L.A. Teams With NFL for Week of Super Publicity

The Super Bowl is much more than a game to the host city, even though most of us won’t much notice that the big event is here this year unless we’re unlucky enough to stumble onto the wrong freeway Sunday afternoon.

To ensure that the myriad Super Bowl Week sideshows don’t slip by undetected, the city of Los Angeles has teamed with the National Football League to document and publicize many of the community-related events ongoing throughout the area this week. This first-time-ever TV partnership will result in nearly 60 hours of Super Bowl programming, all underwritten by the NFL, which can be seen beginning Thursday throughout Los Angeles on Cityview Cable Channel 35, as well as on government access channels on cable systems in West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Pasadena.

“So often the Super Bowl comes into the city and the only people who are a part of it are the ones at the stadium,” said Kathy Mendenhall, Mayor Bradley’s director of special events and sports. “We’re showing that there is something for everyone who lives here.”

Mendenhall added that the programming is designed not as hype for the Super Bowl itself, but to illustrate how hosting the game benefits the city, which stands to gain an infusion of revenue from hotels, restaurants, retail businesses and sales tax as a result of Sunday’s game at the Rose Bowl.

The cable programming includes pieces on how the event will impact the city economically, the number of minority businesses involved in Super Bowl-related activities, football clinics for 2,500 local youngsters, profiles of four local NFL stars playing in this year’s contest and the history of the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, which hosted the first championship at the Coliseum in 1967 and last hosted the game at the Rose Bowl in 1987.

The Super Bowl programs will also spotlight activities and attractions that area residents and visitors can attend this weekend. KCET’s Huell Howser will host one such program entitled “Adventures in L.A.” Segments will also include a schedule of all activities open to the public, including “NFL Experience”--a football theme park located near the Rose Bowl--a Super Bowl trivia game show and a game day traffic and parking plan.

The cable event will also carry such Super Bowl week media events as the “Michael Jackson Halftime Show Press Conference.” But Mendenhall contended that presenting such staged media events is appropriate because Jackson plans to include many area youth in the halftime show and the press conference will be the one time when these participants will get their due.

Mendenhall said that the NFL approached the city with the idea of presenting four days of Super Bowl programming on the government access channels in an effort to help show area residents of that it is involved in many community activities and not just in creating the game day spectacle most of us watch on television. While she concedes that the TV programs could serve as a public relations coup for the NFL and help promote the game itself, Mendenhall said that city would not permit any direct advertising for any NFL product or event.

“The main point is to provide information to visitors to the city as well as residents,” Mendenhall said. “And to show the positive effect the Super Bowl has on the city.”