Minneapolis Loses Out On 2020 College Football Title Game
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- On Wednesday, Minnesota lost a bid to New Orleans to host the 2020 College Football Playoff national championship at U.S. Bank Stadium.
That's after Minneapolis won two previous high-profile bids to host the 2018 Super Bowl, and the 2019 NCAA Final Four.
College Football Playoff officials said Minnesota hosting those two high-profile sports events were a factor in their decision.
Officials said they were wondering if Minnesota would suffer from "community fatigue."
"The back to back to back events three years in a row," Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff, said. "There's a great deal of overlap in these back to back to back events. The fans -- will they want to go back to the same place?"
College football's championship games will now go to Atlanta in 2018, the San Francisco Bay Area in 2019 and New Orleans in 2020.
"In a way, we are a victim of our own success," Michele Kelm-Helgen, the chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority and a member of the College Football Championship bid committee, said.
Kelm-Helgen said she does not agree with the "community fatigue" angle, and said Minnesota is preparing a new bid for 2021.
"Having been awarded '18 Super Bowl, '19 Final Four, long before our stadium is even completed, is amazing," she said. "Now we just have to wait another year to get college football."