Super Bowl : A Tailgate as Big as the Ritz

Ten years ago, when Super Bowl XVII was held at the Rose Bowl, the National Football League threw a tailgate party. They roped off a small section of lawn, added some bales of hay, and invited 600 close corporate friends.

Times have changed. This week, 8,000 people are expected to carouse at what planners are calling “one of the biggest and most special private parties in the world.” The highly secured Rose Bowl grounds are so large they’re bringing in a Ferris wheel . . . to make the space seem smaller.

There’ll also be a carousel, bumper cars, professional volleyball demonstrations, eight different restaurant locations--even Fleetwood Mac, fresh from the Inaugural reunion. The NFL’s Super Bowl tailgate party has grown to such proportions that the first hour will be broadcast live on television.

And that’s only one of the VIP events. Across the way, at the Super Bowl Corporate Hospitality Village 25 separate parties will be held simultaneously, from three hours before kickoff and on into the night. Hours after the final moments tick off the game clock, they’ll still be partying in Pasadena.

The world’s most ostentatious sporting event may have earned its reputation for excess many Roman numerals ago, but Super Bowl XXVII is aiming for a new high in entertainment. It’s the largest one-day sports hospitality production of its kind, and organizers will devote far more time on these events than the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys combined will spend drawing up game plans.

For weeks, workers have been battling the rains, wind and mud to erect the Super Bowl corporate hospitality village across from the tailgate party area. Designed by computer-assisted architects, it’s a town square with statuary, fountains (five of them) and a forest of landscaping.

That’s just outside. The village contains 155,000 square feet of tent. And these are not tents as we know them, but enclosures so elaborate they have French windows and hydraulic front doors. Inside each canvas castle, food and beverages will flow while 65 television monitors and two huge video screens, interspersed throughout, will capture the endless pre- and post-game shows.

Those fortunate to be invited into the village will be pampered and soothed. The area is equipped with five kitchens, a sizable tent just to house the decorative flowers, a rest area for the musicians from eight bands, a recycling center and a portable refrigeration unit as big as several rail cars.

Chicago-based Regency Productions by Hyatt, Inc., which is producing the extravaganza, is under strict orders not to release the names of the companies that will be entertaining within the village. The clients desire privacy. (No sense in letting the employees sitting in front of the television at home know what the corporate executives are doing at the big game.)

Regency takes the privacy mission seriously: The village is enclosed with six-foot high fencing covered with opaque plastic so that those without an invitation will not even get a glimpse of the proceedings. Still, any NFL fan could probably rattle off the two dozen most familiar advertisers on pro football broadcasts and come up with fairly accurate list of the soft drink manufacturers, brewers, auto makers and computer firms for whom the village is being built.

Each corporate tent is tailored to the need of its client. Anne Hatch, general manager of Regency Productions, says that the sports-bar-and-grill is a popular theme this year. (“You don’t do a ‘Great Gatsby’ theme at a football game,” says Hatch.) Several tents will feature barroom games, sports memorabilia, popcorn machines and peanut roasters.

Does this mean that the citizens of tent city will be munching on burgers and hotdogs? Hardly. At least a half dozen parties will offer a fresh seafood bar with oysters, clams, crab claws and jumbo shrimp. Others will have sushi bars or Chinese food stations serving dishes such as stir-fried chicken, broccoli and snow pea pods. Whole fish--red snapper or salmon--will also be on the grill. Many host companies will be offering custom-made pastas such as veal and prosciutto ravioli in lobster sauce. Pizzas, California and East-Coast styles, can also be ordered to the revelers’ specifications.

Don’t like seafood, pasta or ethnic cuisines? Then how about some roasted wild turkey carved to order or lamb with a choice of either mint or spicy mustard sauce?

“Most of our clients don’t choose to have steamed lobster,” says Hatch. “It’s not because it is expensive but because it is difficult, sloppy to eat.”

To drink? Anything you want from fully stocked premium bars (unless, of course, you are the guest of one of the soft drink companies).

“The challenge of running one of these events is to have it feel like one party in such a large space,” says Patricia Ryan, president of Party Planners West, which is putting together the NFL’s tailgate party. “You need lots of activities, to let the people have fun rather than just sit at a table and eat buffet food. We need to keep the guests circulating from one area to another whether it be the bandstand, the volleyball courts, the carousel, whatever.”

For those of you watching at home: Keep an eye open for your favorite company executive.