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Tampa To Host 2021 Super Bowl

Raymond James Stadium, which saw a record crowd for the 2017 College National Championship game, will host Super Bowl LV in 2021.
Julio Ochoa
/
WUSF 89.7 News
Raymond James Stadium, which saw a record crowd for the 2017 College National Championship game, will host Super Bowl LV in 2021.

The song said "it never rains in Southern California," but recent heavy downpours in Los Angeles have led the National Football League to switch the host city for the Super Bowl in 2021 from L.A. to Tampa.

Heavy rains in Los Angeles have pushed the completion of construction of a new stadium back by a year to 2020.

NFL.com reports that league owners voted unanimously Tuesday to move Super Bowl LV to Tampa's Raymond James Stadium.

Los Angeles will get their game in 2022. League rules require new stadiums to be open for two seasons before they can host a Super Bowl, unless owners approve a waiver.

Tampa has played host to four Super Bowls in 1984, 1991, 2001, and 2009.

The first two were in the old Tampa Stadium, the latter two in Raymond James Stadium, which has undergone a multi-million dollar renovation in the last couple of years, hoping to land another Super Bowl.

Tampa has been a finalist in recent voting, but Atlanta and Miami were chosen for the games in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Rob Higgins, the Executive Director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, which leads the area's bidding effort, responded to the announcement on Twitter.

Tampa will be the fourth city to host five games, joining the Miami area (11 games including the 2020 game), New Orleans (10 games) and Los Angeles area (8 including the 2022 game).

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Mark Schreiner has been the producer and reporter for "University Beat" on WUSF 89.7 FM since 2001 and on WUSF TV from 2007-2017.