Pittsburgh takes next step to host Super Bowl in 2023
Delegation headed to New Orleans to learn more
City leaders and the Steelers organization believe Pittsburgh is capable of hosting the 57th Super Bowl in 2023.
A delegation led by Visit Pittsburgh, the organization charged with marketing the city to the world, is preparing a bid package to submit to the NFL by 2018.
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First, the group will visit cities that have hosted a Super Bowl and learn how to prepare Pittsburgh's bid to bring the big game to Heinz Field.
A meeting is scheduled for Monday with the sports commission in New Orleans.
"New Orleans has hosted the Super Bowl successfully a number of times. They know how to do it, and to their great credit, they're going to impart some information to us," Visit Pittsburgh CEO Craig Davis said Friday.
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Pittsburgh's Super Bowl delegation includes the city, Allegheny County, the Steelers, the Airport Authority, the Allegheny Conference and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
Davis said the NFL requires a Super Bowl host city to have at least 30,000 hotel rooms available within a 90-minute drive. He said Pittsburgh already meets that requirement.
"Pittsburgh is so easy to get around. We're so compact. We have the ability for people to get from point A to point B so easily, very safely. We're affordable," Davis said.
After the New Orleans visit, the delegation will head to New York, Detroit and Minneapolis.
Rough estimates suggest that the economic windfall for hosting a Super Bowl can fall between $80 million and 100 million.
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