After tonight's episode, I would like to say that I need or even prefer to see a finale leg that isn't hosted entirely in a large metropolitan area, even a smaller city-town to avoid hometown or transplant advantages as much as possible. I feel like the last time we had some instance of this was TAR27 with Long Island or TAR23 with Juneau. I understand it's not as cost-effective to start somewhere away from an international airport, but it would be awesome to see a city out of left field again or even more frequently.
My hopes:
Santa Fe & Taos, New Mexico
Grand Junction or Aspen, Colorado
Reno, Nevada and Lake Tahoe
Yuma, Arizona to El Centro, California
Monterey, California
Madison, Wisconsin
Panama City Beach, Florida
Dubuque, Iowa
Palm Springs, California (Surprised we haven't had a finale in this area or even Austin or Houston for that matter yet, but I know we've started here.)
El Paso, Texas
Though they would fly into a metropolitan area, I have been hoping for a Phoenix finale in the self driving finale area where they can drive throughout the desert
I know people keep throwing around a Phoenix finale but I honestly doubt it. The city itself is quite boring with not much to make a leg out of, and any sort of ‘desert nature’ leg would take teams pretty far out of town
Also another reason why I would like to see more regional finales over a huge metro. I would appreciate a full and well-thought-out Phoenix finale, but I'm more interested in curveball cities like teams ending up in Tucson (you could make two legs worth of great tasks here honestly) or Sedona since the final 3 teams can be thrown for a loop more easily. Arizona has plenty of places that can host awesomely unique tasks with stellar vibes, the leg just doesn't necessarily need to take place entirely in its most popular area.
I will say that if they want to use an Arizona finale they could fly into Phoenix and then after a few challenges downtown, pull a Season 27 finale and travel by helicopter or small prop plane to a small airport. Flagstaff would make such a cool finale!
I would just be cautious that it would end up airing like the Santa Barbara finale in the social media season where they stall way too long in downtown for no reason (why did they choose a senior living condo out of all places
). Much rather have them drive the extra while away in the beginning to do a complete leg in a new city.