The San Francisco 49ers have officially won the honor to host the 50th Anniversary of the NFL’s biggest game. Houston just narrowly missed out on hosting Super Bowl L, and instead will host the following year’s game.
NFL team officials voted Tuesday, to announce that the 49ers would play hosts for the monumental Super Bowl L. The team’s new facilities in Santa Clara, Calif., “Levi’s Stadium,” will be open for play at the start of the 2014 season. The new Bay Area sporting venue will be just two years old when it hosts the 2016 Super Bowl. Stanford Stadium in Northern California is the only other stadium to play host to football’s grandest stage.
San Francisco had been thought to lose their bid to the favored South Florida franchise, but complications with stadium renovations prevented SunLife stadium from hosting a record 11th football championship. Miami is tied with New Orleans for the most Super Bowls hosted.
“After losing a Super Bowl [to the Baltimore Ravens], it feels really good to win a Super Bowl,” San Francisco CEO Jed York cracked.
Houston also beat out Miami’s bid to host a Super Bowl and will do so in 2017. Houston’s Reliant Stadium has hosted a Super Bowl once before in 2004.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am for Houston in being selected as the site for the 2017 Super Bowl,” Texans owner Bob McNair said. “This is a worldwide stage that will be constructed in Houston and the world will be watching. It’s an opportunity to showcase our wonderful city, the NFL and the Super Bowl all at the same time.”
The 2014 “Big Game” will be hosted in cold-weather MetLife Stadium in the New York/New Jersey Meadowlands area, which could bode well for cold-weather venues to one-day host a Super Bowl. The league will take the Super Bowl back to warmer weather when Phoenix Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals, plays host to the 2015 edition of the NFL Championship.
The biggest takeaway from Tuesday’s announcement is that the Super Bowl’s 50th playing will be returning to the state that hosted the first Championship. Though the game did not sell out, fans were treated to the very first championship, which saw the Packers up-end the Chiefs 35-10. If the league would have approved stadium plans for Los Angeles, the inaugural site of the inaugural Super Bowl could have potentially returned 50 years later to the city where it all began.
