Super Bowl Has Evolved Into America’s Mid-Winter Break As Las Vegas Preps For 330,000 Visitors Next Week For Chiefs Vs 49ers At Allegiant Stadium Feb. 11
Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
It’s a professional sport’s championship game.
And it’s evolved into something much bigger than a football title game.
The National Football League’s Super Bowl has grown into America’s mid-winter break, a week of business reunions, marketing sessions and corporate parties in early February when most people in the U.S. could use a jolt to get to winter’s finish line.
This year the game is being staged in Las Vegas for the first time.
To prep for the tsunami of 330,000 visitors next week, there’s an army of 7,000 volunteers and a host committee armed with a $55 million budget to help the NFL rent a convention center, feed media and pay for security.
On Friday, the Las Vegas media got its first look at a glorified fanfest called the “Super Bowl Experience,” which opens Wednesday at $25 per person, then the price bumps up to $50 an admission to check out Super Bowl displays, team photos, championship rings and a store, naturally, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.
The convention center facility is so huge that it also houses the radio row, a massive group of tables and chairs that accommodates dozens of sports talk radio stations from across the U.S.
They will spend a week gabbing about a game matching two of the league’s glamor teams — the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and their gifted quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, and the talented San Francisco 49ers, a slight favorite to win their franchise’s sixth Super Bowl.
Super Bowl weekend was already a busy moneymaker for the Las Vegas hospitality industry as 300,000 visitors were already pouring into Sin City to take in the game.
Now the game itself will lure 150,000 fans, contractors, vendors and NFL staffers, who represent a mini-economy of mega-event staging.
There are endless concerts and events feeding off the Super Bowl, from Leigh Steinberg’s legendary party at the Ahern hotel on Sahara Avenue to CBS’ Super Bowl Soulful Celebration at the Palms Hotel.
Things will get off to a rocking start Monday when the media night event kicks things off at Allegiant Stadium. The domed stadium has an artificial turf that can be used for non-sports events like Monday’s gathering and then will slide in the Super Bowl’s natural grass playing surface later in the week.
The cheapest ticket to get into Super Bowl is $7,218, according to secondary market ticket re-seller TicketIQ
