Of all the ideas that ESPN “Listen to me about everything” guru Bill Simmons has had, the one that has always made the most sense is that the Super Bowl should be hosted on a rotating basis with just cities like Miami, San Diego and New Orleans receiving the honor, because those are fun cities. Of course the primary argument to that is “What about New York, Boston, Chicago and all of the other large northern cities that also have NFL franchises?” and the appropriate response is simply “Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.”
Unless a northern city’s franchise plays in a dome (a la the Indianapolis Colts) there’s pretty much no chance in hell that it will play host to a Super Bowl soon. That is, unless Super Bowl XLVIII in New Jersey can change the league’s mind, and the city of Seattle hopes so, because people up there would love to play host for a week, despite the league’s tyrannical rules.
There are various minimum requirements for potential host stadiums, including a 70,000 seat capacity. CenturyLink Field has the capability to reach that mark. The league also set capacity for this year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis at 68,000.
Another requirement calls for an average temperature of 50 degrees in the month of February for outdoor venues. Seattle’s average temperature in February is 44 degrees, but the owners waived the weather requirement for the 2014 Super Bowl in New Jersey. Many believe that the game at MetLife Stadium will be a strong litmus test for other outdoor stadiums in colder climates.
(Via Q13 Fox)
Most of my family lives in Washington, so I’m pretty familiar with Seattle and its awesomeness, and I’m absolutely signing on for this. For starters, don’t worry about seats, because Century Link Field has that covered, and it’s also one of the best venues I’ve ever been to. But it’s that stupid weather rule that people are going to point out, and I think it’s just wrong.
Barring any Mayan prophecies coming true, Next year’s Super Bowl is in New Orleans, the 2014 Super Bowl is in New Jersey and Glendale, AZ plays host to the big game in 2015. Super Bowl L is going to be a huge occasion, and I’m almost willing to bet that it’s going to be in London, unless Los Angeles gets its act together and builds a stadium by then. That means that 2017 is the next year that Seattle would have a shot, and by then the climate should be decimated enough that the average February temperatures would be in the 50s. It’s all about forward thinking, NFL.
