by Bailey White
Staff Writer
Local organizers for the 2005 Super Bowl will be traveling to San Diego later this month to observe activities surrounding this year’s game.
Members of the Super Bowl Host Committee, the Jacksonville and the Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce and the City will be there to observe and plan for Jacksonville’s Super Bowl in 2005.
Members of the Host Committee will help run a booth inside the media center for a week before the game.
“The booth has to be open a week before the game from eight in the morning to eight in the evening,” said Heather Surface, director of communications for the Host Committee. “We’re fortunate to have members of the Chamber and CVB to help us. Who could better promote Jacksonville than the people who do it 365 days a year?”
The committee plans to offer brochures and a flyover of what Jacksonville will look like for the 2005 game.
“We’ve constructed a very unique display,” said Surface.
She and others attending the trip are excited about the opportunity to promote Jacksonville to the media.
“There will be 3,000-3,500 members of the media present, and about 400 of those will be international,” said Surface. “The reporters there will have a lot of dead time during the week and it will be a good time to pitch story ideas. We’ll be able to tell them about our new arena and the renovations at Alltel, so we’ll be doing more than just promoting the Super Bowl.”
Stacy Badics, communications manager of the CVB, agreed.
“This is a great opportunity to get exposure to so many members of the media, and to convince them, if they aren’t already convinced, that Jacksonville is a great destination,” she said.
Badics said Cara Freeman, the CVB’s Super Bowl Housing and Hospitality manager, will pay special attention to meeting facilities and hospitality venues during her stay in San Diego.
“Each individual will be assigned a specific discipline,” said Surface. “Areas that will be studied include security, parking/logistics, special events, public relations, media services and business development, among others.”
The City is sending representatives from its Special Events Department to observe the public events associated with the game.
“We’ve gone to several Super Bowls,” said Theresa O’Donnell Price, the City’s director of special events, “and we look at everything from public events and NFL events to media parties and tailgating on game day. We pay attention to how they’re set up, the logistics behind them, the costs and how we might do something similar.”
Price said she and members of her staff look at the events with an analytical eye.
“We look at how the events are set up and where, how it’s all related to the stadium, and how to move people around the city,” she said. “We pay attention to security, to the clean-up process and how to get people in and out — the whole piece.”