Super Bowl XLIII will be the 43rd annual edition of the Super Bowl in American football,
and the 39th annual championship game of the modern-era National Football
League (NFL). It is scheduled to be played on February 1, 2009. Tampa, Florida
was selected for the game site on May 25, 2005, beating out three other finalists:
Atlanta; Houston; and Miami. It will be the fourth Super Bowl played in
Tampa, and the second in Raymond James Stadium.
The game will be televised
on NBC, which will be their first Super Bowl telecast since Super Bowl XXXII.
It will also be the last Super Bowl and next to last major sporting event
(Fox Sports' Daytona 500 coverage on February 15 will be the last event) to be
telecast in the USA in the analog television format, as on February 17 of that
year, all television stations must cease analog broadcasts.
The NFL
was exploring the possibility of moving the Pro Bowl to the host site of the Super
Bowl, and holding it the weekend before the Super Bowl starting in 2009. However,
the league decided to retain the 2009 Pro Bowl in Honolulu, Hawaii. |
