Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee Head: It Takes A Village To Host Super Bowl
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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com Publisher/Writer
Sam Joffray has been around a few Super Bowl blocks.
Joffray, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee, has attended the last 26 Super Bowls, including eight where he was part of the New Orleans Super Bowl host or bid committees.
Joffray is off to Arizona on Friday to gather vital intel on Super Bowl security, volunteer and transportation issues at Super Bowl 57 in Glendale. The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles play at State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals, for the NFL championship on Feb. 12.
Joffray will use that info from Arizona to help Las Vegas host Super Bowl 58 at Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 11, 2024.
There’s literally hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in terms of tourism and visitor money spent around a Super Bowl event. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) has approved $40 million to host the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, while the host committee will have to raise another $20 million. There’s talk that next year’s Las Vegas Super Bowl can deliver $600 million in economic spending, though many sports economists say the big game’s economic impacts are overstated.
LVSportsBiz.com caught up with Joffray to find out more about his mission to Arizona.
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LVSportsBiz.com: What do you and your committee hope to learn from your trip to the Super Bowl?
Sam Joffray: We want to get an idea about what’s different from Los Angeles (where last year’s Super Bowl was held.) We want to see how many media will be coming and how many hotels they will be filling up. MGM Resorts will be there taking a look. Caesars will have a presence. We want to see who the influencers will be. Metro will be there looking at public safety requirements. We will be meeting with their host committee and the NFL.
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LVSB: How many days will you and the Las Vegas host committee be there and how many host committee members will be going?
SJ: It’s going to be quite a matrix of people coming and going. I’ll say 40 people. We’ll have staff there arriving Friday and staying through Monday and the game. We’ll have a contingency of people coming for portions of the week. They will be looking at volunteers, public safety, a little bit of everything.
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LVSB: This is Las Vegas’ first time as Super Bowl host, so what specifically will you be looking at that will be applied to Las Vegas in 2024?
SJ: We will be studying transportation very closely. We want to see how they will be getting people to the game and postgame. We will look at fan events and security for those events. One of our objectives is to be in the media center and build excitement for the game in Las Vegas. Once the game is over, Las Vegas will be on the clock and we will receive the torch from Phoenix on the Monday after the game.
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LVSB: How will your committee and the LVCVA interact at the Super Bowl in Arizona?
SJ: We have LVCVA people on our committee. They will be looking at destination marketing opportunities. They will be embedded with us at all our meetings. We’re tied at the hip. We’re trying to be the best Super Bowl host city ever and we want to get it right.
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LVSB: How many Super Bowls have you been to and what goes through your head before you go to your next Super Bowl.
SJ: This year will be my 27th straight Super Bowl. I will be thinking about reinforcing to the host committee about everything from volunteers to security. It takes a village to raise a Super Bowl.
