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Area visitor entities were primed and ready when it was announced that Super Bowl LIV would be held here. Now, they’ve put their plans in motion.
“We’re an event town,” said Bill Talbert, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. “This is our 11th Super Bowl, and we have Art Basel and other internationally famous events. So it’s hard to pick a favorite; we love all our children.”
But it’s been estimated that a 30-second television commercial during this year’s event is priced at a cool $5 million, so the event does command a certain amount of respect, observers say. And according to Smith Travel Research, four of the top 15 Saturday nights for hotel revpar (revenue per available room, considered the most accurate gauge of profitability) have been during Super Bowl weekends, Mr. Talbert said. “And that’s competing with all the other stuff that’s happened over all that time, as long as records have been kept,” he said. The average room rate during the Super Bowl period is $767, he added.
To maximize media coverage, the bureau will have desks set up at the media headquarters in the 60,000-square-foot ballroom of the recently remodeled Miami Beach Convention Center, and will assist reporters and newscasters, he added. “We’ll be at the media event in Terminal J across the water” at PortMiami, he said. “We’ll be working with the cruise lines, and we are embedded with the Host Committee. Many journalists know us.” ESPN and Fox Network are already ensconced in Miami Beach, he said.
This year’s Super Bowl is different from the last one to be hosted here, in 2010, in a number of ways, he said.
It includes a major free event in downtown Miami, Super Bowl Live at Bayfront Park, for the week leading up to the game. That event is expected to bring 150,000 people into downtown; the Host Committee has said.
“Brightline didn’t exist 10 years ago, and now Miami and West Palm Beach are 65 minutes apart, so everyone can experience Super Bowl. And there was no real social media,” Mr. Talbert said. “Now we can all be reporters!”
“The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau has been with us since the beginning, when we were preparing this bid to bring the Super Bowl back to Miami,” said Ray Martinez, executive director of the Miami Super Bowl Host Committee. “The Host Committee has the contractual obligation with the NFL, but the bureau has cooperated with us on reserving blocks of hotel room and locating venues for Host Committee events.
“This year is unusual in that most of the events are in Miami, but the visitor industries in Broward and Palm Beach counties have been our partners in getting the word out. They’ve sponsored events within their counties, too, which has helped build excitement around the event.”
https://www.miamitodaynews.com/2020/01/14/super-bowl-liv-guests-will-find-767-hotel-rooms/
