The National Football League is increasing the availability of its corporate Super Bowl travel packages outside the U.S., leveraging its control of hotels, meeting space and other amenities around the game.
NFL On Location, the league's corporate hospitality unit, is working with existing league offices to market travel packages to corporate clients in Canada, Japan, the U.S. and Mexico for the sport's Feb. 1 championship game.
Fans can catch this season's game in Tampa, Florida, stay at a resort near Disney World and Universal Studios, play golf and attend the NFL's parties and gatherings, said Frank Supovitz, the league's senior vice president for events.
``Especially with the world markets the way they are, where the United States is starting to become a bargain in some cases, we're going to start taking advantage of that and allowing people the opportunity to book trips in,'' Supovitz said in an interview.
He said the four-year-old program brought in fans from Mexico for the first time last year.
Corporate hospitality is a natural business evolution for the NFL, which began arranging travel and entertainment for companies for the 2006 Super Bowl, Supovitz said. Along with premium tickets, the league controls thousands of hotel rooms blocked out years in advance of the title game. Other perks include premium parking, gift bags, private stadium access, parties in and around the game, and the chance to choose seats months in advance.
Seats, Parties
The most expensive of the program's eight Super Bowl packages, which includes sideline seats and pre- and post-game parties at the stadium, run about $10,600 each. The cheapest cost about $4,600 and includes tickets in the corners of the stadium's upper levels and a pre-game party.
The NFL has sold out the packages in past years, even after tripling the number available to more than 3,000 this season from 1,000 in 2006, Supovitz said. Competing packages can range between about $5,000-$8,700.
The NFL offers two things competitors don't: selections from its own inventory of seats and hotel rooms, and unique access to its events and parties, said Robert Tuchman, president of New York-based Premiere Corporate Events, which also arranges sports-themed travel for companies.
``The Super Bowl is where corporate America comes to party,'' Tuchman said in an interview. ``The NFL takes 90 percent of the hotel space as a precondition of doing the Super Bowl in the city.''
(Source: Bloomberg)
