When weather conditions pushed the opening of the Rams’ and Chargers’ new Southern California home from a 2019 date to 2020, it didn’t just force two franchises into sub-optimal stadiums for an extra year; it also put Los Angeles’ Super Bowl LV bid in jeopardy.
NFL owners vote to move Super Bowl LV from Los Angeles to Tampa in 2021
The future home of the Rams and Chargers won’t get the big game until 2022.
John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
Now, Los Angeles will not host the 2021 Super Bowl after all, when officials at the NFL Spring League Meeting voted to move the sporting world’s premier event to Tampa. That decision was confirmed and made official in October.
“The final approval of Super Bowl LV is a great source of pride for the Glazer family, the Buccaneers organization and the entire Tampa Bay region,” Buccaneers co-chairman Bryan Glazer said in a statement. “We have made substantial improvements in recent years to ensure that Raymond James Stadium could ultimately host the game for a third time and we appreciate that our fellow owners have recognized the stadium and our area’s long and distinguished history as a world-class host city.”
Instead, LA will host the 2022 Super Bowl.
League rules mandate a venue must be open for at least two seasons prior to hosting a Super Bowl, and it was assumed there would be a special waiver from league offices to allow the game to stay in LA. Tuesday’s decision shows that the NFL ultimately decided to go in the other direction, and push the City of Angels’ Super Bowl back one year.
The league has waived Super Bowl rules to award the event to a venue in a priority market in the past. Super Bowl 48 needed NFL approval to be a rare open-air experience in a winter climate, but MetLife Stadium was allowed to host a 43-8 Broncos bloodletting at the hands of the Seahawks.
This time around, it just wasn’t in the cards. Now Tampa will host its fifth Super Bowl, and Los Angeles will have to wait one more year than expected.
Minneapolis will host next year’s Super Bowl, while Super Bowl LIII will be in Atlanta. Miami gets a turn in 2019, before the big game heads to Tampa and then to LA.
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