The National Football League kicked off its 100th season with a classic rivalry matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears in one of the sports’ most historic venues, Soldier Field. Now, the league will take its biggest game to South Beach to wrap up the 2019-20 season.
Super Bowl LIV will be played between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on February 2, 2020. The game will be televised on FOX with kickoff scheduled for 6:30pm ET. This marks the first time Miami has hosted a Super Bowl since 2010 and the 11th time overall the area has hosted the game, surpassing New Orleans (10) as the most frequent host city.
In addition, this year’s Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show will be headlined by international superstars Jennifer Lopez and Shakira.
Hard Rock Stadium Renovations
The city of Miami offers an ideal climate and setting for the annual February championship game. However, South Florida’s winning bid had much to do with the recent renovations and upgrades at Hard Rock Stadium. The current home of the Miami Dolphins and Miami Hurricanes received a major facelift over the span of three offseasons beginning in 2015.
The $350 million modernization project included the replacement of all stadium seats, the addition of multiple club and suite spaces, an audio system, over 22,000 square feet of HD video boards, and a unique open-air canopy.
Upcoming Super Bowl Locations
Locations for the next five Super Bowls, including 2020, have already been announced by the NFL. Next year, the big stage will move to the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Raymond James Stadium, only about 300 miles north of South Beach. That will be the fifth Super Bowl ever hosted in Tampa and the first since 2009.
In 2022, Super Bowl LVI will be played in SoFi Stadium in Englewood, California. The soon-to-be $5 billion home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers is currently scheduled to open in July 2020.
State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona will play host to the 2023 Super Bowl for the third time since it opened its doors in 2006. The stadium’s most recent Super Bowl ended in a New England Patriots victory over the Seattle Seahawks, thanks to CB Malcolm Butler’s infamous goal line interception of QB Russell Wilson.
Finally in 2024, Super Bowl LVIII will return to New Orleans, Louisiana for the 11th time in the game’s history. That will also mark the end of an 11-year gap since the Mercedes-Benz Superdome hosted Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.
The NFL’s Host City Requirements
As evidenced by the number of repeats at venues around the league, not any city or stadium is fit to host a Super Bowl. In fact, the NFL has an expansive list – a 153-page document to be exact – of requirements that must be met, which was leaked back in June 2014.
The guidelines apply to the host stadium as well as the surrounding area and infrastructure. These requirements range anywhere from a minimum of 70,000 fixed seats to acceptable levels of cell phone signal at team hotels.
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