North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee lists accomplishments from the Big Game

by PegNews wire

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Hotels and airports were packed, the host committee reports.

Now that Super Bowl XLV is behind us and everyone under the sun seems to want to criticize how it was executed, the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee sends a list of the things that did go right. Without further ado:

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FOR NORTH TEXAS, EARLY RESULTS INDICATE IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS AND POSITIVE FEEDBACK FROM SUPER BOWL XLV

Substantial early numbers pour in following Super Bowl XLV and all indicators point up

NORTH TEXAS (Feb. 18, 2011) – With Super Bowl XLV now in the rearview mirror, the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee has turned its efforts to the process of gathering and researching information from the region’s first Super Bowl and the early results are positive. The full economic impact won’t be known for months, but the profitable feedback reported from airports, hotels and other categories are encouraging.

“The Super Bowl is an enormous event,” said Host Committee President & CEO Bill Lively. “It’s impossible to gauge it overall impact to the region so quickly after the game, there are just too many moving parts and too many areas that need to be studied. But the anecdotal evidence suggests that, despite the obvious obstacles and challenges the region faced Super Bowl week, the event nevertheless was a great success, and likely the largest, most economically beneficial event in the region’s history.”

HOTELS & HOSPITALITY

“(Last week) we had a hotel general managers meeting here in Arlington,” said President & CEO of the Arlington CVB Jay Burress, who also chaired the Host Committee’s Hospitality Action Team. “Only a month prior to the game, they still had availability, and they were nervous and ready to see what was going to happen. To a person in that room following our meeting, the feelings were incredibly positive. They had all filled up and were thrilled with the experience. Many of the hotels rooms were filled immediately once the teams were known.”

Burress says he has heard similar stories from hoteliers and CVBs from across the region, but cautions that it will take several months for final numbers to be tabulated and validated by leading industry publications. Following the meeting Burress received a number of e-mails from hotel GMs from across North Texas asking what dates they could circle for future Super Bowl bids.

According to the Dallas CVB, industry tracker STR Global has reported that the largest 100 hotels in the city showed a collective revenue increase against the same weekend last year of 358% on Thursday, Feb. 3, 549% on Friday, Feb. 4, and 590% for Saturday, Feb. 5. Numbers for Sunday, Feb. 6, were not yet available.

The weekend also saw huge crowds descend on the restaurants and clubs in Fort Worth’s Sundance Square, which broke a record of its own on Saturday, Feb. 5, when the entertainment district had its highest sales day in its history.

“We knew that Sundance Square would be an exciting destination to gather for visitors and the local community who wanted to be a part of the Super Bowl festivities,” said Johnny Campbell, President and CEO of Sundance Square. “Even with the challenges that the weather presented, Sundance Square’s retail and restaurant sales exceeded previous best day ever reports.”

Sundance Square pedestrian traffic the weekend prior to Super Bowl week was double a normal weekend and during the week pedestrian counts more than tripled normal weekly counts. Sundance Square also tracked cars moving in and out of its garages.

“We would most certainly qualify Super Bowl XLV as a tremendous success for Sundance Square,” said Tracy Gilmour, director of marketing for the entertainment and business district. “We presented downtown Fort Worth and Sundance Square in a fresh light to the local, regional and national audiences and that resulted in increased awareness of Sundance Square and downtown Fort Worth.”

AIRPORTS

DFW AIRPORT WAS HOPPING: On the Monday following Super Sunday, more than 200,000 passengers poured through Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport, which is 45,000 more passengers than a normal day. With over 60,000 passengers originating trips at DFW, it was one of the busiest days for local-originating passengers in recent history, and one of the busiest days ever at DFW.

During Super Bowl week, in addition to its usual load of 1,780 daily takeoffs and landings, DFW Airport took in an additional 44 charter aircraft, 100 corporate aircraft, and over 60 extra airline flights (14,344 flight operations in total, despite the weather forcing cancellation of 2,200 flights). Airport personnel worked 24/7 over eight days to support airline and security operations, in the face of the largest winter storm in 40 years impacting the U.S.

“It was a remarkable week, even for DFW,” said Jeff Fegan, CEO of DFW International Airport and chair of the Host Committee’s Aviation Action Team. “Our staff and DFW’s partners went the distance in making sure the airport provided more capacity than the airlines needed.”

Ensuring the smoothest operations possible were extensive pre-planning and contingency planning – for flight operations, ground transportation, customer service, passenger entertainment, community outreach, as well as teamwork among airlines, federal agencies, airport partners and the NFL. Despite unprecedented weather challenges, airport operations were suspended for only 2.5 hours over eight days as the DFW team kept runways clear.

PRIVATE PLANES EVERYWHERE: Across the region, the FAA reported 1,100 more general aviation departures than normal in a 21-hour period from 9 p.m. Super Sunday to 6 p.m. Monday. That amount of Super Bowl traffic met and exceeded most projections for North Texas in terms of corporate aviation activity, because the Host Committee’s Aviation Action Team planners had anticipated anywhere from 700 to 1000 private aircraft making the trip to North Texas for the game. The joint effort among 15 regional airports and heliports to prepare their respective facilities, as well as a regional aviation web site, provided plenty of options for the arrival and departure of hundreds of private aircraft around the Super Bowl.

TRANSPORTATION

Keeping visitors moving – especially in the midst of two winter storms -- was vital Super Bowl week. “All of our planning paid off,” said Michael Morris, Director of Transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. “Our inclement weather plan worked well – not one official or sanctioned function or team related practice or activity was delayed due to these storms. And folks embraced our public transportation plans. We were very pleased by the results.”

Here are few of the highlighted numbers for the week:

• Additional Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) crews and equipment from Amarillo, Atlanta, Brownwood, Childress, Lubbock, Tyler, and Waco were brought in to supplement the local district efforts. In total, over 600 TxDOT employees (455 local plus 145 from other districts), 400 pieces of equipment (310 local and 90 from other districts), 3.2 million pounds of granular magnesium chloride, and 34,000 gallons of liquid magnesium chloride were used to clear the Dallas-Fort Worth area of snow and ice.

• A new program was developed and implemented to allow limousines to operate in the region seamlessly, with one permit. Approximately 2,000 limousines and 2,000 drivers The Trinity Railway Express (TRE) regional rail to the NFL Experience and ESPN Zone experienced record ridership on Jan. 30-31 and Feb. 2-6. On Saturday, Feb. 5, the TRE carried a record total 9,088 riders, evenly distributed to NFLX and ESPN Zone. Two additional trains were added for late Saturday night to respond to Downtown Fort Worth crowds.

• The Trinity Railway Express/Centerport Bus Shuttles carried approximately 4,000 riders to the game and 4,000 riders after the game.

• DART estimates more than 37,000 boardings on the system due to the NFL Experience.

• Over 95 percent of the parkers for Super Bowl Sunday used the advance parking and routing reservation system minimizing the number of people that traveled to the game on unassigned routes.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Community outreach and charity activities also scored big with over 50 activities occurring during Super Bowl week throughout North Texas through the efforts of the Host Committee and the NFL. Here’s a rundown:

TASTE OF THE NFL: The premier food and wine tasting extravaganza sold out and raised $1 million in financial support for food banks involved in hunger relief throughout America – the largest amount raised in the event’s 20-year history. Proceeds from Taste of the NFL will benefit affiliates of Feeding America in every NFL city.

YOUTH EDUCATION TOWN (YET): NFL Charities and the Gene and Jerry Jones Family Arlington Youth Foundation each donated $1 million to fund the establishment of the North Texas YET. At a press conference on Thursday, Feb. 3, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the gift from NFL Charities along with Jerry Jones and his wife Gene.

THE GREENING OF THE SUPER BOWL: The NFL Environmental Program worked for a year to establish its contributions to the overall "greening" of the Super Bowl. Unique to North Texas was the "Touchdown for Trees" program, which planted over 6,000 trees in 12 North Texas cities. Partners included the Texas Forest Service, the Texas Trees Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service. The Environmental Program also includes a recycling program, prepared food recovery for local food banks, a materials donation drive and renewable energy credits for all major NFL venues, including Cowboys Stadium.

SUPER KIDS SUPER SHARING: Seven North Texas school districts collected gently used sporting goods equipment; and, more than 500 children participated in the culminating event at the future site of the Youth Education Town (YET) in Arlington.

NFL PLAY 60: The NFL Play 60 program registered over 12,000 local children in the program implemented by physical education teachers across North Texas. The program challenged students to get at least 60 minutes of exercise each day for six weeks.

NFL ONE WORLD: The NFL's One World Super Huddle invited area fifth graders from the Fort Worth, Dallas, Irving and Arlington school districts to learn the cultural differences that make them unique and the similarities that bring them together through the pen pal program titled "One World: Connecting Communities, Cultures, and Classrooms." The program impacted eight classrooms of varying ethnic and racial backgrounds.

MILITARY OUTREACH: Military Outreach increased this year through events for service members and their families in North Texas during Super Bowl week, including:

• The Welcome Home A Hero program, with NFL players and staff welcoming troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

• Ten Wounded Warriors traveled to North Texas from San Diego and Washington, D.C., to participate in the "Rehabbing with the Troops" program at NFL Experience. The Wounded Warriors worked out with current NFL players and fans on site at the NFL Experience.

• 150 children from Fort Hood families participated in youth football clinics at NFL Experience alongside NFL players. Those families were also invited to attend several NFL events, including the Tazon Latino Flag Football game, the Vh1 Pepsi Fan Jam and CMT Saturday Night Party.

MAKE A WISH: Through the NFL, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America granted the wishes of 13 children to attend Super Bowl XLV. The children and their families were provided travel, a full weekend of activities and also attended Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium.

SLANT 45: The service-learning outreach program of the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee celebrated its success in January with two events -- the Kids Bowl Bash at the American Airlines Center in Dallas and the SLANT 45 The Movie Premiere at the Angelika Theater in Plano. The Kids Bowl Bash drew more than 14,000 SLANT 45 participants, their families and teachers for the free event that featured pop stars Jordin Sparks and Mitchel Musso, as well as a special address by SLANT 45 Honorary Chair President George W. Bush. SLANT 45 The Movie, a feature-length film premiered to a capacity audience of 1,100, including nearly 350 children and families featured in the film. The children and film subjects and supporters walked a red carpet and were interviewed in a live broadcast by the local FOX affiliate. SLANT 45 involved nearly 45,000 children across North Texas performing an astonishing 440,000 hours of community service.

Source: North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee

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