John McClain, the Houston Chronicle’s main NFL reporter, weighs in with an articlethat Houston’s success in hosting Super Bowl XXXVIII will likely result in another Super Bowl later in the decade.
Frankly, I do not have a clue on how Jacksonville is going to handle Super Bowl XXXIX next year. To handle the various festivities for this year’s Super Bowl, Houston used two large convention centers, Minute Maid Park, the Astrodome, the Reliant Stadium, thousands of hotel rooms, two distinct entertainment areas (Main Street and the Galleria area), and hundreds of restaurants. Jacksonville simply does not have facilities of that size or nature. Already, the NFL and Jacksonville are planning on docking a fleet of cruise ships in Jacksonville Harbor to make up for the lack of hotel rooms in the area.
The Super Bowl may have become such a huge event that only a few cities are going to have the facilities and infrastructure to handle it. Stay tuned.