Will the New Vikings Stadium Bring a Super Bowl to Minnesota?

With the new Vikings’ stadium finally a reality, we can start to think about the perks of a shiny new facility that (hopefully) won’t collapse because it’s snowing.

One particular perk to keep in mind: the very real possibility that Minnesota will soon host a Super Bowl.

It’s been 20 years since Minnesota hosted its one and only Super Bowl. Not that I’m complaining. Even then, the Metrodome wasn’t the best facility, the weather in Minnesota is not at its best in February and the Twin Cities night life isn’t exactly world famous.

So it’s understandable why it took 10 years after the Metrodome was built for Minnesota to get a Super Bowl.

But the NFL has set a precedent with many of the most recently built stadiums. The stadiums in Arizona, Dallas, Houston and Tampa Bay all received a Super Bowl within at least three years of their opening. Detroit, New Jersey and Indianapolis all hosted a Super Bowl within four years.

In the 10 Super Bowls that have been scheduled since Super Bowl XL in 1996 in Detroit, only two cities who had not built a stadium in the 10 years beforehand received the bid, Miami (twice—2007, 2010) and New Orleans (2013), but both those stadiums incurred massive renovations before winning their Super Bowl bids.

The NFL has also started to move away from its “Super Bowl will only be held in paradise” stance. While the majority of Super Bowls are still played in southern, vacation-friendly cities, the recent Super Bowls in Detroit, Indianapolis and soon to be East Rutherford, New Jersey in 2014 show a willingness to bring America’s biggest game into the cold-weather elements of the north.

Now, with the Minnesota legislature and the Wilf family agreeing on a deal to build Metrodome 2.0, it seems like only a matter of time before the Vikings and the city of Minneapolis start putting in bids for a Super Bowl.

With an early estimate on the finish of the stadium in 2016, the first possible Super Bowl would be Super Bowl LI in 2017

Who knows? By then, we should be out of rebuilding mode. Maybe we could be the first team to host a Super Bowl we play in.