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Pittsburgh submits application to host Super Bowl LVII in '23

By Doug G. Ware

PITTSBURGH, July 1 (UPI) -- Pittsburgh is hoping to participate in the Super Bowl -- eight years from now.

It's not the Steelers looking to play in Super Bowl LVII, in February 2023, but rather the city of Pittsburgh is looking to host the NFL's championship game that year.

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Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney II said Wednesday his team has submitted an application to host the big game -- which would be only the second Super Bowl in the league's history played in an open air cold weather stadium. The New York Giants/Jets hosted the first last year.

"We met this morning with local community leaders to provide an update on formally submitting our application to the NFL to bid for Super Bowl LVII in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania," Rooney said in a report by ESPN Wednesday. "The application is an early step in the bidding process, and we will continue to ... review the requirements with the hopes of submitting our bid to host Super Bowl LVII in 2023."

Pittsburgh has never hosted the Super Bowl, which has typically alternated among 4 or 5 warm weather locations in the last 50 seasons. Miami and New Orleans have each hosted the Super Bowl 10 times and Los Angeles seven. The NFL has also frequently awarded recent games to Phoenix and Tampa, as well.

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The league has previously indicated a desire to select host cities that feature newer stadiums, which, analysts say, is why San Diego and L.A. -- cities who hosted multiple Super Bowls in the past -- aren't considered likely hosts anymore. Both cities, though, have been working on building a new stadium for years.

Pittsburgh's 65,000-seat Heinz Field is 15 years old, but is nearly finished with a renovation to add 3,000 more seats that would bring total capacity to about 67,000..

Official bidding for Super Bowl LVII is still three years away, and the league will announce the host site in 2019.

Multiple cold weather cities have hosted the game previously -- Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Detroit (twice) -- however, those Super Bowls were played in climate-controlled, indoor stadiums. Minneapolis, which is currently building a new outdoor stadium set to open in 2016, has already been awarded Super Bowl LII in February 2018.

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