Not Everybody Was Happy Super Bowl 2018 Was Awarded To Minnesota

While just about everybody I talked to was pretty happy to hear that the Super Bowl will be headed back to Minnesota in 2018, the mood was distinctly different down in the bayous of Louisiana, where New Orleans was handed its first-ever defeat in bidding for the NFL's biggest game.I'm referring specifically to THIS column, written by Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the newspaper of record in the Crescent City.

It kind of sounds like sour grapes, if you ask me. Duncan's column makes it sound like it was almost a sure thing that New Orleans would get Super Bowl VII -- only to have Minnesota steal it away at the last minute.

Well, too bad, New Orleans. You've already hosted the Super Bowl -- 10 different times, mind you -- with the last time occurring just a year ago in 2013, which would make it only a 5 year gap between that event (you know -- the one where the power went out for, oh, 30 minutes or so during halftime?) and Super Bowl VII.

And, Duncan's claim that "Minneapolis is a relative neophyte in the big-event hosting game compared to New Orleans and Indianapolis," doesn't appear to ring true to me, either. I get that the Big Easy is USED being a travel destination and hosting big-time parties. But Indianapolis? Besides the Super Bowl  in 2012 and the yearly Indy 500 (which doesn't exactly showcase a downtown location, as New Orleans' Superdome does and the new Vikings stadium will also do), I don't exactly think of Indianapolis as a party-central city.

So, why not Minnesota? The only other Super Bowl held here was back in 1992, at the now-demolished Metrodome. And, truth be told, this was probably more about the NFL 'rewarding' cities who pony up the public tax dollars to build lavish new stadiums, as Minnesota is doing, than it was 'punishing' the other cities. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, New Orleans. The big game is headed north in 2018!