New Orleans, City Known for Its Parties, Is Natural Choice as Site for Super Bowl

Faced with an influx of more than 100,000 football fans for Super Bowl XX, the Crescent City is gearing for a corporate-style crowd that’s expected to be its most profitable.

Tourist officials predict the championship game between the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots will shoot $100 million into the economy of New Orleans.

After six past Super Bowls and more than a century of Mardi Gras bashes, the city boasts that it knows how to please visitors in search of revelry.

“Everybody loves to come here. It’s the queen city for entertainment,” said Beverly Gianna, spokeswoman for the Greater New Orleans Tourist and Convention Center.

“Other cities roll out their red carpets. We do it in a more unique manner because we know how to turn the whole town into a party.

“It’s easy to do because everything downtown is so compact. You can walk from your hotel to the Superdome, to the French Quarter, to the big parties held by Pete Rozelle and NBC at the convention center. You don’t have to spend a lot of time getting from one place to another.

“Where in San Francisco or in Tampa can you do the same thing, that is, have everything you need right at your fingertips?” Gianna said.

Not everyone will be so close, however.

“There’s not a hotel room to be had within 75 miles of New Orleans,” said John Orr, manager of the Hyatt Regency next to the Superdome and president of the city’s tourist commission. “They’ve all been gone for the past 60 days.”

The estimated $100 million boost for New Orleans is 25% higher than the revenue from the 1981 Super Bowl in New Orleans (Oakland Raiders 27, Philadelphia 10).

Officials give two reasons: The city has about 8,000 new hotel rooms that were built for the 1984 World’s Fair, and the typical Super Bowl ticketholder has changed.

“The crowd that comes to the Super Bowl has become one of high rollers,” Gianna said. “There are more of them each year and they’re here to spend their dollars all first class. They’ll be wanting all limousines and taxis.”

Corporations are fast becoming the major Super Bowl fans, a change than has evolved even since the city’s last Super Bowl in 1981, Orr said.

“We have big corporations reserving big blocks years in advance for executives and (as) incentives for sales people,” he said. His hotel with nearly 2,000 rooms already is booked full for Super Bowl XXIV in 1990.

“They tend to spend more money than the mom-and-pop fans. They have planned functions, brunches and other events, where mom and pop would eat in a coffee shop and walk through the Quarter. But don’t think the coffee shops won’t be filled.”

Gianna said the predicted $100 million boon to the city includes only direct spending such as hotel rooms, restaurants and entertainment. There is no way to gauge the ripple effect to side industries such as linen supply companies, caterers and beverage suppliers, she said.

“I don’t anticipate any business that has its doors open this weekend not to do well,” Orr said. “The restaurants, shops, taxis--everybody will make money.”

Tickets for commercial transportation are almost non-existent, even though trains, buses and airlines have added extra seats to accommodate the football crowds descending on the city two weeks before its annual Mardi Gras bash.

One official said the last-minute accommodations are an effort to handle business from first-time visitors as well as veterans. Neither the Patriots nor the Bears has been to a Super Bowl.

“What’s happening is the new blood that’s coming to the Super Bowl this year,” said Vito Cavaleri, general manager of American Airlines in New Orleans. “We have people who have never been to a Super Bowl and they’re really excited. I expect this to be one of the best Super Bowls ever.”

Gianna said 2,300 reporters and photographers are scheduled to hit town along with well-known figures such as James Michener, who will be on hand for national television programs.

“NBC’s ‘Today’ show will broadcast from here the entire week before the game,” Gianna said. “Then they’ll do an hour of vignettes on the city before game time at 4 p.m.

“When you consider commercials during the Super Bowl sell for $1 million a minute, and the city is getting 60 minutes of free advertising, that’s a great boon to our city.”

An extra 200 policemen will be called out during Super Bowl weekend, and the entire French Quarter force will work 12-hour shifts instead of eight-hours, said Sgt. Wayne LaBatt of the New Orleans Police Department.

Another 60 officers will be used for traffic control before and after the game around the Superdome.

“We expect an increase in pickpockets and purse snatchers,” LaBatt said. “We have increased horse patrols and people on tops of buildings to spot the pickpockets and hopefully grab them.”

Bill Curl, spokesman for the Superdome, said all four 19,000-square-foot ballrooms will be used Sunday for private pre-game festivities, all 64 private suites will be packed and all seats have been sold out.

An entertainment village will be constructed in the parking lot to handle the overflow of private parties, he said.

“We’ll have a half-dozen all-white tents with flags and color-coordinated surroundings,” said John Rogers, vice president of Total Sports America of Chicago, who has been handling party overflows at Super Bowls since their inception. “We’re using 20,000 feet of Astroturf and expect about 700 people.

“It’s all completely booked. They’re all private affairs held by several corporations,” he said. “We do a completely first-class operation for them at $150 per person.”