Here’s why Green Bay has never and likely will never host a Super Bowl:
GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – Lambeau Field is one of the most historic venues in all of sports, and as the 67-year-old stadium continues to receive upgrades and renovations, many fans are left wondering why hasn’t the most notable stadium in the NFL ever hosted a Super Bowl.
In order to host a Super Bowl, the National Football League has a set of requirements for not only the stadium but other factors such as transportation, hotel, and government guarantees.
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A 157-page document released in 2013 outlines some of the practical and surprising bid specifications and requirements to host a Super Bowl. The document provided to the public is the most recent accessible requirement list and was for Super Bowl LII, which was hosted at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
One major cause for concern is the lack of hotel rooms within a sixty-minute radius of Lambeau Field. According to the document, there must be 35% as many hotel rooms as the number of seats guaranteed at Lambeau Field. With a capacity of 81,441, that means there needs to be around 28,504 hotel rooms available. A high-end estimate of the number of hotel rooms in Green Bay, Appleton, and Oshkosh is 15,000.
Even if municipalities around Green Bay build tons of hotels like they are for the 2025 NFL Draft, Lambeau Field is still ruled out on the first page that states stadium requirements.
The document explains that the NFL requires a climate-controlled domed stadium if the historical average daily temperature of a 10-year period in Green Bay on the week of the Super Bowl is below 50 degrees. A daily average of 50 degrees in Green Bay during early February is unheard of, and Lambeau Field doesn’t have a dome.
Super Bowl XLVIII between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks was held outside at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where temperatures were around 49 degrees at kickoff. The Seahawks blew out the Broncos 43-8.
One thing that makes Lambeau Field unique is its use of bleachers for seats, but that won’t fly when trying to host a Super Bowl. The document states a standard requirement for seats is to be 19 inches wide with back support. Bleachers have no back support.
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The document outlines a couple of head-scratching requirements, such as three top-quality 18-hole golf courses in the surrounding area. Thornberry Creek at Oneida could qualify, but in February, the weather may not allow golfers to hit the course. The NFL says the golf courses are used by the NFL Foundation Golf Classic, scheduled for the Saturday before the game.
Even though Green Bay will most likely never get to host a Super Bowl, the city will get perhaps the second-best thing in the NFL, the 2025 NFL Draft. Green Bay has already begun preparations to make the NFL’s smallest market a must-see destination where hundreds of athletes will live out lifetime dreams.
