Weather and Celebrity: Miami's Super Bowl Secret Ingredients
Hey NFL, you can't beat South Florida for Super Bowls, and everyone knows it!
By ARI ODZER
Updated 12:09 PM EDT, Tue, Feb 9, 2010
A day after their team won the Super Bowl, the citizens of Who Dat Nation were still strolling along A1A in Fort Lauderdale, joined by tons of Colts fans soaking their sorrows in South Florida.
While the Saints fans were still lingering to celebrate the victory, Colts fans were doing what they can't do back in Indy: absorbing some warmth, wearing flip-flops and t-shirts, congratulating themselves for being here instead of there.
Even if their team lost, South Florida doesn't have six inches of snow on the ground.
"It's been excellent, " said Colts fan Chris Alexander, who flew down from Indianapolis with his buddies. "We're staying in Miami Beach, enjoying today in Fort Lauderdale, and everyone here has been great, it's obvious they seem to know what they're doing in terms of hosting an event like this."
That's music to the ears of tourism officials like Nicki Grossman, head of the Broward County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"The best thing about that game was millions of people got a chance to see a Super Bowl played with no snow, no ice, no rain, and it was like an invitation to get out of wherever you are and come to South Florida," Grossman said.
She points out that for the past four nights, 150 Broward hotels are booked solid, something she says has never happened before, and Grossman said there's no question the Super Bowl sold those rooms.
Critics claim big game tourists simply displace the visitors who would be filling those rooms, anyway, at this time of year. Grossman said no way, not this year, not with this economy. Occupancy rates are up over the same period last year, she said, and the immense exposure of South Florida as a destination is invaluable.
More than 3,000 journalists were credentialed to cover the Super Bowl. Think of all the stories written with a "Fort Lauderdale" or "Miami" byline, and all the television pieces shot here over the past two weeks, all of them providing some measure of advertising for South Florida.
Then there's the celebrity factor during the game. Sun Life Stadium might as well have been host to the Oscars, judging by the amount of A-list talent milling around. Brad Pitt and Angelina, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, and many more were spotted around town. John Travolta was in town, rooting for the Saints. Roger Daltrey of The Who said with a hearty laugh, that back in the day, Miami was an old person's town and he didn't fit in, and now it's a young person's town, and he still doesn't fit.
So much for "hope I die before I get old."
Grossman said seeing all the stars on TV is itself a draw for some people, because they want to come to the place where the famous people go.
Let's face it, it doesn't take a Super Bowl to draw the famous and infamous to Miami.
Why do they come here? Because the fabulosity factor is huge. The fans know it. Those of us who live here know it. And the NFL, no matter how much noise they make about the stadium needing "improvements", knows it, too.
There's just no better city to host the biggest game on the planet.
First Published: Feb 8, 2010 6:33 PM EDT
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