Super Bowl XIL will be held in South Florida this weekend.  What should event managers pay most close attention to in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, and what are the work ours like in this week?

Andre Plaisance SMG Reliant - There are many challenges associated with hosting a major international event which the Super Bowl has become.  I will list below some of those challenges and how they will attack the challenges that they face:

Security – This is a major high profile event that will be viewed worldwide by hundreds of millions of people.  This is an ideal target for bad guys trying to gain attention to their cause which is something security and event managers look at when evaluating their event’s risk.  They are placing items in place to prevent harm to not only the attendees, workers and staff at the game, but also to prevent an disruption to the event itself.  Event and security managers will establish a hard perimeter around the stadium where no only will be allowed to pass without the proper credentials or game ticket. They will also have equipment such as magnetometers, bomb dogs, chemical detection devices, etc. to prevent and discourage any type of disruption.  Many other actions will be talking place to prevent a disruption, but the hard perimeter is the first step of many in the protection of this event.

Off-field logistics – this is one thing that many people do not take into account when planning.  How do they plan to transport not only the event participants and entertainment , but the working staff. With security taking much of the parking lot to create their perimeter, this can often be a major challenge and require great coordination between all groups and local law enforcement to ensure safe and timely arrival to the event.

Parking – this is a major challenge for any event, but particularly the Super Bowl due to the number of personnel and guests coming to the event.  There is a huge contingent of media trucks and other event vehicles that need access to this event.   Much planning and coordination must take place to identify who will park where and how to accomplish this in the timely and safe manner. Many hours of meeting with local traffic staff and law enforcement lead to pulling this off.  Also, the use of media to get the message out that you want is vital to pulling off any parking plan successfully.

Media – event managers must take the time to have a plan on how they will handle the large volume of media for this event.

Stadium access – lots of preparation into securing the facility is important as I stated above, but working with printing companies to make sure the tickets and credentials are as counterfeit proof as possible.  In this day and age it is an very important task to prevent counterfeit tickets.  Scanning tickets at the gates has made the counterfeit market easier to control, but unfortunately the individual that buys the fake ticket, not the seller is the one who ends up losing out.

Food and Beverage – must make sure no stone is left unturned when preparing to serve over 70,000 guests.  Many food and beverage professionals will spend weeks preparing for this task.

Housekeeping – a monumental task for an event like this.  Event managers must have a plan of action for every incident that could happen during this event.  With guests paying thousands of dollars to this event, dirtiness is not an option.

Operations and Maintenance – crews leading up to this game must check every light in every corner of the stadium, every seat to ensure it is not broken, check and rechecking HVAC areas are working properly, the plumbing systems are secured and ready to go and all other maintenance items for the stadium are checked and rechecked.  You can probably imagine how much a water disruption to a stadium with 70,000 people could have for an event like this.  A little thing like a broken water pipe could cause a major issue.
 
Those are just some quick notes on an event of this magnitude.  NFL special event managers have been planning logistics for this event over the past two years.  The week leading up to this event, workers will work 16-18 hour days getting the stadium ready for this event.  It is a very rewarding event to work, but there are many hours spent in the months and weeks leading up to this event.
 
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