Orange County to Reap a Bonanza From Super Bowl

Even before the National Football League season’s first forward pass has been tossed, Super Bowl XXI has already turned into a super-bonanza for Orange County.

The game, or course, will be played in Pasadena on Jan. 25. And the pregame evening extravaganzas will mostly take place in the Los Angeles area. But Orange County is in the midst of pulling the economic equivalent of a quarterback sneak and will hog the Super Bowl spotlight until game day.

Although the county is more than 40 miles south of the Rose Bowl, it will be host to most of the pregame hoopla as both teams will stay in Orange County hotels and practice on Orange County football fields. What’s more, the nearly 1,000 journalists who will cover the Super Bowl are slated to stay in Orange County.

Officials conservatively estimate that the Super Bowl could bring tourist revenues of $100 million to the Southland and fill up an estimated 50,000 area hotel rooms for four nights. But Pasadena--which will host the galaxy’s biggest game--will only see a fraction of that.

“Orange County gets everything but the game itself,” said Bill Snyder, president of the Anaheim Visitor and Convention Bureau.

Anaheim was among 14 cities that made a bid for the game. It lost out to Pasadena, however, when that city--for the first time ever--offered the use of its stadium rent-free to the National Football League. The NFL will pay only for security and other maintenance costs.

But while Pasadena gets the glory on game day, until then virtually “every story that goes out will have an Anaheim dateline,” Snyder said.

Pasadena is being pretty gracious about Orange County’s coup. “We only have three major hotels in town, so there’s really nowhere to put all the business,” said Donald F. McIntyre, Pasadena city manager. “But,” he asked, with a hint of envy, “does Orange County get that much business?”

Does it ever.

And it has already logged record hotel room bookings.

Although the Super Bowl teams have stayed in Orange County before, this will mark the first time that both the teams and press have concurrently gathered there. What’s more, tour groups have already scooped up hundreds of rooms at Orange County hotels.

The American Football Conference champions and their trainers and coaches will stay at the Newporter in Newport Beach and practice at Rams Park in Anaheim. The National Football Conference champs, plus entourage, will stay at the Westin South Coast Plaza and practice at UC Irvine, NFL officials said.

More than 1,000 journalists have booked rooms at the Anaheim Marriott.

Why Orange County?

“You don’t want players staying at hotels in the middle of all the hoopla,” said Jim Steeg, director of special events for the NFL in New York. “The object is to get the players to think about football.”

In fact, last year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans was the first time that players were lodged at downtown hotels. But that’s because there was virtually nowhere else to stay in the area, Steeg said.

But the biggest--and perhaps most important--change this year is that media representatives will all be staying in Orange County--not in Los Angeles. This is the result of a survey that NFL executives took of writers and broadcasters.

“They told us that they wanted to be closer to the teams,” Steeg said. In past years, the writers were booked into Los Angeles area hotels and had to make the long commute--sometimes two or three times daily.

The glut of upscale hotels in Orange County has not only provided the NFL with an ample selection of lodgings, but this also marks the first year that the league has been able to force very competitive bidding among the team hotels, Steeg said.

Minimum Stays

Hotel executives say some first-class rooms are going for as little as $69 per night--even during what is considered to be a busy convention period. But other lodgings plan to boost their rates and are requiring minimum stays. Some are expecting record receipts.

The 1,100-room Anaheim Marriott, for example, which will house the media and NFL officials, expects to post additional revenues of $500,000 during the Super Bowl stint, said Harold Queisser, the hotel’s director of marketing.

“This is a very major piece of business,” he said.

NFL executives and publicists will set up offices in the Anaheim Marriott one month before the event--taking over 25 rooms on two floors of the hotel. All the beds and dressers in those rooms will be temporarily replaced with computers, desks and file cabinets.

But the majority of the Anaheim Marriott’s guests will be press personnel. And particularly familiar with the habits of many media members is Joel Rothman, the hotel’s general manager. “Obviously,” he said, “the bars will be busy.”

‘1,000 VIPs’

Preparing for the media presents a particularly sticky wicket, Rothman said. “Every one of them thinks they’re a VIP. . . . That means we’ll have 1,000 VIPs staying in the hotel.”

Some of the real VIPs--the AFC champs--will stay at the Newporter. And that hotel’s executives have their fingers crossed that the conference winner will come from a cold climate--such as Cleveland or Pittsburgh or New England. That way, the team will come a week or so early to practice in the warmer weather.

The Newporter expects to see revenues exceeding $350,000 from the event, said Mac McNeill, the hotel’s managing director. The hotel anticipates a sellout week, contrasted with typical January weeks when nearly half the rooms sit empty, he said.

At the Westin South Coast Plaza, which will host the NFC champs, executives expect to see hundreds of local curiosity seekers flood the hotel’s bar and restaurants in the hopes of getting glimpses of the players. “You can bet it will be the best food and beverage sales that we’ll post all year,” said Bob Seddlemeyer, the general manager.

Hotel executives say the festive atmosphere of the Super Bowl results in a tremendous amount of spending. Well-heeled Super Bowl-goers spend far more money than traditional tourists. “If they’ve come this far--and can afford $500 for plane tickets--you can bet they’re going to shoot the wad,” said one hotel executive.

Some Raise Rates

Some hotels are taking advantage of the heavy demand for rooms by raising rates or requiring minimum stays.

At the Alicante Princess in Garden Grove, for example, guests will be required to make room reservations for a minimum four nights during Super Bowl weekend, said William D. Munro, the hotel’s director of marketing. Room rates, however, will not be raised. Half of the hotel’s 400 rooms have already been booked by tour groups for the Super Bowl, he said.

Typically, the Alicante Princess would normally have about half of its rooms filled in a mid-January weekend, but it expects a sellout during Super Bowl weekend, Munro said. “That four-day period will represent the revenues of any other eight-day period,” he said.

Meanwhile, hotels in Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles also are expecting a banner weekend.

“Sure, we’ll sell out,” said James Mitchell, general manager of the 316-room Pasadena Holiday Inn.

More than 75% of the rooms at the hotel already are booked--and at a steeply increased rate. Guests must stay a five-day minimum and pay nightly rates of $125, Mitchell said. Normally, the hotel has no minimum stay, and rates are traditionally closer to $75 per night, he said.

Bonaventure’s Plans

The 1,474-room Westin Bonaventure expects to post Super Bowl-related revenues of $750,000, estimated Jim Treadway, the hotel’s general manager. “It’s a fantastic piece of business,” Treadway said. Although the hotel will not boost its rates, it may require a minimum stay, he said.

The Century Plaza began booking Super Bowl rooms three years ago, said Tom Hurley, director of marketing at the 1,072-room hotel. Nearly 500 rooms have already been booked, mostly by television executives and team officials. He said he expects to sell out the hotel.

“It’ll be one nice chunk of change,” Hurley said.

Especially nice, he said, is the fact that most of the rooms will be double occupancies. Unlike business travel--when executives usually leave their spouses at home--the Super Bowl trip is usually made by couples. “That means I’m selling two dinners instead of one,” Hurley said.

Although the Super Bowl teams and the media will be staying in Orange County, many of the major social functions surrounding the event are expected to be in the Los Angeles areas, hotel executives say.

Official Party

The official Super Bowl Party, which is staged by the NFL two nights before the game, is scheduled at Universal Studios. More than 3,000 guests--nearly 1,200 of them media members--will be invited to the bash.

And yet another invitation-only NFL party--this one for so-called NFL alumni--is tentatively scheduled at the Century Plaza.

“The social activities, the prestige and the money is all up here,” said Hurley, the Century Plaza’s marketing director.

“Remember, people are coming to be entertained,” Hurley said. “They want to waltz around Beverly Hills and see if Chasen’s is still where they remember it. They don’t want to go to Orange County and watch a bunch of guys sweating on some practice field.”