The NFL chose Minneapolis, Minnesota last month as the host site for the 2018 Super Bowl. With a new stadium for the Vikings on the way, the NFL decided to choose the northern metropolis over New Orleans, Louisiana, a popular Super Bowl venue that has hosted almost every major sporting event in the country.
But over the weekend, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune unearthed a list of demands that Minneapolis needed to have in order to earn the 2018 bid. It wasn't just a list, but instead a 153-page report on what a city needs to have in place to host a Super Bowl.
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I actually printed off the NFL's Super Bowl bid requirements. This is all a city needs. Nothing much... pic.twitter.com/qHv3MCjCoW
— Tadd Haislop (@TaddHaislop) June 8, 2014
Here is a brief look at some of the more interesting demands:
— Use of presidential suites at the city's finest hotels at no cost
— Free access to three elite golf courses in the months leading up to the event
— Two bowling venues for NFL celebrity bowling events
— NFL-preferred ATMs installed throughout the stadium and the removal of ATMs that "conflict with preferred payment service."
— Free promotional space in newspapers and from radio stations for "The NFL Experience," as well as free use of billboards throughout the city
— 35, 000 free parking spaces
— Exemption from municipal. county and state taxes
The entire report is fascinating. The city complied with most of the NFL's demands, but there was at least one exception.
The NFL wanted — at no cost — the “exclusive right” to select vendors to sell Super Bowl merchandise at local airports and the “unrestricted ability” to put kiosks in multiple spots at an airport.
But Patrick Hogan, a Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman, said the commission was asked about the requirement before the bid was submitted, but had not agreed to the request. Typically, he said, the commission itself connects event organizers with existing vendors at the airport.
You can read the entire report here.