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Glendale an official Super Bowl LVII sponsor
BY TYLER WEGLEITNER Peoria Times Staff Writer
The city of Glendale will pay $1 million to be an official sponsor of Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12, 2023.
The $1 million will be paid in four installments of $250,000 through September 2022, according to city documents.
This comes after the Glendale City Council approved the sponsorship agreement with the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee on June 8.
When Glendale hosted Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, the city did not sponsor it. That was something Glendale City Manager Kevin Phelps wanted to change when he joined the city in February 2016.
“The city didn’t participate at all with the Super Bowl Host Committee,” Phelps said.
The city only provided traffic and public safety support. Peripheral events were held in Phoenix and Scottsdale instead.
One of Phelps’ goals was to work closely with sports organizations.
“I said from day one that we need to have a stronger relationship with the NFL, Arizona Cardinals and with the Coyotes,” Phelps said.
Working together
After a yearlong conversation with the host committee, Phelps worked directly with it to negotiate a package that “we felt had great benefit to the city and to our citizens.”
Besides covering the Super Bowl’s cost, the sponsorship “predetermines specific benefits, (items) that would benefit both the Super Bowl coming up and our citizens.”
Phelps said the sponsorship package includes the Business Connect Program, which helps small businesses in the area.
“They created this program to specifically connect our small businesses, especially those small businesses that are women, minority, veteran and LGBTQ-owned businesses,” he said.
“We will have a series of workshops that will be run by the NFL, and we will extend invitations to our small-business community.”
Phelps hopes this agreement will continue to benefit Glendale and its residents even after the Super Bowl.
“This package really allows us to do some things that I know we’re going to be able to turn into gigantic benefit, not just during the event but will be things that will have a benefit to the city and for our community for years to come,” Phelps said.
Jay Parry, CEO of the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, said that there were many long-term, positive impacts of hosting a Super Bowl, one of which is the “enormous, direct economic impact.” She said that because of this, there has been a lot of support and interest from the public.
According to a 2015 study by the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and the Seidman Research Institute, that year’s Super Bowl brought more than $719 million to the Valley’s economy.
Parry also referenced the significant exposure the city received when it hosted Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 and the continued exposure in 2023.
“There’s no bigger audience for sporting events than a Super Bowl,” Parry said.
“So, if you think back to 2015, that still is the most widely watched Super Bowl ever, and over 100 million viewers were tuned in.”
Parry said the NFL and the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee will work together to give back and leave lasting impacts on the surrounding communities.
“One of the other major impacts is leaving a lasting legacy after Super Bowl has happened in Arizona,” Parry said. “So, the host committee, the host committee partners and the NFL work together and award grants to nonprofits in the local communities of over $2 million.”
Phelps said the committee chose Glendale because it previously showed it could host major events like this.
“The NFL is not coming to Glendale because they really like being here in Glendale,” Phelps said. “They’re doing it because we demonstrated that we can put on big mega events and do them really, really well and that we’ll do our part to help defray these costs that are associated with such a huge event.”
He said that he hopes fans, residents and nearby cities will continue to realize all the effort that goes into hosting a Super Bowl and being selected as a host.
“We can’t sit back and just assume that we’re going to get our Super Bowl every six or seven years,” Phelps said.
“We’re going to have to always put on a good show. We’re going to have to help partner with the NFL to help cover the extreme cost of putting these things on. I just hope that our citizens don’t think that these things just happen regardless. It’s going to be something that we need to continually be working toward getting.”
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