WELCOME TO NORTH TEXAS

The Host Committee opens its arms for attendees of the NFL FAM Trip

By Steve Pate

Friday, September 3, 2010 - 4:18am

FLOWER MOUND, Texas — The North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee entertained NFL officials and their cohorts Tuesday night in true Wild West fashion.

The scene was the Circle R Ranch — where every night is a Saturday night and everyday is a Sunday — and what a scene it was. There was your country western dance band on stage. In one area, cowboy hats were being fitted for all the cowgirls and buckaroos. In another, Havana cigars were handed out like matches.

All the entertaining capped off a three-day whirlwind of activity as 74 NFL representatives and their Super Bowl-throwing sidekicks studied North Texas like a country cowboy on new terrain. Thanks to the Host Committee and its own friendly paisanos — the many local Convention and Visitors Bureaus — the NFL enjoyed an up close and personal look at hotels, venues, and any and all sites necessary for throwing the first Super Bowl ever in North Texas come February 2011.

At the Circle R party, this did not look like Dave O’Lenick’s first rodeo. O’Lenick is National Sales Manager for the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau. He, and some two dozen other CVB members from 12 North Texas communities, herded various groups of NFL reps all over the belly of this region.

“The Host Committee has done a fabulous job of organizing this trip,” O’Lenick said. “We’ve done a lot of different things to make sure we choreographed it so that it runs smoothly, and that our guests have a lot of fun. Everybody is trying to sell the region, as well as the Super Bowl.”

During the day Tuesday, O’Lenick took representatives of the Dallas-based sports marketing agency Genesco to the Gaylord complex in Grapevine, to two wineries in Grapevine, to the Fort Worth Stockyards, to a private lunch at five-star Grace in downtown Fort Worth, around Sundance Square, over to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, then to a new, high-scale entertainment center in Arlington.

The Circle R was still to come.

Back under the dim lights, this was the 15th Familiarity trip taken by Frank Krauser, President & CEO of the 4,500-member NFL Alumni.

“I was telling someone earlier that what I like about this Host Committee is their enthusiasm for us coming here for the Super Bowl,” said Krauser, beneath his Stetson. “They really seem to want us, and to make us happy while we’re here. Some cities take it for granted that the Super Bowl is going to come back to them anyway. But they’re going out of their way here to make us feel welcome.”

Krauser and his group spent Tuesday looking at hotels, ballrooms, golf courses and Fort Worth’s Colonial Country Club.

Near the area where the hats were being fitted stood Alisha Kaiser of Minneapolis and Terry Bortz of Cincinnati. They’ll be helping put on the Athletes In Action Super Bowl Breakfast.

“Our event usually has over 2,000 people,” Bortz said, “so they took us to some large hotels to look at some ballrooms.”

Kaiser called the trip “fabulous” and said, “We are having a great time.” Neither Kaiser nor Bortz had ever owned a cowboy hat before.

Nenette Chambliss is CEO of WhyNot Sports, Inc., an Atlanta non-profit organization that introduces high school athletes to careers in sports.

“The collaboration with the Host Committee and all the Convention and Visitors Bureaus has been wonderful for this FAM tour,” Chambliss said.

Earlier in the day, those from NFL Events walked through more than 30 hotels, looking for the ideal location for their many guests attending the game.

Octagon, a leader in sports and entertainment marketing, sent account director Josh Ellovich and Dovie Dockery to represent Sprint and its NFL sponsors.

“This was a great trip,” Ellovich said. “Our tours were lined up for what we specifically needed for our clients — a combination of event space for hospitality and for general consumer marketing. We looked at ballrooms, restaurants and public display areas.”

Dockery said, “We went to the Four Seasons and the Westin in Las Colinas, we were at Cadillac Ranch for lunch, we went to Billy Bob’s, the Fort Worth Convention Center and quite a few other places.”

Both Ellovich and Dockery live in Connecticut. But this wasn’t Dockery’s first rodeo either. She is a TCU grad.

“The Host Committee has really embraced the Southwest flair and have really shown us a very good time,” Dockery said. “While at the same time, they’ve really honed in on our business needs.”