New Orleans has missed a key NFL deadline in its bid to host Super Bowl LXV at the Caesars Superdome in 2031, jeopardizing the city’s chance to secure the game as the Saints and state officials work to finalize the team's long-term stadium lease.
Owners of the NFL's 32 teams gathered in New York this week for the league's fall meetings, and on Tuesday, the Fan Engagement & Major Events Advisory Committee met to review city proposals for hosting the league's major events, including the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft, before recommendations go to the full ownership.
The Saints had planned to submit New Orleans' bid for the 2031 game. But Saints spokesperson Greg Bensel said the team was unable to do so because a lease extension with the state of Louisiana, which owns the stadium, has not yet been finalized beyond 2030. As such, New Orleans isn't on the short list of potential host cities that will go to a full vote of owners sometime later this year.
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Umbrellas and plastic bags are deployed to shield fans from a light rain as they enter the security lines to Caesars Superdome for Super Bowl LIX between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (Staff photo by Scott Threlkeld, The Times-Picayune) STAFF PHOTO BY SCOTT THRELKELD
"Unfortunately, the Super Bowl committee did meet yesterday and our city cannot advance as an option to bid on future Super Bowl games due to the fact that our lease extension has not been signed," Bensel said via text.
Brian McCarthy, the NFL's vice president of communications, confirmed that the Saints were not able to submit a bid for consideration for 2031.
"The NFL is not going to award a Super Bowl to a team that doesn't have a lease for the year in which they're requesting a Super Bowl," he said by text.
Growing competition for games
New Orleans earned broad praise as the site of Super Bowl LIX earlier this year, which quickly set the gears turning among economic development officials on how to get the game to return as soon as possible.
But the bid setback underscores how New Orleans, long one of the NFL’s favorite Super Bowl destinations, could be slipping in the league’s rotation as competition heats up from newer, flashier stadiums — and how the missed deadline, due to the ongoing lease talks — may have cost the city its best chance to bring the lucrative event back soon.
The next three Super Bowls, in 2026, 2027 and 2028, have been awarded to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta, respectively. Las Vegas and Nashville are considered the favorites to host the 2029 and 2030 games.
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Roger Goodell speaks with President Trump in Gayle Benson’s suite at Super Bowl LIX at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025.(Staff Photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune) ORG XMIT: 10045766A STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD
Conflicts with Mardi Gras and convention schedules would likely prevent New Orleans from hosting Super Bowls between 2032 and 2037, leaving 2038 as the next possible target year if 2031 stays off the table.
Still, a close advisor to Gov. Jeff Landry, businessman Shane Guidry, who has been coordinating with the state officials who are negotiating the lease, said he's expecting the deal to be hammered out within a couple of days and that the city's bid to host Super Bowl LXV can be revived.
"Everybody is working tirelessly to get this amicable agreement in place, and I think it will be done in time," Guidry said Wednesday.
Deal talks continue
The Saints are in the final throes of negotiations with the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, often known as the Superdome Commission, over a lease extension that would keep the Saints playing at the state-owned Superdome for at least the next decade.
Sources close to the negotiations say both parties have agreed to a 10-year lease extension through 2035, with four five-year options for the Saints thereafter that could keep them at the Dome until 2055.
While Saints owner Gayle Benson has said firmly that she would never move the team away from the city, both sides have agreed to a new lease provision that determines how any attempt by a future owner to move the Saints away would be handled.
First, there would be arbitration and then potential “equitable damages,” also referred to as a relocation penalty. The exact amount of that penalty hasn’t been finalized, but the sources said it is around $250 million, which would compensate the state for a significant portion of the public money put into the Superdome's latest renovation.
But a sticking point in the final agreement has been the terms of related deal between the state and the Benson organization over Benson Tower, the skyscraper located near the dome.
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New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson talks to Saints head coach Kellen Moore after taking a photo with him before a preseason football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune) STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER
The previous lease in 2009 linked the Superdome lease to rental agreements for Benson Tower and the state has been trying to roll back some of those provisions.
The timing on a finalized lease still isn't clear. But Bensel said that Gayle Benson would try to persuade NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to put the Saints 2031 bid for the Super Bowl back on the short-list if the lease is signed before the owners hold their vote.
"It will be up to Mrs. Benson to convince the NFL and Roger to please allow us to bid," he said.