BIG NEWS

Some of XLV’s most important venues are announced by some of North Texas’ biggest superstars

By Steve Pate

May 12, 2009

The National Football League spread Super Bowl XLV all over the belly of North Texas on Tuesday.

The blockbuster Taste of the NFL will be in Fort Worth.

The NFL Tailgate Party will be in the End Zone Plaza of the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington.

The NFL Experience, including an 850,000 square foot theme center and more than 200,000 fans over two weekends, will be in Dallas.

Those were just a few of the 16 venue announcements made at the Arlington Sheraton Hotel in what will be one of the more substantial press conferences thrown by the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee, in conjunction with the NFL.

This is truly a neighborly affair.

Of the 16 major events surrounding the 45th Super Bowl, a game played on February 6, 2011 to crown the champion of the 2010 NFL season, Dallas and Fort Worth will host five events each; Arlington will have four; and, Irving will have two.

The breakdown:

ARLINGTON hosts … (1) The Super Bowl Game, Feb. 6 2011. (2) The Tailgate Party that day. (3) The Super Bowl XLV Accreditation Center, where 45,000 credentials will be handed out (site to be determined). (4) The Grand Finale of the Kick-Off Concert Series, Sept. 10, 2010, at the new stadium.

DALLAS hosts … (1) The NFL Experience at the Dallas Convention Center. (2) NFL Headquarters, at the Hilton Anatole. (3) The Media Center, where 4,600 journalists will broadcast and file their stories, at the new Sheraton Dallas. (4) A second major concert in the Host Committee Kick-off Concert Series, May 22, 2010, at the new Winspear Opera House. (5) The NFC Fan Party, Feb. 5, 2011, in historic Fair Park.

FORT WORTH hosts … (1) The AFC champions at the new Omni Fort Worth. (2) AFC practices at Texas Christian University. (3) The AFC Fan Party, Feb. 5, 2011, in downtown Fort Worth, in unison with the Dallas Fan Party. (4) The first event of the Host Committee Kick-Off Concert Series, March 6, 2010, at Bass Hall. (5) The Taste of the NFL, Feb. 5, 2011, at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

IRVING hosts … (1) The NFC champs at the Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas. (2) NFC practices at the Cowboys’ Valley Ranch facilities.        

Former athletes from the North Texas area announced the venues. Former Cowboys Chad Hennings and Preston Pearson announced for Irving; Cowboy Rayfield Wright and former Olympic Gold-Medalist Michael Johnson announced the Arlington events; Cowboy Daryl (Moose) Johnston and Dallas businessman Ross Perot, Jr., gave the Dallas news; and, the Cowboys’ two greatest running backs, Tony Dorsett and Emmitt Smith, made the Fort Worth announcements.

In a major show of support, 55 local mayors from North Texas were introduced by Cowboy quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach. The mayors and city representatives sat on stage as the list of venues were announced.

“While the NFL was responsible for selecting the venues for most of these events, we listened carefully to community leaders throughout North Texas,” said Frank Supovitz, the NFL Senior Vice President of Special Events who was also in attendance.

Bill Lively, Host Committee President & CEO, named three additional major benefits for staging the Super Bowl. One is tying the region together, perhaps like never before, in a way that will continue beyond the game itself.

“Secondly,” Lively said, “because of this Super Bowl, we’re going to build a Youth Education Town Center that will be a place in a challenged neighborhood and will live long after the game, where little folks can go after school to a safe haven and study. There’ll be tutors, and the children can develop self-esteem and understand there’s hope for their future.

“And then thirdly, we’re going to announce in the fall a thing we don’t have to do. We’re going to do it because we need to. And that is an educational program that’s part of our Super Bowl. The program will impact more than 100 North Texas towns. More than 15,000 children will be involved in projects that will change their lives.

“The athletes you saw here today are going to be a part of that program so that these young people will have heroes they can look up to, that are genuine, that are people of character.”  

And this is just the start.

“There will be more, important venue announcements to come,” Lively said. “But these selections today speak to the regional spirit this game is fostering.”

BIZ 101 ALSO HELD

Two hours before the press conference, also at the Arlington Sheraton, Supovitz and the Host Committee put on the first of several Super Bowl 101 courses for 400 business leaders.

Supovitz called for the participation of local businesses, encouraged them to become a part of the 10,000 volunteer force that will be amassed in the coming year and offered statistical background on the impact that Super Bowls have.