Super Bowl L awarded to San Francisco area

The 49ers may have lost Super Bowl XLVII in January, but San Francisco has already won Super Bowl L.

At least it has won the right to host the game.

The Bay Area was awarded the 50th Super Bowl after an NFL owners vote Tuesday. The game will take place in 2016 at the 49ers’ yet-to-be-opened new stadium in Santa Clara.

“After losing a Super Bowl [to the Baltimore Ravens], it feels really good to win a Super Bowl,” joked 49ers Chief Executive Jed York, whose team’s new facility will open for the 2014 season.

The owners also voted to hold the NFL’s championship game in Houston the following year.

San Francisco beat out South Florida, which was vying for its 11th Super Bowl. But unlike the 49ers, the Miami Dolphins didn’t have a fancy stadium to woo the owners with after being denied public funding for major renovations at Sun Life Stadium.

It will be the second Super Bowl played in Northern California, and the first since Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium in 1985. Incidentally, the 49ers beat the Dolphins back then too ... only that time it was on the field, 38-16.

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