BOSTON (AP) — The 50th Super Bowl will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area and the NFL championship will go to Houston the following year. Team owners voted Tuesday for the 49ers’ new stadium as host of the 2016 game. That facility in Santa Clara, Calif., is due to open for the 2014 season.
San Francisco beat out South Florida, which was stymied in its bid to stage an 11th Super Bowl when the State House did not take up a bill to allow for a penny increase in the hotel bed tax to help finance renovation of Sun Life Stadium.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez expressed disappointment, adding, “I’m grateful to the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee for their considerable efforts to land the big game. Their bid was a true collaborative effort and it showed in its creativity and excellent presentation.
Gimenez said “the Super Bowl will soon return to our hometown.”
Houston, which also beat out Miami Gardens, was awarded the 2017 title game.
It has hosted once before, in 2004.
The only previous Super Bowl played in northern California was at Stanford Stadium in 1985.
When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the 2016 decision, members of the San Francisco bid committee let out a roar of approval, then toasted one another with champagne.
It was the first time in a decade that a Super Bowl was awarded on the first ballot.
The Miami Dolphins were denied public money for a stadium upgrade following widespread complaints about the public investment sunk into the Miami Marlins’ new baseball home.
Multibillionaire Dolphins owner Stephen Ross contends $350 million in stadium improvements are badly needed but he doesn’t want to pay for them by himself.
Nor does he want a scaled-down renovation of the 26-year-old facility.
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