Cleveland’s new covered stadium finally checks off the weather box for a Super Bowl bid. But as many a hotel consultant might realize, that was never the hard part. In a recent piece for cleveland.com, reporter Susan Glaser digs into why NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has suggested Cleveland might need to double its hotel capacity to win a bid, and even Browns ownership agrees the stadium is only part of the equation. So what would it actually take to get Cleveland Super Bowl-ready? And how far off is it? As a Cleveland-based firm, we’re obviously rooting for the hometown team on this one (and not just on the field) — but the numbers deserve an honest look. Here’s how the city stacks up against those who’ve already pulled it off.
Published by: Cleveland.com/Susan Glaser
Published date: July 2026
The Cleveland Browns’ new covered stadium will finally give Northeast Ohio something it has never had: an NFL venue capable of hosting the Super Bowl.
But league officials, tourism leaders and even Browns ownership agree that’s only part of the equation. Without significantly more hotels and other visitor infrastructure, Cleveland is unlikely to land the NFL’s biggest event anytime soon.
Similarly sized cities, however, including Indianapolis and Nashville, show how it could be done.
Indianapolis hosted the Super Bowl in 2012 and would like to have the opportunity to do so again. Nashville, with a new covered stadium scheduled to open next year, learned in May that it would host its first Super Bowl in 2030.
Both cities have a regional population that is smaller than Cleveland’s. They also have vastly different tourism infrastructure, including hotel capacity and convention space.
Start with the stadium
Cleveland’s new stadium, set to open in 2029 in suburban Brook Park, undoubtedly opens up opportunities to host events that the city couldn’t accommodate before.
The Super Bowl, however, likely isn’t one of them, said David Gilbert, president and CEO of Destination Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission.
“I am certain we don’t have some of the infrastructure needed to host a Super Bowl,” he said during a recent interview.
That includes hotel rooms, but also indoor festival space, transportation options and other visitor amenities. “Our hope is that there are opportunities for lots of other significant events to bid on at the new dome,” he said.
The Super Bowl, of course, is one of the most significant – typically with more than 200,000 visitors and an economic impact of $700 million or more.
Much of the challenge comes down to where all those visitors would sleep, meet and gather during Super Bowl week.
And although Northeast Ohio has more hotel rooms than it did a decade ago – when it hosted the Republican National Convention – it probably doesn’t have enough.
There is no set criteria that cities must meet to host a Super Bowl, according to an NFL spokesperson. The league considers numerous factors including stadium attributes, hotel inventory and quality, weather, local partnerships and “host city vision.”
The decision is made via a four-step process, including an initial expression of interest by the club, a proposal put together by the city and team in partnership with the league, a league advisory committee review and – finally – a vote of NFL owners. Support from 24 of 32 team owners is required, said league spokesman Tim Schlittner.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, in town earlier this year for the groundbreaking of the new Browns stadium, suggested that Cleveland might need to double its hotel capacity in order to win a Super Bowl bid.
“The stadium is clearly going to be suitable for a Super Bowl,” said Goodell. “I think the real challenge is going to be how transformational this is here. The airport is important for us. Hotels are important for us… We have probably close to 200,000 people coming in for a Super Bowl. It’s great for economic impact, but it’s hard for cities to be able to meet some of those requirements on the facilities.”
He noted that Cleveland’s hotel room capacity – at about 22,000 rooms – is roughly half of what might be required.
Goodell appeared to be referring only to the Cleveland market itself. A broader regional view tells a somewhat different story.
According to CoStar, a hospitality data firm, the Cleveland market – which includes Cuyahoga, Lorain, Lake, Geauga, Medina and Ashtabula counties – has 23,486 rooms.
But that doesn’t include the Akron-Canton area, an hour or less from downtown Cleveland, with another 6,101 rooms; or the Sandusky-Port Clinton market, an hour west of Cleveland, with another 7,521 rooms.
During the Republican National Convention, delegates stayed as far away as Sandusky and Akron and were bussed into downtown Cleveland in less than an hour.
Added together, the Cleveland-Akron-Canton-Sandusky market has more than 37,000 hotel rooms.
Compare that to the Indianapolis market – host of Super Bowl XLVI in 2012 – which has 37,578 hotel rooms, according to CoStar. Detroit, another cold-weather city that hosted the Super Bowl, has 48,599 rooms.
While total hotel inventory matters, industry officials say that for the Super Bowl and other major events, capacity is just part of the equation. Team headquarters, league offices, sponsors and media all require large blocks of upscale, full-service hotels clustered near the stadium and convention facilities.
“If you don’t have enough full-service hotels in the central business district, you simply cannot bid,” said Gilbert.
Related: New Cleveland Browns stadium: 25 questions answered on cost, capacity, turf and more
Indianapolis, for example, is built for major events. Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Colts play, is connected to the massive Indianapolis Convention Center and has more than two dozen hotels located within a block or two.
Chris Gahl, executive vice president and chief business officer for Visit Indy, said the tourism bureau worked with the NFL to contract with 141 hotels across central Indiana prior to the 2012 Super Bowl. “We tracked more than 150,000 visitors in and around the city during the long weekend,” he said.
Since then, the Super Bowl has only gotten bigger – although not too big for Indianapolis, which annually hosts the NFL Combine, the winter scouting session for the nation’s top college prospects.
“As part of these regular planning meetings, Indy has expressed an interest in hosting the NFL Draft, and another Super Bowl in the coming years,” said Gahl.
Cleveland vs. Indianapolis
In contrast to Indianapolis, Cleveland has eight hotels within a half-mile of the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland and just four that are that close to current Huntington Bank Field.
The new stadium, under construction 12 miles southwest of downtown across from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, has about two dozen hotels in the vicinity, most off the Bagley Road exit of I-71 and the Columbia Road exit off I-480.
Most are limited-service airport hotels rather than full-service convention or luxury properties typically used by NFL teams and league executives.
Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam have plans to add two hotels to the private, mixed-use development planned for the property around the stadium. Those two hotels will have a total of 450 rooms and are expected to open in 2029, the same year as the stadium.
Haslam spokesman Peter John-Baptiste said development partner Lincoln Properties is in conversation with multiple potential hotel operators for the properties. “The vision is for them to be upscale,” he said.
Jimmy Haslam, who sat alongside Goodell at the groundbreaking event in late April, said “time will tell” if Cleveland develops the necessary infrastructure to support a Super Bowl.
Nashville demonstrates how quickly a market can become Super Bowl-ready when hotel development accelerates.
Nashville’s growth
“If you’d asked me 10 years ago would Nashville ever get a Super Bowl? I’d have said there’s no way,” said Haslam, a native of Knoxville, Tennessee. “And so a lot depends on the growth of the area.”
Haslam made his comments just a few weeks before the NFL announced that Nashville would host Super Bowl LXIV in 2030.
Nashville’s hotel and tourism growth has exploded over the past decade.
Davidson County, where Nashville is located, had 26,609 hotel rooms in 2015, according to CoStar. In 2025, that number was 42,552 – up 60%.
Cleveland’s hotel inventory grew during those same 10 years, though at a much more modest 6.5% pace – from 22,214 rooms in 2015 to 23,663 rooms in 2025, according to CoStar.
Meanwhile, the greater Nashville region is expected to add another 19,000 rooms in the next four years, according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp.
The region, currently with 61,000 rooms, should have 80,000 by 2030, if “all hotel rooms in the development pipeline open on schedule,” said Matt Bodiford, a spokesperson for the tourism agency.
Bodiford also noted that the new hotels were in the pipeline long before the Super Bowl was announced.
Gilbert credits the massive convention center in Nashville for much of the city’s hotel and tourism growth.
Music City Center, which opened in May 2013, is one of the largest in the United States, with 2.1 million square feet.
“It created the demand for more hotels,” said Gilbert.
Cleveland’s convention center opened just one month after Nashville’s, in June 2013. It has a more modest 519,000 square feet.
Big events like the Super Bowl, NCAA Men’s Final Four college basketball tournament, the NBA All-Star Game and others typically use large convention space for big fan festivals and other group gatherings.
“I’m not saying we have to expand our convention center, although we probably should,” said Gilbert. “When you have warm-weather cities, you have things that can be outdoors.”
The incorporation of the adjacent former Global Center for Health Innovation into the Cleveland convention center in 2024 expanded the facility’s meeting areas, but the exhibit space remains limited, said Gilbert.
“For groups that need a lot of exhibit space, we fall short,” he said.
Gilbert said he’s not sure whether Cleveland – even with the new stadium – has the infrastructure required for a NCAA Men’s Final Four event.
“The sports commission is starting to look into it now,” said Gilbert.
This year’s Final Four, held in Indianapolis, attracted approximately 86,000 people to the Fan Fest at the Indiana Convention Center and 142,000 to the semifinal and championship games at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The NCAA Women’s Final Four, held at Rocket Arena in Cleveland in 2024, stretched the city’s infrastructure, Gilbert said.
“And for better or worse, these events keep getting larger,” he said.
Still, he said, the stadium should dramatically expand Cleveland’s ability to pursue major events.
“The key is maximizing it with lots of events that we would not have been able to get,” Gilbert said. “Even if a Super Bowl isn’t one of them, we have to make sure we can host others.”