Miami Boat Show Conflict Avoided with Super Bowl Pass

As expected, Super Bowl L will be played in the San Francisco 49ers’ new $1.2 billion Levi’s Stadium in 2016.

The National Football League’s 32 owners voted for San Francisco — actually Santa Clara, a San Francisco suburb — over Miami last week during their spring meeting in Boston, then voted for Houston over Miami to host Super Bowl LI in 2017.

Miami Boat show organizers can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now. The prospect of a Super Bowl in Miami had given organizers of both the Miami International Boat Show and the Yacht & Brokerage Show in Miami Beach cause for concern because of a new NFL requirement that Super Bowl bidders be ready to host the game on any of three weekends in February, including the 3-day Presidents Day weekend when the 2 boat shows traditionally are scheduled.

A survey of past Yacht & Brokerage Show exhibitors and visitors has shown that anticipated hassles with parking, crowds, pricey hotel rooms and other inconveniences related to the Super Bowl would douse their interest in attending the shows.

Miami lost whatever momentum it might have had to host either of the Super Bowls earlier this month when Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross failed to get the go-ahead he needed from the Florida legislature to seek $120 million in public money from an increase in the Miami-Dade County hotel tax and $47 million in state sales tax rebates to help finance a $350 million upgrade of the Dolphins’ Sun Life Stadium. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had said the renovations would help Miami in its bid for Super Bowl L.

The upgrade would have added a partial roof to the 26-year-old facility, more seats near the field and high-definition video boards.

“After losing a Super Bowl it’s certainly nice to win a Super Bowl,” 49ers owner Jed York told reporters. A tweet went out from the 49ers at 2:50 p.m. EST Tuesday: “Super Bowl 50 is coming to the Bay Area.”

The 49ers organization played an aggressive game to win Super Bowl L, building a $1.2 billion stadium that will be — for fans who want it — the NFL’s first ticketless, cashless building, giving them the ability to handle all of their game transactions with their smartphones.

Miami has hosted the Super Bowl 10 times, most recently in 2010. San Francisco last hosted the game in 1985, Houston in 2004.

Rodney Barreto, chairman of the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee, acknowledged after losing the battle for public money in the legislature in early May that the job of bringing another Super Bowl to Miami would be “much more difficult.”