Several notable NFL stadiums are in line to host future College Football Playoff Championships, as sites for 2021-2024 have been announced.
The College Football Playoff (CFP) Management Committee has selected the four stadiums that will host the slate of championship games that run from 2021-2024. It starts with Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium in 2021, followed by Indianapolis’s Lucas Oil Stadium in 2022, Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park in 2023, and Houston’s NRG Stadium in 2024.
Those facilities come with their own points of significance. Hard Rock Stadium has recently undergone a major three-phase renovation, while Lucas Oil Stadium has hosted both a Super Bowl and NCAA Finals Fours. The new Los Angeles Stadium–home for both the Rams and Chargers–will open in 2020 and is already set to host Super Bowl LVI in 2022. NRG Stadium, meanwhile, has twice been the site of the Super Bowl, including Super Bowl LI in February 2017.
For those stadiums, landing the College Football Playoff Championship means staging a major event outside of the NFL. The announcement was particularly celebrated in Miami, where officials credited Dolphins owner Stephen Ross for overseeing the renovation that helped make the game possible. More from The Sun-Sentinel:
“As far as I’m concerned, the renovations had everything to do with it,” Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Gimenez said. “If Stephen Ross hadn’t spent $500 million to renovate the stadium, no matter how good our bid was, it was going to be very, very difficult for us to land this game, the same as the Super Bowl and the other great events that are coming.”
The three-year renovation project began in 2015. Among the upgrades already completed include replacing all lower bowl seats, the addition of giant video boards, the remodeling of the club level and 147 suites and redesign of the parking lot and exterior landscape.
After the Dolphins conclude this season, the project continues with the construction of two pedestrian bridges and tunnels that will allow fans to bypass vehicular traffic outside the stadium.
“We are excited that Hard Rock Stadium will play host to the biggest game in college football,” Dolphins president and CEO Tom Garfinkel, president and CEO said. “Stephen Ross committed more than $500 million to make this a global entertainment destination and we are thrilled about the opportunity to showcase our venue on this stage.”
“When we created the playoff, we said we wanted to move the national championship game around,” Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff, said in a press statement. “We have done that. We call it ‘ten in ten’—ten different communities will have hosted the national championship game in the first ten years of the playoff. The CFP National Championship is one of the most popular sporting events in the United States and we’re proud to bring the game to fans in different regions of the country.
“Each of the four cities chosen met or exceeded our standards for selection,” Hancock continued. “Each has a first-class stadium that our fans will enjoy, a great convention center, excellent hotels for teams and fans, and the communities have successful track records of hosting major events. Each city also has wonderful, supportive people who we rely on to host a successful game.”
The sites for the College Football Playoff Championship between now and 2021 were previously announced. Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host the game in 2018, followed by Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium in 2019, and New Orleans’s Mercedes-Benz Superdome in 2020.
Rendering courtesy Miami Dolphins.