When the confetti rains down at the completion of Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday night, it will officially put the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee on the clock for the ’15 event. Committee CEO JAY PARRY and her team have spent all week in N.Y./N.J. compiling their scouting report for next year. “It’s looking at the whole experience from sponsor activation, entertainment, operations, logistics, and looking for best practices that we can migrate back to Arizona and then some things that we might do differently,” she said. Parry noted with Arizona’s average February temperature of 71 degrees, her committee has a little more leeway than N.Y./N.J. for certain events. After an exhausting week of media commitments and sponsorship meetings in N.Y., Parry will be looking forward to getting home to Phoenix and her white lab, Lexi, for a relaxing Monday afternoon. However, she will have to put off her biggest guilty pleasure -- nine holes of golf -- until next weekend.
GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT: On Friday I will spend some time on Super Bowl Boulevard, and I’ll spend some time in the Media Center, just touching base with media row and we’ll get some interviews set up there. Then Friday night we’ll have a welcome reception (right at the Hyatt hotel where we are staying) and we’ve got some of our committee members coming in and some of our community leaders. So DAVID ROUSSEAU, who’s our chairman, will be there and BRAD ANDERSON, one of our board members, will be there. Brad actually played in the Super Bowl for the Bears in '85, so he’s got a nice Super Bowl connection and I asked him to wear his ring when he comes out because that’s always a good conversation starter.
BELLE OF THE BOULEVARD: Saturday I’m going to take a look at the social media command center, which is here and set up by the host committee and the NFL. We’re really focused on, how are they handling social media, what lessons can we take from that and migrate to Arizona? I’ll be on Super Bowl Boulevard and that’s where the hand-off ceremony between New York/New Jersey (to Arizona) is going to take place at 2:00. So the governors, team owners, and the host committee will hand off to us, which is our Governor JAN BREWER, our Owner MICHAEL BIDWILL, me and David Rousseau. … Then I’ll take a look at NFL House, the exclusive hospitality that the NFL makes available to their partners. That is also right near the Boulevard and I want to see what that is all about, since they’ll be setting that up in Arizona as well. They’ve also got their custom-built toboggan on the Boulevard, so I’m thinking about actually taking the toboggan ride on Saturday, which should be exciting. Hopefully I will still be in good shape after that. It’s higher than I thought it was going to be, taller than I thought. It’s definitely bigger than it looks in the photos.
WINE & DINE: On Saturday night we’re going to send a couple of our partners to the NFL Honors event, and then we’ll have a second group which I’ll host at a restaurant, which will just be a fun dinner in New York. We’re going to do it at a place called Macelleria, which is kind of an Italian steakhouse. It will be an intimate dinner party of 35 or 40 of our closest friends. Hopefully Governor Brewer will join us at the dinner. At this point, I’m not planning on going to any of the big parties, I’m just going to wait and see what invitations come my way at the last minute.
PARKING LOT PARTY: Sunday is game day and I think that we’ll have an interview or two on Sunday morning back to Arizona and then really just kind of a low-key morning. We’re going to head out with our group about 1:00. We’ve organized a couple buses that can go in the dedicated bus lane into the stadium which I’m pretty excited about, because hopefully that will make it a smooth going. And then we’ll do the pregame hospitality at the game. Half of my group is going to go to NFL on location and the other half is going to go to the NFL Tailgate Party.
BOOTS WITH THE FUR: We’ve got seats in the lower level, in the open air and we’re going to embrace football the way it was supposed to be played. I borrowed a jacket from a friend that has a hood and it’s really quilted and warm and it goes down over my knees. It has been a lifesaver -- I haven’t taken it off since I got here. As for footwear, I’m a skier and so I do have some good, cute boots that have fur on the inside and fur on the outside. They’re really warm because they’ve got that rubber tread on them. I’m all about keeping my feet and my head warm. I also have those hand warmers, feet warmers -- my assistant even gave me one that I can put across my back. We’ve got all kinds of options and all the contingency plans covered with the gear factor.
