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It was considered a pretty sizeable upset when Minneapolis was named as the host of Super Bowl LII, which will take place in February of 2018 at the new Minnesota Vikings' stadium. As you would expect with an event of this magnitude, the league had a lot of demands that they wanted to see met by the host city, but nobody was quite sure what a lot of those demands were.
Until now.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has gotten their hands on a document. . .154 pages worth of it. . .that outlines a lot of the National Football League's demands for a city to host the big game. You can see the document right here.
Among some of the demands that the league had, according to the Star-Tribune:
Free police escorts for team owners, and 35,000 free parking spaces. Presidential suites at no cost in high-end hotels. Free billboards across the Twin Cities. Guarantees to receive all revenue from the game's ticket sales - even a requirement for NFL-preferred ATMs at the stadium.
. . .
The NFL's requests covered everything from free access to three "top quality" golf courses during the summer or fall before the Super Bowl, to free curbside parking at a yet-to-be designated NFL House - defined as a "high-end, exclusive drop-in hospitality facility for our most valued and influential guests to meet, unwind, network and conduct business."
There are plenty more. . .you'll have to read the whole article.
Yes, the process looks like it's a bit exploitative. . .but, really, if you're expecting anything else from something like this, you're probably a bit naive. As they say, this is how the game is played. . .apparently the Twin Cities played the game better than their competition. Both of the other cities that were in the running (New Orleans and Indianapolis) have hosted the Super Bowl previously, and no doubt knew what the process entailed.
Simply put, Super Bowl LII is coming to Minneapolis because they gave the NFL what they wanted. It may not be clean and pure and noble, but that's what happened. And if Minneapolis hadn't been willing to do it, another city would have.