As we well know in Cincinnati, public funding for stadiums has become a necessary evil for the NFL. There is a game that is played where the team threatens to move to another location, leaving the city and the fans high and dry with no team in town. It happened to us, it happens all across the country.
Now there is a new carrot that the NFL owners can dangle in front of the cities they represent. What if parlaying a major stadium upgrade, or new build, came with the promise that a Super Bowl would be held in their city?
Politicians love events that bring people to the city. They want to put their best image out, bring tourism dollars and successfully host an event that shines a positive light on the area. What better event to host than the Super Bowl?
With the option to have the big game in cities where it was not a possibility before, this is going to become another bargaining chip in stadium financing. For an organization (the NFL) that in the past has had very little trouble getting public dollars, they just made it that much easier.
Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Detroit have already played these cards successfully. I can imagine we are going to see this trickle into discussions of stadium financing in the future.