Indianapolis' success as a Super Bowl host should hopefully open up doors for other venues to host the big game.
Feb 7, 2012 - By almost every account, the city of Indianapolis proved to be not just a good host for Super Bowl XLVI, but one of the best in recent history. Scores of praise rained in all week from media, fans, and celebrities, all of whom descended on a Midwestern city that perhaps some felt wasn't "big time" enough to host an event of this scale.
In fact, one of those people was SB Nation's own Andrew Sharp, an advocate of simply having the Super Bowl rotate between Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Miami every year. Personally, my hope is that the overwhelming success in Indy opens up opportunities for Super Bowls in places where championship-caliber football should be hosted.
Why not a Super Bowl at the great Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City?
Solider Field in Chicago?
Heinz Field in Pittsburgh?
Lambeau Field!!!
Yes, yes, yes, I know the silly conditions that the NFL requires of a Super Bowl host city. The one that everyone seems to focus on is the temperature (median of 50 degrees), but with the success of Indy (who was more than prepared for colder temperatures should they have arrived) and with the Meadowlands in New Jersey getting awarded the Super Bowl in 2016, I think we can now view the temperature condition as more of a friendly guideline, not a rule.
Look, I won't hide my overwhelmingly biased love for how Super Bowl XLVI transformed the town I grew up in, raising its profile. Sure, Indy had hosted Final Fours, conference championships, an NBA championship series, and scores of other events. Hosting a Super Bowl is a completely different animal, and Indy not only did the job, they set the standard for how all future venues should host Super Bowls.
While I understand the reasons for rewarding a city for building a new stadium with a possible Super Bowl bid, would it not also make sense to celebrate the biggest football game of the year in a historical football venue? Solider Field, Arrowhead Stadium, and Lambeau Field all made recent renovations that increased the seating capacities of their venues. And if, say, a spot like Green Bay did not have the hotel capacity, don't you think they'd work to beef that up some if they knew they had a chance to host a Super Bowl?
I understand the appeal of a warm weather locale with a stadium that is climate controlled. Warm weather makes people happy, and when grumpy media have to descend on a spot for seven-or-so days to cover something like the Super Bowl, they'd obviously prefer it to be sunny tropical and not frozen tundra. Same goes for all the corporate sponsors and league deal makers who also converge on the yearly site for Super Bowl week, and let's just be honest here, the "Super Bowl" is really nothing more than a big corporate party with the grand finale being a football game.
Heck, it's even got its own little Oscar party now.
Still, from a purely football perspective, wouldn't it be wonderful to have the biggest game of the year in a place steeped in NFL lore? Don't you think a place like Pittsburgh, in a state hit hard by adverse economic times, would take the host model set by Indianapolis and blast it out of the park? Projections are that the Super Bowl will have an economic impact of $150 million, with between 100,000 and 150,000 visitors just for last week. It's the kind of economic shot in the arm many places need.
Wouldn't this be more appealing than , say, having the Super Bowl in Pasadena... yet... again... for... like... the... 500th... friggin... time.
Why not Kansas City? Think of the food options. The BBQ! THE BEER!
Think of the places to go in downtown Chicago. Yeah, it'll be cold, and maybe we might actually have WEATHER affect the game. The horror! It's not like weather has never affected a game in a warm weather city (Miami and Super Bowl XLI), and Chicago in February feels no colder than New Jersey will be in February 2016. And, unlike Jersey, where all the hotels and media events will happen in Jersey and not in Manhattan, Soldier Field is a few steps away from Chicago nightlife.
Think of the special lore in Green Bay, and of the P.R. One of the biggest selling points in the NFL is their business model. A market as small as Green Bay can not only maintain a franchise, but their franchise is also one of the best ever. Why not give that venue a shot to host? Why not have a Super Bowl in the land they call "Title Town"?
All these options suddenly become viable after Indianapolis and Super Bowl XLVI. There's even talk that Indy will be placed in the regular Super Bowl rotation, along with Pasadena, Miami, and New Orleans. Certainly, the place they call "Naptown" has earned a chance to host again, and it has hopefully opened a door for other cities to potentiality host the big game.
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