Super Bowl Park highlights South Florida committee’s bid package
When the Super Bowl returns to Miami in 2020, Biscayne Boulevard will transform into an interactive football field.
Spanning 54 acres and 14 blocks from the Intercontinental Hotel to the Perez Art Museum Miami, Super Bowl Park will allow visitors to explore Miami nightlife while also experiencing 100 years of NFL history for a week before the game kicks off.
That’s just part of the grand scheme of the bid the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee pitched to NFL owners that resulted in Miami being named the host for Super Bowl LIV.
“It has become very, very competitive,” committee chairman Rodney Barreto said Wednesday. “Everyone saw it [Tuesday]. It wasn’t like we were going to walk in and they were going to hand us something.”
Instead, the committee gave owners all the reasons they needed to select South Florida to host its record 11th Super Bowl.
In an eight-minute video presentation, which was released to the media Wednesday, Miami Dolphins Hall of Fame players Larry Csonka and Dan Marino served as spokesmen for the committee, verbalizing the group’s pitch.
Csonka explained the evolution of Miami’s infrastructure since the city hosted its last Super Bowl in 2010 before elaborating on the amenities that would be included in Super Bowl Park, such as a zip-line with football-shaped carts and nightly concerts at the Bayfront Park Amphitheatre.
“It was a lot of work to get there,” Barreto said. “We put together probably our most comprehensive bid that I’ve ever been involved with.”
Marino capped the video presentation by updating the stadium’s $500 million renovation, a common thread among the three latest cities announced to host a Super Bowl (Atlanta in 2019, Los Angeles in 2021).
The renovations at the stadium formerly known as Sun Life Stadium are on schedule to be completed before the Dolphins’ preseason home opener on Aug. 25 and include video boards in each corner of the stadium and a canopy that will cover more than 90 percent of the seats.
“With what we’re able to do here, after this Super Bowl, I promise you over the next 10 years everybody will be trying to copy what [Dolphins owner] Stephen Ross has been able to do with this stadium,” said Nat Moore, a committee director and the Dolphins’ senior vice president of alumni relations and special projects.
And although others might try to copy it, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said his plan is to ensure Super Bowls keep coming back to Miami.
“If the commissioner [Roger Goodell] ever asks me how many more we’ll be going after, we’ll be going after Super Bowls as long as there are Super Bowls,” Gimenez said. “It’s great for our community.”
This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 7:39 PM with the headline "Super Bowl Park highlights South Florida committee’s bid package."