Super Bowl Hype Machine: Arizona Host Committee Rolls Out Big Hitters To Welcome World To Super Bowl 57
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Jeff Goulding
PHOENIX, Arizona — Larry Fitzgerald, the splendid former NFL pass-catcher, remembers his Super Bowl experience as an Arizona Cardinals player in 2009. As soon as the team plane landed in Tampa, buses ferried players to every destination. They were clueless, he noted, about the behind-the-scenes machinations necessary to pull off America’s party — the week-long celebration of football that leads up to the nation’s biggest game of all, the Super Bowl.
Now Fitzgerald, serving as executive board chairman of the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, has a new appreciation for what it takes to pull of a Super Bowl in his town.
“I got to see how the sausage was made,” the 39-year-old ex-NFLer told a room of reporters gathered to hear the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee welcome the world to Super Bowl 57 and State Farm Stadium in Glendale for the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
In the back of the room was Sam Joffray, CEO/President of the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee. He was taking notes on how the host committee here in Phoenix is handling the giant chores of security, transportation, media and volunteers at a massive event of this scope.
The numbers can sound overwhelming — 10,000 volunteers, 5,000-6,000 media, 2,000 drivers and an army of cops and security people who are quick to stop and check out a person’s credential.
The new governor of the host state of Arizona officially welcomed the world to the Super Bowl. Katie Hobbs, a veteran state politician coming off a bruising win over Republican foe Kari Lake, asked her fellow Grand Canyon State residents to be kind to the tens of thousands of visitors descending on metro Phoenix.
“Let’s be excited about our visitors,” Hobbs said.
LVSportsBiz.com interviewed Parry after the Arizona welcome to catch her advice for Las Vegas, which hosts Super Bowl 58 at Allegiant Stadium one year and six days from today. Her biggest piece of advice for Las Vegas was plan early.
It’s hard to determine the net economic impact of these mega-sports events. The host committees herald the Super Bowl as spending generators, saying there’s a financial impact of $600 million on a local economy.
But sports economists who study these topics say the economic impact numbers are overinflated and there are many economic trends at work when a Super Bowl comes to town. Keep in mind the public Las Vegas Visitors and Conventions Authority (LVCVA) approved $40 million in public dollars to host the Super Bowl, while the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee is charged with raising another $20 million for the big game.
For example, in Las Vegas there are already 311,000 visitors for a Super Bowl weekend so tourism spending is a windfall even without hosting a Super Bowl. Another 100,000 people will be in Las Vegas for Super Bowl week in February 2024, Joffray predicted.
The Arizona host committee showed a sparkling, rhinestone football Monday.
Jeramie McPeek, whose title is actually the social media “quarterback” for the Arizona host committee, simply called the football, “Super Bowl bling.”
