WASHINGTON -- The 2018 Super Bowl could be headed back to a recent host city. Or to one that hasn't staged the game in more than two decades.

New Orleans and Indianapolis, the sites of the past two Super Bowls, and Minneapolis are the three finalists to host the NFL championship game in '18.

Those cities were selected from a pool of six at the owners' meetings Tuesday. Should Lucas Oil Stadium get the game, it would be the first cold-weather stadium to host two Super Bowls.

"It proves that Indianapolis is really a unique city, being a medium-sized market in a colder market, without 80 degrees and beaches," Colts owner Jim Irsay said. "I think we have the unique ability in Indianapolis to really deliver a Super Bowl that gets pulled off in a way that's special."

New Orleans has hosted 10 Super Bowls, including last February's game that was interrupted by a blackout. That apparently didn't bother the owners during Tuesday's selection process.

"The Super Bowl is a celebration of unparalleled magnitude. What better time for New Orleans to host its record 11th Super Bowl than during a party 300 years in the making?" Jay Cicero, Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation president and CEO, said of the city's 2018 tricentennial.

Minneapolis last hosted the title game in January 1992. A $975 million stadium is going to be built in downtown Minneapolis, with the projected opening coming in 2016.

The NFL often rewards a city for building a new stadium with a Super Bowl, as was done in recent years for Detroit, the Phoenix area, the Dallas area, and Indianapolis.

"The Vikings organization and our political leaders in Minnesota fought a long battle, spent more than 12 years to secure the new stadium for the team and the state," said Lester Bagley the vice president for public affairs and stadium development for the Vikings, "and during that long and contentious debate the Vikings made a commitment to take the lead and advocate with the NFL to host the Super Bowl 2018 in Minneapolis.

"Minnesota stepped up to deliver a great new stadium, and we will push hard to deliver the reward."

The 2018 Super Bowl will be awarded next May. The next four Super Bowls are in New Jersey, Arizona, Santa Clara, Calif., and Houston.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.