Tampa clearly is ready to host the Super Bowl in 2021
Tampa will host its fifth Super Bowl in 2021 after the National Football League announced earlier this week that Los Angeles would not be ready to handle the big game. During the bidding process for the 2021 Super Bowl the Tampa Bay area finished a strong second to “the city of angles.”
NFL owners voted unanimously to move Super Bowl LV in February 2021 from Los Angeles to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Los Angeles will now host the Super Bowl in 2022 in their new stadium that will be home to the Rams and the Chargers.
“From our standpoint, we felt this was an appropriate thing to do,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday. “We were fortunate that Tampa had a very competitive presentation when they bid on the Super Bowl earlier [in 2016]. So this was a solution the membership got on very quickly.”
Goodell added that the league and team owners did not consider re-opening the bidding for Super Bowl LV since there was an urgency to make a decision given the “short timeframe” of the situation.
The Sunshine Boys talked about why the Bay Area was awarded the big event after being passed by the NFL in the initial process. Joe Henderson, Ira Kaufman have covered over 30 Super Bowls and they understand what it takes land one.
Kaufman thinks that the Bay Area has a very long and good relationship with the NFL. “The Tampa Bay Sports Commission, has proven that they can handle the big events and they have been good soldiers working with the league on all the bids they have put forth.”
Meanwhile, Henderson agreed with his colleague on Tampa being ready to go. “I think that Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, has proved that if it is a Super Bowl, a Frozen Four or The National College Football Playoff Championship Game, the city can make it work on all levels.”
2009 was the last time Tampa hosted the game at Raymond James Stadium. However, even after hosting Alabama and Clemson in The Playoff Championship, the facility will be putting the final touches on the $150 million renovation project.