The NFL returned to Glendale for this year’s Super Bowl, but they’ll be taking the game to Santa Clara for the first time next year and Commissioner Roger Goodell has talked about his desire to get the game “to as many communities as possible” in the future.
Steelers president Art Rooney II said last year that he wanted Pittsburgh to be in the mix for the game in the future. Rooney’s father feels the same way. Team chairman Dan Rooney said he hasn’t spoken to Goodell directly, but that people from the team have spoken to the league to relay his message.
“Yeah, I think it should happen,” Rooney said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “As of last year, the (New York) Giants have had one. There have been games in Minnesota and Detroit, places like that. So now you think about it. Of course, you’ll have a lot of teams in the Northeast that will want one, but I think Pittsburgh would be a good place for the next one in the North.”
The size of Heinz Field, which is being expanded to 67,440 seats, and number of hotel rooms in Pittsburgh are potential stumbling blocks, although the league picked Minneapolis for the 2018 game despite the city pledging less than the 30,000 hotel rooms the league has said they look for in a host city.