With the next Super Bowl set to take place in the chilly environs of Minnesota, fans in Green Bay were left with a simple question during the team’s annual shareholders’ meeting: why not us?
That question is one that many NFL teams have asked, as the league has begun to branch out into different markets to host the biggest game of the year. Unfortunately for Packers fans, their passion and zeal for football won’t be enough to land the coveted prize.
Packers CEO Mark Murphy cited an NFL rule that a city must have at least 30,000 hotel rooms in order to qualify to host a Super Bowl, according to the Star-Tribune. Unfortunately for the Packers, the city of Green Bay only has about 8000 rooms available, meaning that there isn’t enough room for the wide variety of officials and fans that would descend on northern Wisconsin for a game of that magnitude.
The Chicago Bears face an issue of their own when it comes to hosting a Super Bowl: seating capacity. According to a memo leaked back in 2014, a stadium has to have at least 70,000 seats in it to be considered as a Super Bowl host, and Soldier Field only has around 62,000 seats, with little room for temporary expansion.
