season.
The site of the possible future Super Bowl, either L (50) in 2016 or LI (51) in 2017 will be in Santa Clara, the future site of the new 49ers Stadium.
Mayor Ed Lee and several civic leaders have been working behind the scenes for San Francisco to bid to be the host city. 49ers CEO Jed York said in a phone interview, “San Francisco is our home. If and when we win a Super Bowl, the parade will be on Market Street.”
The cost of hosting the Super Bowl would be close to $25 million, all privately financed.
The NFL typically requests for Super Bowl cities to contribute $1 million dollars to youth programs, a donation that is matched by the NFL.
The next three Super Bowls are already scheduled. Super Bowl XLVII will be hosted by New Orleans, Super Bowl XLVIII will go to New Jersey/New York, making it the first outdoor Super Bowl at a cold weather site, and Super Bowl XLIX will be played in Arizona.
The NFL wants the 50th Anniversary Super Bowl to be something special. It would be the perfect grand stage for Santa Clara/San Francisco to showcase its $1.2 billion dollar state-of-the-art stadium and return the game back to its original roots.
The first Super Bowl, then officially called the AFL-NFL Championship game, was played in Los Angeles on January 15, 1967 at the Coliseum before a crowd of 61,000. The NFL’s Green Bay Packers defeated the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. The AFL-NFL Championship Game’s name was changed to the Super Bowl in Super Bowl III.
The NFL will announce who will be awarded Super Bowl L in May 2013.
