Oakland (Special to ZennieReport.com) – Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s plan for a Super Bowl LX Watch Party in Oakland unfortunately demonstrates that its planners don’t understand how a Super Bowl Game impacts a city like Oakland, even when it doesn’t have an NFL team. Super Bowls cause people to go to restaurants and bars to watch the game. What Mayor Lee’s planning and pushing will only hurt Oakland eateries and watering holes.
Why Mayor Lee and her little group rested on this watch party plan is to be questioned. And why the head of the Bay Area Super Bowl Host Committee backed it is to be asked, too.
Mayor Lee, Bay Area Host Committee, Visit Oakland, the Oakland Sports Group to Announce Free East Bay Festival Bringing The Big Game to the Big Screen at Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts
Yep. That was the headline of the press release issued by a group of people who’ve never been to a Super Bowl Game, let alone done any planning to host one. Sorry, but that’s the truth. This shows a collective inexperience that’s galling.
If you want to do a Super Bowl event, the tradition is to plan one that helps local businesses, like the annual Taste of The NFL or my friend Chrissy Delisle’s Culinary Kickoff. Both involve local restaurants and each event is held three days before the Super Bowl Game. Indeed, here’s how the Super Bowl Game helps local businesses.
How The Super Bowl Game Helps Local Businesses
The Super Bowl boosts local businesses through the following:
Massive spending spikes in hospitality, retail, and food, attracting tourists, driving nationwide sales of snacks/electronics, increasing demand for local services (restaurants, bars, delivery), creating temporary jobs, and offering networking/marketing opportunities, with impacts felt in host cities and across the country as fans buy team gear and plan game-day gatherings.
In the Host City
- Hospitality & Tourism: Hotels, transportation, and local attractions see huge demand from visitors, media, and corporate events.
- Retail & Services: Increased spending on merchandise, event services, and increased foot traffic in the host city.
- Business Networking: Programs like the NFL’s Business Connect foster opportunities for local, diverse businesses to work with the event.
- Tax Revenue: Boosts local tax income from sales, lodging, and hospitality.
Across the Country (Nationwide Impact)
- Food & Beverage: Huge surges in sales for grocery stores (chips, soda) and restaurants (dine-in, takeout, delivery) as people host parties.
- Retail: Increased sales for electronics (TVs), fan gear, and themed merchandise.
- Beer Sales: Significant jump in beer sales for distributors and retailers.
- Employment: Temporary hiring for event-related services, hospitality, and retail.
- Advertising & Promotions: Businesses run local promotions and theme their marketing around the game.
Examples of Local Business Boost
- Local restaurants offer special menus or catering for game day.
- Bars and breweries see increased beer and food orders.
- Small businesses create Super Bowl-themed products or contests.
- Electronics stores offer deals on TVs.
In essence, the Super Bowl acts as a massive economic stimulus, creating a ripple effect of spending that benefits businesses of all sizes, from large hospitality chains to small local shops, far beyond the stadium itself.
More Proof Oakland Forgot How To Do Economic Development
The Mayor Of Oakland, Barbara Lee claims “The festival will feature live entertainment, family activities, and local food vendors, culminating in the Big Game broadcast on the big screen inside the Calvin Simmons Theatre” But the question is why not make a Super Bowl event that happens before the day game and focuses on getting local restaurants into the spotlight without losing out on game day business?
It’s no wonder Oakland eateries are closing. It just shows that Oakland’s forgotten how to do economic development. But there’s a way out of that problem. What Visit Oakland should do is plan what I called “Oakland Super Bowl Restaurant Week”
Yep. Visit Oakland can make a website based on Oakland Restaurant Week, and have a list of participating restaurants and bars, each of which would get a sign they could hang outside and inside that says “Official Super Bowl Game Day Watch Place” Then make videos naming each individual restaurant and bar.
That’s a better effort that holding an even that takes potential buyers of food and drink away from Oakland businesses on the very day that is touted as a help to them: The Super Bowl Game.
Come on, Oakland. Get into the Super Bowl LX game of helping Oakland businesses.