NFL set to recommend Miami, New Orleans as finalists to stage Super Bowl L

Tradition will be celebrated with the NFL's milestone Super Bowl L (or 50 if you're rusty on your Roman numerals).

Such an event wouldn't be complete without a traditional Super site. Step right up, Miami and New Orleans.

The Super Bowl Advisory Committee is expected to recommend the warm-weather sites as finalists to host the 50th Super Bowl in 2016, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports.

Owners, holding their fall meetings on Tuesday, will vote to narrow the competition to two finalists, with the game expected to be awarded at subsequent meetings in 2013.


Picking between two cities rich in Super Bowl lore would be consistent with statements in recent months by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that the game would reflect the history of an event that was first staged in 1967. Including this season's finale, New Orleans (which will host Super Bowl XLVII) and Miami (and greater South Florida) will have combined to host 20 Super Bowls.

Owners will also narrow the list of finalists for Super Bowl LI in 2017, likely with a nod to the future. Houston and Santa Clara, Calif., are considered frontrunners. Houston has hosted two Super Bowls, including the 2004 game at Reliant Stadium. The San Francisco 49ers are set to open their new $1.2 billion stadium in Santa Clara in 2014.

"We'll get a Super Bowl," 49ers owner John York told USA TODAY Sports. "If not this time, it will be soon. It'll work itself out."

Other items on Tuesday's agenda:

— Owners are also expected to formally approve the sale of the Cleveland Browns to Jimmy Haslam III.

— The NFL could formally announce that it will stage a second regular-season game in London in 2013, on the heels of the previously-announced Jacksonville Jaguars-49ers contest. The Minnesota Vikings revealed over the weekend they would "host" the second game.

— Owners will consider opening a three-day "tampering" window for teams to talk to potential free agents before the market officially opens.

— A competition committee report will brief owners on the potential for a rulebook tweak that might better protect option-style quarterbacks.