Top 5 Super Bowl Host Cities

With Super Bowl XLIV only days away, the atmosphere in Miami is electric. South Beach is littered with football fans enjoying both the warm weather and the eye candy. Fans of the rival teams are filing into Miami donning their Peyton Manning and Reggie Bush jerseys and counting down the hours until the Colts and Saints kick off what is sure to be a high-scoring, and exciting game. 

Miami is hosting this year's championship for a record 10th time, good news for the locals; America’s biggest sporting event brings in approximately $400 million to the host city. At least, that’s the kind of dough that Rodney Barreto, chairman of the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee, believes it will bring. Let's take a look back at the cities that have hosted the most Super Bowls and reminisce about some of the games that have electrified football fans.

2010 marks Miami's 10th time hosting the big game - and the week-long party that accompanies it. This will be a well needed shot in the arm of Miami's economy. AP reports that area home prices have plummeted while unemployment and foreclosure rates have skyrocketed since the city last hosted the big game in 2007. The game has been held in the now-demolished Miami Orange Bowl five times and five times in the Joe Robbie/Pro Player/Sun Life/Place-Ad-Here Stadium. 

The first Super Bowl to come to Miami was Super Bowl II, which saw Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr and the Green Bay Packers steamroll the AFL champion Oakland Raiders 33-14. The most recent game (held in 2007) saw the Indianapolis Colts defeat the Chicago Bears 29-17, a game in which Peyton Manning was named Super Bowl XLI MVP in his first Super Bowl appearance. Colts fans are hoping for a little déjà-vu when Manning and the favored Colts take to the field this Sunday.

Peyton's competitors for this year's game have had the privilege of being the Super Bowl host city nine times since the first game in 1967. For the Saints and their fans, however, Super Bowl XLIV will be their first opportunity to play for the Lombardi trophy. And, after surviving Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Saints will be receiving a lot of goodwill from football fans across the country. The NFL and NFL Players Association like to give back, pledging $2.5 million dollas for Haiti relief back in January of this year.

New Orleans hosted its first Super Bowl in 1970, a game that saw the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 at Tulane Stadium. The Superdome hosted its first game in 1978 - Super Bowl XII, where the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Denver Broncos by a score of 27-10.

New Orleans has also been anointed the host city for Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, which will be the first Super Bowl to be played in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the city and its Superdome. But Saints fans are looking no further than this Sunday, when they hope the Saints can bring home the city's first championship, an event that would surely make Mardi Gras look like a cocktail party.

Once an integral part of the Super Bowl host city rotation, Los Angeles hasn't been a part of the extravaganza since 1993, its seventh time hosting the big game. Current NFL policy is to only award the Super Bowl to cities that have NFL franchises, and since the Rams and Raiders both bolted in 1995, Los Angeles has not been invited to the Super Bowl party. If you think that it's ridiculous that the city that hosted the very first Super Bowl is no longer eligible, the NFL sees the injustice too. The league is currently considering L.A. as a host site for Super Bowl L, the Super Bowl's 50th anniversary.

That first Super Bowl game in 1967 saw the Green Bay Packers demolish the Kansas City Chiefs by a score of 35-10 to become the first-ever team to take home the AFL-NFL World Championship. That inaugural game must have set a precedent, because no other Super Bowl hosted in Los Angeles has been decided by less than a touchdown, and the majority ended in double-digit blowouts.

Going back to Florida, Tampa was last year's host city, and has hosted the Super Bowl four times. While no one would dare argue that Tampa's night life is up there with the parties that are happening in South Beach this week, Tampa has hosted two of the most exciting games in Super Bowl history. Tampa was the site for Super Bowl XXV between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills, which football fans will always remember for two words: "wide right". The Giants won that game 20-19 as a result of a missed Scott Norwood field goal with only seconds remaining, completing a huge upset over the heavily favored Bills.

The other classic came just 12 months ago, when the Pittsburgh Steelers captured their record sixth Super Bowl title in a 27-23 victory over the Cinderella Arizona Cardinals. The game was filled with big plays, including a Super Bowl record 100-yard interception return by Pittsburgh's James Harrison and Larry Fitzgerald's 64-yard touchdown reception. The game was topped off by an incredible TD catch by Steelers wide-receiver Santonio Holmes, with which the Steelers captured the win with only 35 seconds remaining on the clock.

If this year's Super Bowl is half as exciting as last year's, football fans are in for a treat.

The only other city to host more than two Super Bowl games can be found in sunny Southern California. San Diego's Jack Murphy/Qualcomm Stadium played host to the championship game in 1988, 1998 and 2003. While none of the games can be classified as a "classic", Super Bowl XXXII in 1998 did see two of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history go head-to-head. That year, the heavily favored Green Bay Packers led by Brett Favre ($4.1 million salary) were upset by John Elway's ($5.9 million salary) Denver Broncos, giving Elway and the Broncos their first ever Super Bowl victory in a 31-24 finale.

At this point, the city of San Diego would be much happier seeing their talented Chargers finally live up to their potential and reach the Super Bowl in another jurisdiction, rather than play host to two other championship contenders.

Sunday's Super Bowl has the makings of a classic, with two of the league's top quarterbacks leading high-powered offenses against average (at best) defenses. Fans should be ready for some fireworks on the field and for some hot parties in beautiful Miami. For those fans who have made the trip down to Southern Florida, this year's Super Bowl festivities could prove to be the best yet.