Along with New Orleans, South Florida has hosted the Super Bowl a record ten times. But when the Crescent City hosts the big game next year it will pull ahead of Miami without a chance for Magic City to catch up, at least for a while.
The next Super Bowl up for competition is in 2016, the 50th anniversary of America’s premiere sporting event, which also happens to be the 50th anniversary of the Miami Dolphins. But much has to be done before the National Football League decides to come back to what has been its second home.
“The NFL loves coming here. This is the ideal place to hold the Super Bowl,” says Mike Dee, CEO of the Dolphins.
And while he calls South Florida a football paradise, Dee says luring the game back to Miami again will be a challenge.
"Competition for Super Bowls from a venue perspective has never been as fierce as it is today,” he says.
Much of the discussion about the whether the Dolphins can bring the game back to their stadium involves construction of some sort of cover or protection for fans from what can be volatile weather in South Florida.
After heavy rain dampened the mood in the 2007 Super Bowl in Miami there were rumors that NFL watned a roof on the stadium and Commissioner Roger Goodell has said in the past that upgrades to Sun Life would have to be made for the team to host the big game in the future.
“The reality is the NFL never said, ‘you have to have a roof,’ and in fact we are not even contemplating a roof. We are contemplating a canopy that would just cover the seating area. The playing area would always stay open to the natural elements,” Dee said.
A bid for public funding of stadium improvements in the Florida Legislature went nowhere last year, but Dee says the timing on that attempt was wrong and that the team would try again.
“We have to everything we can to make sure this facility competes,” he said, adding that the team would also like to build 3,500 more lower bowl seats now that the Florida Marlins no longer use the stadium.
Although the Dolphins are looking for public funding to help with the costs of improvements, Dee said the community at large benefits from hosting a Super Bowl.
“The Dolphins, by comparison to the community, benefit very little,” Dee said.
He said that the last three Super Bowls have resulted in over a billion dollars of economic impact for South Florida.
