Super Bowl XLIV
This time around, it’s our turn to party with the likes of Ludacris and E! reality star Kendra, both hosting celebrity-soaked events at Hollywood’s Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
And this Super Bowl, when National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell steps out for a meal, you may find him on Las Olas Boulevard because the NFL host hotel — until now always in Miami-Dade County — is at the Westin Beach Resort Fort Lauderdale.
It’s not that Broward or Palm Beach counties were left out of previous Super Bowls, but for the 2010 game the limelight and the game’s economic impact will shift north. At the same time, tourism officials are hopeful that Super Bowl XLIV will be given a “South Florida” dateline, not “Miami.”
While the entire region — South Beach to Palm Beach — will feel the impact of the game, a confluence of events is set to give Broward a bigger cut of the estimated $350 million economic windfall headed to South Florida.
That’s because Broward County has added 3,200 hotel rooms — about 10 percent of its total — in just the last five years. There are now 13 hotels included in what the Visitors Bureau calls the Lauderdale Luxe collection, each with in-house full-service restaurants and spas. The Ritz Carlton has a AAA Five Diamond rating and a Mobile four-star score.
“If you came into town and you were a high-end spender for Super Bowl and you want to stay in a high-end hotel, you tended to have to go down to Miami,” says former Miami Dolphin Kim Bokamper. “Now with the W and Ritz-Carlton, there’s no need to have to go down there.”
In 2007, the last time the Super Bowl was in South Florida, Palm Beach County hosted just one event – Super Clematis By Night in West Palm Beach that drew an estimated 25,000 people and millions of dollars to local businesses.
With results like that, the county is now host to more than a dozen events, including the All-American Tailgate Block Party and the family-friendly Pinball Palooza that drew NFL players to Delray Beach this week.
