The NFL got it right: New Orleans is the best Super Bowl city in the world

Sanity has returned to the NFL.

The Super Bowl is returning to New Orleans.

Wednesday's vote by league owners to award the 2024 Super Bowl to New Orleans proves the league, despite its penchant for misguided decision-making, still knows the best place to host its annual showcase event.

NFL owners, staff and media have long touted New Orleans, with its temperate winter climate, world-class night-life and fan-friendly downtown footprint, as the perfect Super Bowl site.

And now, with the league having nearly completed its run of awarding obligatory one-time Super Bowl housewarming gifts to new-stadium cities, it can return the big game to its regular rotation of sunny Southern and West Coast locales.

New Orleans has hosted 10 Super Bowls for a reason.

We're good at it. Quite frankly, we're the best.

We might not be able to fix our streets or drain them when it rains, but we know how to host a big event and throw a party. And events and parties don't get any bigger than the Super Bowl.

Landing the big game means many things for New Orleans.

First and foremost, it's a financial boon. The week-long event will provide a much-needed nine-figure boost to the city's tourism and service industries.

Economic estimates for the Super Bowl vary wildly but most studies say the game generates an economic impact of $200 million to $800 million for the host city. By 2024, the impact could approach $1 billion.

Just as important, the Super Bowl provides a huge marketing opportunity for local officials to showcase our city. The global platform provided by the multi-media broadcast of the game is incomparable.

Nine of the 10 most watched shows in American television history are Super Bowls. This year's game between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles drew an audience of more than 105 million people.

But most importantly, landing the 2024 Super Bowl re-establishes our big event bona fides. In the wake of unsuccessful bids for the 2018 and 2019 games, New Orleans needed to flex its muscles and remind everyone who's the big game boss in the country.

This vaults the city back to its rightful spot alongside Miami as the most popular Super Bowl host site in history. Both Miami, which will play host to the 2020 game, and New Orleans have played host to the game 10 times.

Super Bowl 58 will punctuate a heady five-year run for the city that will feature the 2020 College Football Playoff championship game, the 2020 Women's Final Four and the 2022 Men's Final Four.

And it's possible, the mega-events will take place in a glitzy, renovated Superdome if state and Saints officials can execute their plan to upgrade the stadium in the 2020-2022 offseasons. Considering the state of the state's finances, that's a big "if."

But that's a column for another day.

Wednesday is a day to celebrate. Landing Super Bowl 2024 is a major triumph for the city. The civic leaders who collaboratively worked to land the big game deserve a toast. Their diligence paid off.

It took longer than it should have, but the NFL is bringing its showcase event back where it belongs -- in New Orleans, the best Super Bowl city on the planet.

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