Super Bowl Locations: Latest Info on Future Venues for NFL Championship Games

With the eyes of the nation turned toward Glendale, Arizona—and Phoenix by extension—for the 2015 Super Bowl it's only natural that some of those gazes are tinged green with envy. 

The NFL reigns supreme in American sports, and every year the Super Bowl is the crown achievement, heaping massive amounts of attention on whichever city is tasked with hosting the ubiquitous event.

This year, hordes of people are descending upon the desert to watch the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks do battle in the gleaming University of Phoenix Stadium. The thoroughly modern stadium is an ideal Super Bowl venue, one that allows the Arizona Cardinals franchise to bask in the reflected glory as the representative team in the proud host city.

Unsurprisingly, there are other cities and teams that want in on this event. In the midst of the cacophonous, all-encompassing Super Bowl chatter, there are snatches of conversation regarding potential future locations for the NFL championship and the league's overarching plan for the future of this event.

First, here's a quick look at the confirmed locales for future Super Bowls.

Year	Stadium	City	Affiliated Team
2016	Levi's Stadium	Santa Clara, CA	San Francisco 49ers
2017	Reliant Stadium	Houston, TX	Houston Texans
2018	Vikings Stadium	Minneapolis, MN	Minnesota Vikings

The NFL, perhaps emboldened by the success of Super Bowl 2014 in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will venture north again to Vikings Stadium in 2018, an under-construction cathedral to the gridiron game.

Minneapolis hosted the Super Bowl at the Metrodome in 1992, but the event has grown considerably since then, leading to greater challenges for host cities.

According to the Star Tribune, the executive board of the Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee has spent time in Arizona picking up info that will help them put on a successful event in 2018. Frigid temperatures figure to be a concern.

“We have to be extra especially warm in our personalities,” committee CEO Maureen Bausch said. “I think it’s all about people. If we make them feel good, they’re going to have a good time. Arizona has done a good job of that, even in the rain."

The buildup to the game is enormous, making hosting outdoor events a challenge for a northern city. As for the event logistics themselves, the Star Tribune provided some updates:

"Tentative plans include hosting Super Bowl Media Day at either Target Center or Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. And although Minneapolis will have the game, Bausch said there is a commitment to hosting events in St. Paul as well."

For most Super Bowls, weather hasn't been a concern.

Traditionally, the NFL has gone with stadiums in warm climates for the championship contest. Nobody would want inclement weather sullying the game's results, and the northern United States doesn't tend to be a hot travel destination for fans during winter.

Nick Wass/Associated Press

This resulted in heavy rotation between Louisiana, Florida and Southern California. However, MetLife Stadium proved to be a success, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has stated that he wants to bring the biggest game of the year to more varied locations.

"I believe we need to get to as many communities as possible and give them the opportunity to share in not only the emotional benefits but also the economic benefits. It helps the NFL, it helps our fans and it helps grow our game," he said in January 2014, per Pro Football Talk's Josh Alper.

Still, the NFL might've gotten lucky in their open-air experiment, as the northeast has seen huge amounts of snow recently. It's likely that football fans would want to see the Super Bowl action mitigated by inclement weather, so the risk persists even though the league is proving to be more adventurous.

This could make things difficult for a city like Pittsburgh, which could be angling for a hosting bid. Steelers president Art Rooney II, told CBS Pittsburgh's Barbara Boylan he can see the city hosting the big game, and even laid out an approach to boosting the city's chances:

"

I think that perhaps near-term, we should focus on trying to attract some other kinds of events as a lead up to it. We attempted to attract the Army-Navy game here a few years ago. So, something like that would be a great way to sort of warm up for the event, if you will. We’d like to host another Winter Classic someday. I know that the Pirates have always tried to pursue the [MLB] All-Star Game, which is a big event. 

"

It's not out of the realm of possibility. With weather less and less of a concern for the NFL, other factors increase in significance. If places like Pittsburgh can now imagine a path to hosting, one of the traditional locations could get bumped out of the order.

Jacksonville.com's Vito Stellino recently noted Florida is losing ground due to a lack of new stadiums:

"

Florida has lost some of its Super Bowl clout because no pro football stadiums have been built in the state for more than a decade. The Jaguars started playing in EverBank Field in 1995 and Tampa opened Raymond James Stadium in 1998. Miami is now pouring $400 million into a renovation of Sun Life Stadium.

"

Patric Schneider/Associated Press

Indeed, Vikings Stadium will be essentially brand new when it hosts the game and 2016 will see the league take the event to the state-of-the-art Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. NRG Stadium is relatively new, having opened in 2002. This bodes well for Atlanta, a potential 2019 host city with a new stadium set to open in 2017.

Even with the increased competition, it appears Florida cities—which have hosted a combined 14 Super Bowls—are still eager to host the big game.

"The city would love another Super Bowl,’’ Alan Verlander, head of the Jacksonville Sports Council, said (via Stellino's report). “The Jaguars have to lead the way. They would go to the NFL and say we want to bring it here and we would kind of work with them. The Jaguars would do the heavy lifting with the NFL and we would do the heavy lifting in Jacksonville."

Stellino also noted that Dolphins owner Steve Ross hopes upgrades to Sun Life Stadium will see Miami "host at least three more in the next 20 years." The team provided a look at the renovations process in mid-January:

With the growth of the sport in America, and by proxy the big game itself, the league can demand more from host cities. Perhaps the league will begin to look more seriously at London as a potential Super Bowl host. The league has already dipped its toes in across-the-pond football with NFL International Series. The idea has been mentioned before, and London no doubt has the infrastructure, venue (Wembley Stadium) and Q rating to be a fantastic host city. 

Heck, the league even requires that a prospective host city agree to move at least one NFL home game to London in order to be eligible for Super Bowl hosting duties, per Daniel Kaplan of the Sports Business Journal.

Give it time, and the NFL's inexorable march toward sporting ubiquity could see the Super Bowl take place overseas.