Sunday’s Super Bowl hosted by New Jersey, New York could serve as example for a game in Seattle.
NEW YORK – Keeping the Super Bowl from getting lost in the Big Apple was always going to be a challenge for event organizers.
The Super Bowl experience was alive and well Saturday night for anyone strolling down Broadway through Times Square and into the city’s fashion district. Huge television sets built by Fox Sports and ESPN served as platforms for spirited cheering showdowns between rival Seahawks and Broncos fans and meeting points for anyone wanting a taste of the NFL’s biggest week.
But a few blocks in any direction, it was business as usual. The city’s sheer size makes it easier to forget a Super Bowl was being played here than smaller sites like New Orleans or Indianapolis. That’s why the success or failure of staging the big game here was never going to be gauged by an impossible goal of citywide festive spirit — but merely the ability to keep official events running smoothly without any major incidents or disruptions.
And judging by the early reactions, the pregame week went off largely without a hitch.
“In New York, there’s always traffic, because there are just a lot of people here,’’ Ralph Morton, executive director of the Seattle Sports Commission, said this week while here to view how Super Bowl events were run in case of a future Seattle bid for the game. “But here, it’s very effective when you have a great cab system, which is not something you can emulate somewhere else. So that’s important when you’re going to look at how a Super Bowl went in a city like this. How smoothly did things flow? How easy was it to get to events?’’
Morton said host cities must offer fans a good experience outside the game, with amenities like nearby hotels, restaurants and public gathering spots. With the 2019 Super Bowl the earliest game Seattle could host, he already was talking up Seattle Center and the Emerald City’s other strengths.
Continued...
NEW YORK – Keeping the Super Bowl from getting lost in the Big Apple was always going to be a challenge for event organizers.
The Super Bowl experience was alive and well Saturday night for anyone strolling down Broadway through Times Square and into the city’s fashion district. Huge television sets built by Fox Sports and ESPN served as platforms for spirited cheering showdowns between rival Seahawks and Broncos fans and meeting points for anyone wanting a taste of the NFL’s biggest week.
But a few blocks in any direction, it was business as usual. The city’s sheer size makes it easier to forget a Super Bowl was being played here than smaller sites like New Orleans or Indianapolis. That’s why the success or failure of staging the big game here was never going to be gauged by an impossible goal of citywide festive spirit — but merely the ability to keep official events running smoothly without any major incidents or disruptions.
And judging by the early reactions, the pregame week went off largely without a hitch.
“In New York, there’s always traffic, because there are just a lot of people here,’’ Ralph Morton, executive director of the Seattle Sports Commission, said this week while here to view how Super Bowl events were run in case of a future Seattle bid for the game. “But here, it’s very effective when you have a great cab system, which is not something you can emulate somewhere else. So that’s important when you’re going to look at how a Super Bowl went in a city like this. How smoothly did things flow? How easy was it to get to events?’’
Morton said host cities must offer fans a good experience outside the game, with amenities like nearby hotels, restaurants and public gathering spots. With the 2019 Super Bowl the earliest game Seattle could host, he already was talking up Seattle Center and the Emerald City’s other strengths.
Continued...
