When America's Biggest Game Was Decided by Heads or Tails
The Day a Quarter Decided Everything
In 1967, as the NFL prepared for what would become the most watched television event in America, league executives faced a problem that seems almost quaint today: where should they hold this new championship game between the NFL and AFL?
While today's Super Bowl host cities spend years crafting elaborate presentations and promising hundreds of millions in economic impact, the early years of America's biggest game were decided with all the ceremony of a backyard pickup game. Commissioner Pete Rozelle and his staff would literally flip a coin to determine which city got the honor.
"We didn't have spreadsheets analyzing hotel capacity or transportation infrastructure," recalls former NFL executive Jim Kensil. "We had a handful of interested cities, and frankly, we just needed to pick one and move on."
From Coin Tosses to Corporate Campaigns
The casual approach to Super Bowl hosting reflected the league's broader philosophy in those early days. The NFL was still establishing itself as America's premier sports league, competing with baseball for cultural dominance. The Super Bowl itself was an experiment — nobody knew if fans would embrace this new championship format or if it would become the cultural phenomenon we know today.
Miami, New Orleans, and Los Angeles were the early frontrunners, not because of sophisticated bidding processes, but because they had decent weather and adequate stadiums. The decision often came down to which city's representative happened to be in the room when Rozelle was ready to make the call.
"I remember one year where New Orleans got the game basically because their tourism board sent the nicest fruit basket," jokes former sports writer Dan Jenkins, though he admits the truth wasn't far from his exaggeration.
The Moment Everything Changed
The transformation from coin tosses to corporate campaigns didn't happen overnight. Throughout the 1970s, as television ratings soared and corporate sponsorships multiplied, cities began to recognize the economic goldmine that came with hosting the Super Bowl.
The turning point came in 1984 when Los Angeles hosted Super Bowl XVIII. The economic impact study that followed showed the game generated over $100 million for the local economy — a figure that made mayors across America sit up and take notice.
"That's when we realized we weren't just picking a location for a football game," said former NFL executive Joe Browne. "We were awarding a license to print money."
The Birth of the Bidding Wars
By the late 1980s, the informal selection process had evolved into something resembling today's elaborate bidding system. Cities began forming host committees, hiring consultants, and crafting presentations that would make a Madison Avenue executive proud.
The first formal bidding process took place in 1990, with cities submitting detailed proposals covering everything from hotel capacity to security plans. Phoenix, which had been passed over repeatedly in the coin-toss era, finally landed Super Bowl XXX in 1996 by promising to build a new stadium and upgrade its entire tourism infrastructure.
"We went from 'Hey, who wants to host the game?' to cities literally building billion-dollar stadiums just to be considered," notes sports economist Victor Matheson.
The Modern Super Bowl Machine
Today's Super Bowl selection process bears no resemblance to those early coin tosses. Cities spend upwards of $1 million just preparing their bids, assembling teams of economists, architects, and marketing experts to craft presentations that can run hundreds of pages.
The NFL now requires host cities to provide everything from free office space for league officials to guarantees that local businesses will honor negotiated rates for thousands of visitors. The economic impact of a single Super Bowl can exceed $500 million, making it one of the most coveted prizes in American sports tourism.
What We Lost Along the Way
While the modern bidding process ensures better planning and execution, something was lost in the transition from coin tosses to corporate campaigns. The early Super Bowls had a scrappy, experimental quality that reflected the league's own evolution from a niche sport to a national obsession.
"There was something beautifully American about deciding where to hold the country's biggest game with a quarter," reflects sports historian Michael MacCambridge. "It captured the informal, entrepreneurial spirit that made the NFL what it is today."
The story of Super Bowl hosting reveals how quickly American institutions can transform from humble beginnings into massive corporate enterprises. What started as a simple football game decided by coin tosses became a multi-billion-dollar spectacle that cities compete for years in advance to host.
The Legacy of Random Decisions
Looking back, it's remarkable how many of the NFL's most important traditions began with the same casual decision-making process. From playoff formats to television contracts, the league that now operates with military precision once made pivotal choices with the same spontaneity as a neighborhood game of pickup football.
The coin toss may be gone from Super Bowl selection, but it remains embedded in the game itself — a small reminder of the informal origins that shaped America's most formal sporting spectacle. Every February, as millions watch the opening coin toss determine which team gets the ball first, they're witnessing an echo of the days when similar tosses decided much bigger questions about the game itself.