Super Bowl LII, the 52nd Super Bowl and the 48th modern-era National Football League (NFL) championship game, will decide the league champion for the 2017 NFL season. The game is scheduled to be held on February 4, 2018, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the second Super Bowl in Minneapolis, which previously hosted Super Bowl XXVI in 1992. It will be the sixth Super Bowl in a cold weather city.
Video Super Bowl LII
Background
Host-selection process
On October 8, 2013, the league announced the following three host finalists:
- U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis last hosted the Super Bowl in 1992 (Super Bowl XXVI) at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome; the Metrodome was torn down after the 2013 season, and over the course of 2014 and 2015, U.S. Bank Stadium was built on the same site.
- Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The stadium hosted Super Bowl XLVI in 2012.
- Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Superdome has previously hosted the Super Bowl on seven occasions, most recently Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 (New Orleans has hosted the Super Bowl on ten occasions in total). New Orleans will celebrate its Tricentennial in 2018.
Minneapolis was selected as the game's site at the league owners' meeting in Atlanta on May 20, 2014.
Pre-game notes
Operations
The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, will host media day events and press conferences. More than 5,000 media members are expected to come to the Twin Cities for the Super Bowl. For coordination of the game and 10 days of events, the National Football League will temporarily operate an events office within the Minnesota Vikings office building next to U.S. Bank Stadium. More than one million visitors are expected to attend events associated with the Super Bowl over ten days.
Admission tickets to the game and related events, as well as parking, received state tax exemptions. Increased security operations around U.S. Bank Stadium will close the stadium's light rail station for 48 hours before the game, and a nearby homeless shelter will temporarily relocate outside of the security perimeter.
Associated events
The Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee will present Super Bowl Live on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. This ten-day concert series will feature Sheila E., The Revolution, Morris Day and The Time, and The New Power Generation, musicians from Minnesota who collaborated with Prince. Produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Super Bowl Live will also include performances by Idina Menzel, Soul Asylum, The Suburbs, Bob Mould, Sounds of Blackness, Dessa, VocalEssence, Mint Condition, and The Jets. In addition to the concert series, Super Bowl Live will have a 200-foot (61 m) American Birkebeiner International Bridge on Nicollet Mall to showcase cross-country skiing, skijoring and snow tubing demonstrations.
The NFL will present the Super Bowl Experience at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Kelly Clarkson will perform at the Minneapolis Armory and a U.S. Bank Stadium lounge on the day of the Super Bowl.
The Minneapolis Armory will also host Jennifer Lopez, Imagine Dragons, and Pink concerts close to U.S. Bank Stadium. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community's Mystic Lake Casino will host The Chainsmokers and Florida Georgia Line at a 64,000-square-foot (5,900 m2) traveling nightclub. Dave Matthews Band will perform at Xcel Energy Center.
Other events will be held at the Mall of America (including Radio Row as a home for national shows), Saint Paul's RiverCentre and Xcel Energy Center, the Minnesota Vikings' Winter Park location in Eden Prairie, and the University of Minnesota. "Taste of the NFL" is a fundraiser for food banks and will be held in Saint Paul. Minneapolis will offer a temporary zip-line across the Mississippi River near downtown.
The 2018 Saint Paul Winter Carnival will take place leading up to, during and after the Super Bowl. Carnival organizers will build a large ice palace to coincide with the Super Bowl festivities, as with Super Bowl XXVI in 1992. The ice palace was planned, cancelled for lack of funds, then re-announced with sponsors. Events in Saint Paul will also include an extreme sports demonstration, a "giant slide", and a block party. Officials in the capital city hope to attract Minneapolis Super Bowl visitors.
ESPN will broadcast from the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis.
Native American communities of Minnesota will perform nightly drum ceremonies.
The Minneapolis Institute of Art will have a free 20-foot (6.1 m) by 40-foot (12 m), 6-foot (1.8 m)-tall ice maze.
Maps Super Bowl LII
Broadcasting
Television
NBC will hold the television rights to Super Bowl LII. This will be NBC's 19th Super Bowl that they have covered since the inaugural game, that was simulcast with CBS, and the 18th Super Bowl overall, that they have done alone since Super Bowl III.
Television announcers
Calling the game will be play-by-play announcer Al Michaels, former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver and current color commentator Cris Collinsworth, and sideline reporter Michele Tafoya. Joining Tafoya will be Heather Cox, who will call her first ever Super Bowl in her first two seasons with NBC Sports.
Pregame, halftime, and postgame
The studio pregame, halftime, and postgame shows will be managed by Dan Patrick and Bob Costas, who will call his last Super Bowl for NBC. Joining them include Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy and Super Bowl winning defensive back Rodney Harrison.
Olympic coverage
Taking advantage of the 2018 Winter Olympics that begins five days later (marking the first time since 1992 that a single broadcast network will air the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics in the same year), NBC disclosed plans to offer advertising packages that cover both events. Mike Tirico, who replaced Costas for the 2017 season as NBC's lead NFL studio host, and as primetime host of NBC's Olympics coverage, will not participate in coverage of the Super Bowl in order to prepare for the Games in Pyeongchang.
Digital coverage
For the first time in the league's history, the online television broadcast of the game will be fully network-neutral, at the behest of the league. As part of a five-year contract extension with the league, Verizon Wireless, which had previously held exclusive rights to distribute games to devices 7 inches (180 mm) or smaller and had only offered those streams to Verizon subscribers, agreed to offer the streams to all devices of that size in exchange for rights to stream games to larger Internet-connected devices; that agreement begins with the start of the 2017-18 playoffs.
Lead-out programs
NBC's lead-out program will be an episode of This is Us, alongside a special episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon from the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.
Radio
This will be the last game in Westwood One's current national radio contract with the NFL. Each participating team's flagship station will also carry the game with local announcers. Under the terms of the Westwood One contract, any radio station that is not a local flagship, if they are to carry the game, must use the Westwood One feed.
Entertainment
Halftime show
Justin Timberlake will be headlining the Super Bowl LII halftime show. Timberlake performed in two previous Super Bowls: Super Bowl XXXV in 2001 as a member of NSYNC, and Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 with Janet Jackson.
References
External links
- Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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