Super Bowl At Memorial Stadium?

[mrsticka]

What if the Super Bowl was played at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln? That would be pretty wild I know. But college stadiums have hosted Super Bowls in the past. The Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl for example. So it wouldn’t be unheard of to host it.

[damonhynes]

Not enough hotel rooms. The airport can't handle the traffic.

[Busguy2010]

I guess I don't see any reason why the stadium itself couldn't host it. Other things that come to mind are: big games in winter are usually held in destination cities, either in the south, in a dome, or in California, so those of us who are freezing our butts off in -20 degree weather halfway through February can go on vacation, or watch on TV and weep. I don't think anybody wants to be here in mid February lol, let alone deliberately come here.

Pretty sure the only Super Bowl ever hosted outdoors in a cold climate was in New York when the Broncos got trucked by the Seahawks. I found it funny how leading up to the game, everybody was freaking out about the weather, and it only ended up being in the 40's. They sold a lot of these chrome reflective poofy coats. I still kinda want one. Can you imagine if they were facing a wind chill of -30?

The Super Bowl is a week(s) long event. Is there enough to do in Lincoln and Omaha in mid February? I imagine if it were to happen in a dream world, most people would spend their time and lodge in Omaha with not much to do.

But I like to think of how miserable it would probably be. Some of the most historically memorable games were played in deadly cold conditions. But I don't think weather should be a factor in the league's biggest game, hence why they play them where they do.

Realistically though, I am waiting for college football, and the Huskers to clean up their operations, so that some day Memorial stadium could be host to a late December, home field, high stakes playoff game. That, I do believe, could realistically happen before the day I die.

[Busguy2010]

Detroit and Minnesota have hosted it before, but also, again, domed stadiums and bigger cities.

[mrsticka]

Well, I know it's a long shot, but I had to ask anyway. I went onto Reddit and asked this same question and everyone acted like I was high on drugs. Obviously, they don't think it's a good idea. To them, Memorial Stadium hosting the Super Bowl is blasphemy.

[Busguy2010]

Well, I know it's a long shot, but I had to ask anyway. I went onto Reddit and asked this same question and everyone acted like I was high on drugs. Obviously, they don't think it's a good idea. To them, Memorial Stadium hosting the Super Bowl is blasphemy.

If those spring football leagues ever gain any traction, I could see memorial stadium hosting their championship game.

But, thats far from Super Bowl caliber.

I think the weather and the nothing to do are the bigger factors than just the stadium itself.

[Toto]

I went onto Reddit and asked this same question and everyone acted like I was high on drugs.

LMAO! That's how stupid the idea is. The Denver Broncos are spending FOUR BILLION DOLLARS on a new stadium with a dome just so they can hose the super bowl. Memorial Stadium isn't even in the same galaxy with a new four billion dollar stadium.

[Omaha Cowboy]

I went onto Reddit and asked this same question and everyone acted like I was high on drugs.

LMAO! That's how stupid the idea is. The Denver Broncos are spending FOUR BILLION DOLLARS on a new stadium with a dome just so they can hose the super bowl. Memorial Stadium isn't even in the same galaxy with a new four billion dollar stadium.

Right.. In addition to that, Lincoln only has a fraction of hotel room availability to house a Super Bowl week..

Even Omaha, with a much larger hotel room availability than Lincoln, is tight for the CWS..

Memorial Stadium hosting a Super Bowl? An unrealistic fantasy…

Ciao..LiO…Peace

[Busguy2010]

Memorial Stadium hosting a Super Bowl? An unrealistic fantasy…

Ciao..LiO…Peace

Its kinda a fun thought though lol. In a parallel universe.

Just imagining the game itself, all logistics aside. Playing football in February, in Nebraska. That would be somethin else.

[Busguy2010]

The Denver Broncos are spending FOUR BILLION DOLLARS on a new stadium with a dome just so they can hose the super bowl.

Huh, that's interesting. I didn't know they had a new stadium in the works. The first question that came to mind was "will it be pressurized?" Joking, obviously.

[nebugeater]

Memorial Stadium will never host a preseason game. Why would one think a Super Bowl played there is even a dream is beyond delusional.

[riceweb]

The reality is that it's an uncomfortable outdated stadium with terrible concessions, long lines, upset troughs and portapotties. It's entirely ill-suited to the types of big-money Super Bowl fans in a town that has only a handful of premium hotel options.

The nostalgia is great, but Memorial is leagues apart from modern stadiums. And that's why we'll never get a major renovation or rebuild of Memorial, because the price tag on a proper rebuild is probably around $2b, which is the kind of money we just don't have in this state.

[HskrFanMike]

Super Bowls have to be hosted by a local NFL team. That's why the Super Bowl went nearly 30 years (1993-2022) between games in Los Angeles. And I think the Rose Bowl was the last non-NFL stadium to host a Super Bowl.

[WBR_Tom]

It was a sincere/serious question so I'll try to discuss it seriously!

That would probably be a better pure football venue than most of the NFL stadiums they play it in, and that's coming from someone that didn't grow up here and doesn't have any sentimental attachment to Memorial Stadium. But Minneapolis and Detroit, two metros much bigger than Omaha/Lincoln, struggled to meet the NFL's requirements. When Minneapolis hosted, the StarTribune newspaper got a copy of the host city bid specs and requirements binder. It's nuts. (And it's a decade old, so their specs are probably even greater now).

https://embed.documentcloud.org/documen ... ocument/p1

There's a lot of stuff in there that would be tough-slash-impossible to meet, but these two are probably the biggest hurdles:

Enough available hotel rooms to hold at least 35% of their stadium’s capacity located within a 60-minute drive of the stadium. For Lincoln, that means 29,750 rooms since Memorial Stadium holds 85,500 people, approximately. I don't have access to data on how many rooms they have, but it's nowhere near that number.

Omaha has about 16,000 total rooms and 160-ish hotels; Lincoln has about 75 hotels so maybe another 7,500? That's still short by 5-6,000 and that's assuming 100% of the rooms are available to NFL fans. Remember, the Super Bowl is largely not a local event -- almost everyone in attendance travelled from somewhere. Sponsors, contest winners, celebs, fans of the teams. A good percentage of people at Nebraska games drive home afterward. Almost no one would from the Super Bowl.

Minneapolis has 40,000 hotel rooms and there were complaints about it not being enough; the NFL reserved 19,000 of them for their sponsors, etc. That would be pretty much every room in Omaha/Lincoln before any actual fans book a room.

35,000 free parking spots for use by the NFL. There's not enough spots in garages and streets around the stadium to meet that number. So you'd have to convince all of the random lots that sell parking to Husker fans to allow parking for free in those spots, and even then you'd probably struggle to get there.

[Busguy2010]

Apparently everybody wants to host the SB. Broncos, Bears, and Browns all building domed stadiums where they all have traditionally played outdoors.

Surprised the Bill's didn't do the same. Anyway, I always love games played in the conditions of the north in December and January.

[omaha79]

Even if you take out all other other disqualifiers discussed here, not enough hotel rooms, no dome, no airport access, uncomfortable stadium with not enough concessions or suites. Could you imagine people paying $20k a ticket for prime seats and sitting on bench seating?

You don't even have to go any further than that one point to know it would never happen. CEO's and billionaires sitting on plank bench seating? LOL.

[Louie]

Even if you take out all other other disqualifiers discussed here, not enough hotel rooms, no dome, no airport access, uncomfortable stadium with not enough concessions or suites. Could you imagine people paying $20k a ticket for prime seats and sitting on bench seating?

You don't even have to go any further than that one point to know it would never happen. CEO's and billionaires sitting on plank bench seating? LOL.

That’s the real limiter. Good call.