Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

If we build it, will the Super Bowl come?

Raiders Stadium Rendering

Courtesy of MANICA Architechture

An artist’s illustration of a stadium on Russell Road and Las Vegas Boulevard was revealed during a Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee meeting at UNLV Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016.

We've green-lighted the stadium, and we're working on the team. So if the Raiders and Sheldon Adelson can come to terms and the NFL approves the team's move, when might Las Vegas get The Game?

There’s little doubt that the planned $1.9 billion development approved to help draw the Raiders from Oakland will be a state-of-the-art facility and one of the best football venues in the country. But new NFL stadiums don’t truly become part of the fabric of the league until they’re granted a Super Bowl.

The good news is, it historically hasn’t taken very long. Eight NFL stadiums have opened or started construction in the past decade, and they’ve all hosted or are scheduled to host the biggest sporting event of the year within two to four years of their completion dates.

The next open date is Super Bowl 56, expected on Feb. 5, 2022 — conveniently two years after Las Vegas’ stadium is targeted to open. Is it feasible or fantasy to think the Super Bowl could come to the valley that soon?

Here’s the timeline of how it has played out for each of the five stadiums directly preceding the hopeful home of the Las Vegas Raiders.

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Bruno Mars performs during the halftime show of the NFL Super Bowl XLVIII football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Matt York)

New York Giants’ and New York Jets’ MetLife Stadium

2014 Super Bowl site (stadium opened in 2010)

The NFL was so eager to showcase its first new stadium of the 2010s that it waived a clause stating a cold-weather city without a dome couldn’t host a Super Bowl. MetLife Stadium received the rights to Super Bowl 48 on Feb. 2, 2014. A snowstorm plastered the East Rutherford, N.J., facility six hours after the game, but the Seattle Seahawks’ 43-8 burying of the Denver Broncos went on unobstructed.

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Larry Celano of Chandler, Ariz., watches warm ups before the NFL Super Bowl 50 football game between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium

2016 Super Bowl site (stadium opened in 2014)

For years, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stressed the importance of Super Bowl 50. The NFL considered several venues for the milestone event, but ended up going with the freshest option. The Santa Clara, Calif., stadium hosted the season-concluding game last February, which saw the Denver Broncos defeat the Carolina Panthers 24-10.

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Fans arrive at U.S. Bank Stadium before an NFL football game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, in Minneapolis.

Minnesota Vikings’ U.S. Bank Stadium

2018 Super Bowl site (stadium opened in 2016)

Minneapolis will break a 26-year streak without a Super Bowl — a year longer than the last time Los Angeles hosted — on Feb. 4, 2018, at Super Bowl 52. Getting the event was one of many reasons why the Vikings required a new stadium, as their previous home at the Metrodome became antiquated. The NFL owners announced U.S. Bank Stadium as a Super Bowl site at a May 2014 meeting, two years before it opened.

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In this May 16, 2016, file photo, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the future home of the Atlanta Falcons football team stands under construction, at left, next to the team's current stadium, the Georgia Dome, in Atlanta. The 2019 Super Bowl is scheduled to be played at the new stadium.

Atlanta Falcons’ Mercedes-Benz Stadium

2019 Super Bowl site (stadium opening in 2017)

For two years before City of Champions Stadium’s inaugural season, Atlanta will have the NFL’s newest digs with an upgraded venue adjacent to its current Georgia Dome home. The Falcons will be on the same timetable as the Rams, playing at their new home for two seasons before the Super Bowl comes to town. Mercedes-Benz Stadium got the nod for Super Bowl 53 on Feb. 3, 2019, at the same May owners meeting that Super Bowl 55 was awarded.

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In this May 16, 2016, file photo, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the future home of the Atlanta Falcons football team stands under construction, at left, next to the team's current stadium, the Georgia Dome, in Atlanta. The 2019 Super Bowl is scheduled to be played at the new stadium.

Los Angeles Rams’ City of Champions Stadium

2021 Super Bowl site (stadium opening in 2019)

The project that lured the Rams back to Southern California after 20 years in Saint Louis received a Super Bowl date almost as soon as it broke ground. The Inglewood, Calif., complex will stage Super Bowl 55 on Feb. 7, 2021 at the conclusion of the Rams’ second season playing there. The NFL owners awarded City of Champions the game in May, only four months after approving the Rams’ move.

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This Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, photo shows heavy machinery adjacent to the proposed NFL Rams stadium complex site at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif. The largest contiguous block of unoccupied land in the Los Angeles area will be the site of Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s lavish stadium and a massive surrounding complex. In the background is the former Hollywood Park.

How does the selection process work?

NFL owners typically discuss future Super Bowl sites at their annual spring meeting. Cities with NFL teams place bids to host the game and pitch plans on how they will fulfill the NFL’s list of Super Bowl requirements such as hotels, practice sites and media necessities. There usually are two to three finalists, and a vote of two-thirds (or 24 out of the NFL’s 32 owners) is required for a location to win the bid. The NFL recently adopted giving cities three to five years notice ahead of the Super Bowl. With the next five already booked, that means the 2017 spring owners meeting could pass without discussion on any new sites. The next Super Bowl hosts might not be discussed until the spring of 2018, when there would be more clarity on the Raiders’ potential move to Las Vegas.

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