This February, the Super Bowl (Super Bowl XLVIII for those of you counting in a Romanesque manner) will, for the first time, be held in a cold-weather open-air stadium: MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Giants and Jets. The NFL’s eschewing of warm-weather locales or domed stadia may make you, Wisconsin football fan, hopeful that this sets a precedent for the biggest sports occasion in the nation to someday come to the Mecca of professional American football. If the NFL can make it there, they can make it anywhere, like the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.

Ain’t gonna happen.

Precedent is a powerful force in society, and one could imagine cities like Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Chicago asking for a piece of the half-a-billion-dollar economic impact provided by the Super Bowl. The problem for these places – and Green Bay – is that they are not New York City. The Big Apple is a big deal, and holding the mega-important Super Bowl in mega-important New York seems a natural association. If this means playing in 40-degree temps with a possible snowstorm, so be it, because the game – and everything else surrounding the game – is in the non-governmental capital of the U.S.A.

Thankfully we live in the western part of Wisconsin, as the odds favor a Super Bowl coming to a city closer to us than Green Bay: Minneapolis.

Green Bay is just a bit different from New York. Yes, our state’s stadium is the longest-lasting in the league, is considered a shrine of sorts to football history, and pretty much defines the atmosphere of the game. This would be the venue to truly show off the sport to non-football fans (of which there seem to be fewer left in this country by the year – that demo is mainly out of this country). However, that assumes the Super Bowl really is about “the game.”

The Super Bowl entails a week worth of social and cultural parties, fan exhibits, concerts and media/celebrity hosting with efficient transportation and logistics. Folks with money to spend on these high-priced affairs are the people the NFL and its business partners are looking to attract to a Super Bowl. You know why suites are included in stadiums? In large part for rich types to stay luxurious and away from adverse weather. With so many of these types at a Super Bowl, they have to sit in the regular seats as well – these people make up many of the “fans” at the game itself, as opposed to a 50-50 split among die-hards of the two teams. They will tolerate wintry weather this February since everything else about their stay involves being in the New York metropolitan area. Would Beyoncé and Jay-Z hit the clubs of Ashwaubenon for a couple of days and then sit on a metal bench in 15-degree weather? Nope.

Thankfully we live in the western part of Wisconsin, as the odds favor a Super Bowl coming to a city closer to us than Green Bay: Minneapolis. The new Vikings stadium, due to open in 2016, is essentially a dome – not the inflatable, collapsible-by-snow style of the Metrodome, but one including a glass-like material that works as a clear ceiling. It will be unlike anything designed in American sports. I have been telling my Packer fan friends that between the stadium and the new Vikings uniforms, at least the Vikes will look awesome when they lose.

The keys for bringing a Super Bowl to the Twin Cities – a colder area than the Fox River Valley – are the climate-controlled interior and a new connection of the downtown skyway system to the stadium. Weekend visitors could arrive at their downtown hotels and walk to restaurants, nightclubs, events, and the actual game without ever experiencing a temperature lower than 70 degrees. There is the precedent of the city’s hosting of a Super Bowl in 1992. Let’s face it, Minneapolis is also more attractive to high-culture big-city types than Green Bay.  All those factors considered, the game – I mean, event – will return to Minnesota, perhaps by the end of the decade.

Do not feel sorry for Green Bay, however. Its legendary status is solid.  Significant regular-season and playoff games have been and will be hosted at Lambeau, and you might actually be able to afford tickets to attend some – even if Beyoncé won’t be there to snuggle-up as your bench mate.