Staubach: Super Bowl XLV is business opportunity
Speaking at a chamber membership luncheon hosted by the Central Area Council at the Omni Hotel on Oct. 20, North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee Chairman Roger Staubach said the opportunities are aplenty.
“Some of it’s tangible and some of it’s intangible,” he said. “One hundred and fifty thousand to 200,000 visitors will be in the area during the weekend of the Super Bowl and 60 percent of all Super Bowl attendees are corporate decision makers and most of them come from out of town. And that’s one thing about Texas, North Texas … there are a lot of neat things about Texas: labor, schools, that we don’t pay state income tax …. we’re going to have a separate CEO event just for them to get to know North Texas even before the Super Bowl,” and that’s the best way to attract business, he continued.
Staubach, 67, who also holds the title of executive chairman at Jones Lang LaSalle Americas and is a revered ex-Dallas Cowboys quarterback, gave local professionals examples of how the Super Bowl would impact the region and rehashed some of the benefits of having a regional theme for the upcoming event.
Though Staubach didn’t present any new details about Super Bowl XLV, the chamber crowd didn’t seem to mind, laughing and – at one point – giving Staubach a standing ovation.
North Texas Super Bowl XLV will be Feb. 6, 2011, at the $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington. Designed by HKS Architects Inc., the new home of the Cowboys opened in June and could accommodate up to 125,000 fans.
The event is dubbed the North Texas Super Bowl to include the region: Dallas, Arlington and Fort Worth. In Tarrant County, Fort Worth will host the famed Taste of the National Football League (NFL) event as well as serving as the official AFC Host City and hosting the AFC Championship team’s practice field and fan party event. In addition to hosting the Super Bowl game, Arlington also will host the NFL Tailgate event and the Super Bowl XLV Accreditation Center. Both Tarrant County cities also will host a concert series event in 2010.
“Our job is to put on the best Super Bowl the NFL’s ever had because we want it back again,” Staubach told chamber members of the Host Committee’s efforts. “We want to be in the rotation and at the end of the day, that is a main goal we have … Everybody’s into football again and they’re excited about the Super Bowl and once it’s over [in Miami] … next February, we’re on a roll with our concert series and everything and it’s a year of events for us.”
