After Mardi Gras scheduling conflict, NFL bumps New Orleans Super Bowl from 2024 to 2025

The National Football League has bumped New Orleans as its Super Bowl LVIII city host in 2024, giving the city the event in 2025 instead.

When the league decided to add a 17th game to its regular season, it pushed Super Bowl LVIII out a week, bringing it into conflict with New Orleans’ Mardi Gras event.

NFL owners will decide on a plan for the 2024 location over the next year, the league told CNBC on Wednesday via email.

“At the time of the bid, the league and host city agreed to work together to award New Orleans the next available Super Bowl in the event of a shift to a 17-game season, which under the new CBA [collective bargaining agreement] will be in effect during the 2023 season,” an NFL spokesperson told CNBC.

The Super Bowl event in 2025 will be the eighth time the event will be played at the Saints’ Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

As for 2024, the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium seems to be a perfect fit. Las Vegas’ new roughly $2 billion stadium, fueled by $750 million of public dollars from a hotel tax increase, debuted this season as the city welcomed the Raiders from Oakland.

Selecting Las Vegas would help make up for missing the 2020 NFL Draft, which was scheduled in Las Vegas in April but canceled due to Covid-19. Allegiant Stadium was also poised to host the 2021 Pro Bowl, which the league canceled on Wednesday due to the pandemic.

“We anticipate interest from Las Vegas and other cities around the country to host America’s most popular event,” the spokesperson said when asked about speculation of the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.

The 2021 Super Bowl will be held on Feb. 7 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, followed by SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in 2022, and the Arizona Cardinals’ home field of State Farm Stadium in 2023.