Secrets Reveled: Why Hasn’t Colorado Ever Hosted A Super Bowl?
It's Super Bowl season in Colorado and around the world, as the 58th year of this great NFL tradition continues with the San Francisco 49ers, and the (hated in Colorado!) Kansas City Chiefs. Besides the Broncos being awful since winning it all at Super Bowl 50 eight years ago, why can't Colorado host the NFL's biggest game of the year?
Has Colorado Ever Hosted A Super Bowl
While our beloved Denver Broncos have played in eight Super Bowls, winning three of them by the way, our state has never had the opportunity to play host to the biggest sporting event in the world. But why?
It's easy to quickly blame our incredibly unpredictable weather, but that's not the only reason. Super Sunday this year by the way is going to be sunny, but the high is only 41 degrees, so we get the weather thing. New York is also a colder winter state with an outdoor stadium, and they hosted Super Bowl 48 (where the Broncos got killed by Seattle, but we don't talk about that one), so why can't we have one?
Why Can't Colorado Host A Super Bowl?
From specific needs and requirements for the stadium to hotels and transportation to accommodate the zoo of people that hosting a Super Bowl many obvious needs must be met to check all of the NFL's boxes.
In a confidential document, that was supposed to be more of a secret kept under wraps, it lists out the NFL's demands when hosting Super Bowl 52 in 2018. Based on these alone, Colorado is eliminated fairly quickly.
NFL's List Of Requirements To Host A Super Bowl In Colorado
- Seating Capacity: The stadium must hold over 70,000 fans. Mile High holds 76,000, so we check that box.
- Temporary Seating: With the capacity that we have, we don't need temp seating to meet their capacity numbers. There's also no place to safely add additional seating at Mile High. Another box checked...
- Ticket Revenue: The NFL would control 100% of the revenue. No surprise there. Check.
- ADA Seating: Mile High has plenty of ADA access and seating. Another check!
- Climate Control/Inclement Weather Planning: Here's where we lose... "The NFL requires a climate-controlled domed Stadium if the historical average daily temperature over a 10-year period in the Host Community on the week of the Game is below 50 degrees." It gets cold around Colorado in Feb, and we for whatever reason, prefer to play in the freezing temps in Colorado and have no dome over our lovely Empower Field at Mile High.
Their crazy list of requirements goes on and on, but basically, unless they dome what we have, or build a brand new domed stadium at some point, which HAS been discussed within the new ownership group, Colorado will continue to be ineligible as a future Super Bowl host.
I don't know about you but I'm less concerned about hosting one, and far more concerned about making and winning one these days... Go Broncos!
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