The Super Bowl is a great party, but it leaves no lasting impression
Do you remember where the Super Bowl was played two years ago?
Probably not, which is why I hope you enjoyed the week’ s festivities. Because despite claims that hosting the Big Game will introduce Houston to the rest of the country, our cameo will most likely be forgotten as soon as fans return home.
Promoting our great city as a great place to visit, live and work is going to require a more sustained effort than hosting wealthy football fans for a few days.
Yes, I know, the National Football League uses a lot of superlatives to describe its Super Bowl. It touts the 110 million viewers who watched each of the last five championships, though last year’ s numbers were down a bit. But Houston is at best a walk-on for this reality show, receiving only a few minutes of camera time during cut away shots for the commercial breaks.
The number of visitors expected for the Super Bowl is also lessthan exciting when putin context. There were only 71,000 Super Bowl tickets available, and while the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee says 140,000 people will cometo town, that forecast is at best the sign of an eternal optimist.
And yes, most hotels were sold out this weekend, but Houston routinely sells out hotel rooms for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, IHS-CERA Energy Week and the Offshore Technology Conference, which attracted 108,300 people in 2014 at the height of the oilboom. Even the International Quilt Market and Festival attracts about 60,000 visitors, though mostof those are local.
Tourism-based businesses are excited about every extra dollar they can get, nodoubt, but estimations of the Super Bowl’s economic impact vary widely from $190 million to $350 million, depending on who is paying for the study. But if we look at San Francisco’ s experience, a postgame analysis by consulting firm Sportsimpacts found that the game brought $240 million to a
much more expensive city.
Some will look at the improvements made to Discovery Green, or the stretch of Broadway leading from Hobby Airport, and tout the lasting improvements brought by the Super Bowl. They may point to the new park in Midtown, which isn’t quite ready. And I admit the new light son the suspension bridges over the Southwest Freeway area nice decorative detail.
That argument, though, is a little sad since it suggests that we wouldn’ tsp i ff up our city if we weren’t hosting the game. Are we only concerned about looking good for tourists? Don’t we want nice things for ourselves?
That’s the real soulsearching question that Ho us toni ans should be asking. What mored owe want for the Ba you City/ Space City/Magnolia City/ Clutch City/H-town? (And could we please agree on a nickname?)
Recent promotional campaigns by the Greater Houston Partnership and Visit Houston, the convention and visitors bureau, reflect our lack of identity. With campaigns entitled “The City Without Limits ,”“My Houston ,” “Houston Is Hip ”and even “Houston Is Hot ,” the efforts to persuade the world to spend along weekend here have been relentless but without a focal point.
Other cities have attracted visitors by creating events that served their communities first, and only later attracted outsiders by offering something original and authentic.
Consider the South by Southwest Festival, which brings members of the technology, film and music industries to Austin every year. S XS W started out as a way for out-of-town music executives to meet Austin’s best new musicians in their native habitat. Organizers added additional days to do the same thing for Austin’s tech and film industries. S XS W now attracts people from 97 countries andis the world’s largest technology conference.
In 2016, more than 89,000 people attended the10-day event and injected $325 million into the economy, according to a post-festival analysis by consulting firm Greyhill Advisors. South by Southwest, by the way, has taken place every March for 25 years. Houston won’t be hosting the Super Bowl again anytime soon.
Greater Houston is home to three times as many people as Austin and has a dozen world-class perfor- man ce spaces. Our city has the most diverse population in the country. And yet we don’t have a single annual arts event that attracts world-class performers or international travelers.
A clever promoter could leverage Houston’s assets and create a multicultural performance festival that brings together our diverse population. Promoters could create anevent that attracts performers from around the globe for a festival unmatched in the world, something akinto the World Music Festival Chicago, but better.
That would put Houston on the tourism map every year and leave a lasting impression, rather than a fleeting one.
And in case you haven’ t looked it up yet, Super Bowl X LI X was played at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Andthe New England Patriots won that year (too?).