GAME Prep

GAME Prep

The underbelly of preparing for a Super Bowl is no easy region. Reid Sigmon is working with businesses, the National Football League and the community to host Super Bowl XLIII.

SUPER BOWL by Dave Szymanski | Tampa Bay Editor

From TV commercials to white tent buffet lines, the Super Bowl is seen as one of the premiere corporate branding events in America that nearly 1 billion people in 232 countries watch on television.

But as the Feb. 1 game in Tampa approaches, it is clear that the event is not recession proof, for businesses large and small.

Yes, major sponsors, including local ones like Gerdau Ameristeel, Publix and Walter Industries, have stepped forward. The game at Raymond James Stadium is sold out and additional seating has been added.

More than 460 minority- and women-owned businesses are participating in the NFL's vendor-sharing program. Dozens of companies have parties and events planned. Celebrities including Carmen Electra, Jenny McCarthy and Jim McMahon are planning events and charity fundraisers. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be playing at halftime.

But while Tampa expects more than $300 million and more than 200,000 people to flow into the Gulf Coast before, during and after the Feb. 1 battle in Tampa, companies have trimmed their spending on the big game.

REVIEW SUMMARY

Business: The Super Bowl

Industry: Professional football

Key: Working with the National Football League, Tampa, companies and volunteers to provide a safe, accessible and profitable atmosphere surrounding the Super Bowl.

The last two host markets, South Florida and Arizona, did studies and estimated game-related spending at $476 million and $500 million, respectively. The Tampa Bay task force is using a figure of more than $300 million in direct and indirect spending.

Economic impact is an inexact science. But business spending is down.

"I will say that with the Super Bowl and the NFL, no one is immune to this economy," says Reid Sigmon, executive director of the Super Bowl XLIII Task Force. "Companies are making decisions much slower. They are looking at their budgets."

Still, the Super Bowl remains a magnet for many busineses and their customers. The NFL shares its vendor database with qualified minority businesses and the time before and during the game still attract businesses.

"The Super Bowl has been known as one of biggest incentive trips," Sigmon says. "It is seen as a way to thank customers."

This is the fourth time the Tampa Bay area has hosted a Super Bowl. The task is large, but not a surprise, since Tampa bid to host the game. The list of Super Bowl detail work required from the NFL special events group stands in a paper stack about a foot high.

Point man

Sigmon, 34, is a single, soft-spoken, good-humored, conservatively dressed Charleston, S.C. native who grew up in North Carolina, worked in the athletic department at Wake Forest University and got his MBA from the University of Florida.

He previously worked as director of stadium development and event operations for the Cleveland Browns and has professional sports event experience in Tampa Bay. He values that experience because he now understands what teams, not just host cities, need.

In 1998, Sigmon served as assistant director of the Tampa Bay Final Four Organizing Committee and in 1999 served as director of operations for Tampa's Super Bowl XXXV Task Force. For Super Bowl XXXIX, he was vice president of operations for the game Jacksonville hosted.

He began his current post April 30, 2007. His job includes securing $8 million in sponsorships and managing security, transportation, lodging and event planning.

The Tampa Bay Super Bowl XLIII Task Force is a private, nonprofit group created to prepare for and host the game and its events and pay all game-related bills.

One of the biggest differences in preparing for this year's game is security. The last Tampa Super Bowl happened prior to 9-11.

Security rules have risen dramatically. The work - a collaboration of federal, state and local law enforcement - includes closing streets, installing perimeter fencing, limiting air travel and doing background checks on everyone connected to the game or its events. That is a mountain of a task because of the dozens of events.

A big advantage for the Gulf Coast is experience. It has hosted three Super Bowls before as well as college bowl games.

"Our police do a good job," Sigmon says.

The other big change is more media coverage. In 2001 ESPN was the only network doing live daily broadcasts from the Super Bowl city. This year, the list of networks includes ESPN (10 straight days of live broadcasts from Tampa), CNN, HBO, the NFL network, Fox Sports Net and others.

Sigmon has more hotel and entertainment options for this game, including Channelside and the Embassy Suites in downtown Tampa.

Business intersection

Businesses get involved in the Super Bowl several ways, including as vendors or holding events before, during and after the game.

The events include concerts, parties and golf tournaments. Sigmon oversees security, access and other preparations before, during and after the game. Each business event works on its own.

For example, Tampa's Gerdau Ameristeel will unveil one-of-a-kind works of art including a 25-foot structure featuring a massive steel football. The colors inside the 12-foot ball will be driven by a Web-based poll that the public can participate in by visiting ESPN.com.

Companies that want to throw a white-tent corporate party right outside the stadium have to work with the National Football League, which controls all the land around the stadium during Super Bowl time.

Besides entertaining clients or employees, businesses also see the game as a way to reach new customers through public events. One of those is the NFL Experience, an interactive public event outside the stadium Jan. 24, 25, 29, 30 and 31.

The Experience, which requires another ticket, features more than 50 interactive games and attractions as well as special programming including football clinics, autograph sessions, a football card show and NFL coaches chats, during which NFL coaches give an inside look into football.

For companies that hold events off stadium property, Tampa has designated "clean zones," where companies can stage events. But the city regulates the events, including things like the size and color of tents.

Game sponsors also get other privileges including access to events, game tickets, event tickets, hotel rooms and transportation.

Marketing sponsors get use of the licensed NFL Super Bowl XLIII logo and get exclusivity. That means there can only be one official bank sponsor (Bank of America) and one official wireless telephone sponsor (Sprint).

However, competing companies can work the NFL to host some events through special NFL hospitality packages, which it is still selling.

On schedule and ready to play

As of early January, all game-related events were on schedule, Sigmon says. Some of those events have been in the planning for two years.

"Now it's a matter of executing those plans," he says. "The community and sponsors have been very good."

Sigmon expects 72,000 people for the game in the stadium. That includes 6,000 of temporary seating inside the facility.

As much as he might like to, Sigmon has not been traveling to the playoff cities. There's too much work back in Tampa.

However, operations people from the NFL playoff teams will be in Tampa this month going over Super Bowl preparations. Sigmon is there but the NFL runs those meetings.

As the game nears, more businesses may get involved in using the game to promote their company.

"Anyone can hold an event, but the NFL controls the logo," Sigmon says.