super Bowl Update

Feb. 8, 2007

Transcript:

Cary Pfeffer:
Tonight on "Horizon", the countdown is underway for Super Bowl 42, to be held in Glendale. Find out what officials are doing to prepare. And hear from J.D. Hayworth in his first public appearance since losing to Congressman Harry Mitchell last November. All that, coming up, on "Horizon".

"Horizon" is made possible by contributions from the friend of eight, members of your Arizona PBS station. Thank you.

Cary Pfeffer:
Good evening and welcome to "Horizon". I'm Cary Pfeffer. The marketing campaign has started for Super Bowl 42, which will be played at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. We'll talk to a Super Bowl committee official and a Glendale spokeswoman about the marketing plans and about what they learned in Miami, but first, Mike Sauceda tells us more.

Event Announcer:
Ladies and gentlemen, the team captain of Super Bowl XLII, the official mascot of the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, please welcome Spike the Super Ball.

Mike Sauceda:
Spike, the Arizona Super Bowl football mascot will be traveling the state over the next year, visiting 42 cities in an effort to make Super Bowl XLII an Arizona event, not just a Glendale thing.

Bob Sullivan:
Thank you. This is a very exciting day for us here because we're introducing both a statewide initiative to get Arizonans involved, as well as introduce you to a major player who's going to help us all get involved. As the governor said, as the mayor said, as Michael, all of us have said, this is truly Arizona's Super Bowl. And to generate excitement statewide, we felt we can't just sit down in the Valley and expect the Valley, or the citizens of the state to sit up in the four corners area or down near Yuma or Tucson, and expect to get excited. We have to go to them. So we've come up with an initiative where we're going to be visiting 42 cities, communities and towns over the next 12 months, the host committee, a little bit of a caravan going out. Batten down the hatches, we're coming to town, and we're going to visit the towns with someone very special and something very special.

Mike Sauceda:
Spike the football mascot is just one marketing device that was unveiled at a press conference Tuesday.

Michael Bidwell:
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! [applause and cheers]

Mike Sauceda:
The Super Bowl countdown clock was also unveiled by Michael Bidwell of the Arizona Cardinals. Before that Governor Napolitano welcomed the crowd.

Janet Napolitano:
Welcome to all, and 363-days and counting ‘till we host the next Super Bowl. And Arizona looks forward to welcoming the NFL, the rest of America, and indeed the rest of the world to our beautiful state, a state that is growing by leaps and bounds, a state that is the fastest-growing state in the country, where we have successfully hosted a Super Bowl in the past as well as just this past year hosting the Insight Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and the BCS championship bowl, all within the space of about ten days. So we believe we are ready to rock and roll, and to have the best Super Bowl ever. And we look forward to that challenge.

Mike Sauceda:
The new Super Bowl XLII logo was revealed to the public for the first time.

Debbie Wardrop:
This logo will now be used in all different places, for all of the rest of the time, to represent Super Bowl XLII. I need to explain it a little bit so that you understand what went into this and what it represents. First of all, it reflects the state.

Michael Kennedy: I have these on upside down [Laughter], But very simple campaign.

Mike Sauceda:
Michael Kennedy, chairman of the Arizona host committee, demonstrated another marketing campaign featuring eye black. Also Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs talked about what the group traveling to Miami for its recent Super Bowl learned.

Elaine Scruggs:
As most of you know, a large number of us went to Miami so that we could complete our so-called training, and figuring out what it is that will be the best for us to do to make this time most incredible Super Bowl. We know right away it's going to be a better experience because we have a roof--

[laughter]

Elaine Scruggs:
--But other than that, I have to share with you the excitement of being in Miami. I stayed by the host committee's booth in the media center quite a bit of the time. Everybody is anxious to come to Arizona. They're so curious about it. What they've read about us. They just want to be here. Everybody is ready for the Super Bowl in Arizona. And we sure are ready to have them here, too. The other thing that I noticed when I was out there, we would go to the different events associated with the Super Bowl. And everybody would go, oh, this is nice. But we can do it better.

Cary Pfeffer:
We'll see about that. With me to talk more about Super Bowl XLII is Bob Sullivan, President of the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee. Also here is Jennifer Reichelt, Spokeswoman for the City of Glendale. Thank you both for being here. Let's first talk about Miami. Other than the fact that you probably have finally gotten dried out from that experience, bob, let's start with you. Overall experiences, because you have a very long "to-do" list between now and next February.

Bob Sullivan:
Yeah. It was a long week. It was a good week. We learned a lot. And you can sit in rooms and plan all you want in meetings. But until you go down there, see it, touch it, feel it, you really don't have a really strong, firm idea on what it really means to put a Super Bowl on that week. And that's what being down in Miami last week was all about.

Cary Pfeffer:
I should also mention before we talk to Jen that I have a -- in the spirit of full disclosure, I work as a consultant, and do some of that work with the city of Glendale as well. I want to make sure and mention that ahead of time. Although I don't work specifically on the Super Bowl process. Talk about your experiences in being there, knowing that the precious acreage right around that football stadium becomes very important and it sits in the city of Glendale.

Jennifer Reichelt:
Oh, it definitely does. We are very excited. We're counting on the days until the Super Bowl comes to Glendale. The city sent a staff of about 40 staff members up there to Miami to really learn more about the process. And we partnered with the host committee and really worked closely with them while we were out there. But we sent out a group of staff members, public safety officials, police and fire, to really learn more about how we keep people safe while they're there. Transportation officials, because we want people to get in and out of the games efficiently. We want people to have a great fan experience. And then, the marketing aspect, which is both marketing to the media as well to as the tourists. We want people to come to Glendale not just for the game, but to stay and actually take part in our restaurants, our stores, those types of things as well.

Cary Pfeffer:
Every one of the Super Bowls is obviously a reflection of the area that it's in. So there are certain things that you're clearly going to be taking from what you learned and putting an Arizona twist to it, I would assume?

Bob Sullivan:
Absolutely. The charge that we have, which is much different than South Florida was. This is Arizona Super Bowl. And from the beginning, since the day the bid was written in 2003, and accepted until now, our effort is to, as Jennifer was saying, is to come out for the game, but stay a week. See Glendale. see downtown. Go up to the Grand Canyon. Go up to the White Mountains. Go down to Tucson. I mean, look. It's a platform where the world truly comes to Glendale and to the state of Arizona. And if we don't take advantage of that, we're really missing the mark and we're really missing a huge opportunity to celebrate not just what a football game means -- and it's obviously a game -- but really what else the State and the West Valley has to offer.

Cary Pfeffer:
And Jennifer, when you go through that process specifically for Glendale, what is going to change, for example, over the next year, to make those preparations appropriate for the city itself.

Jennifer Reichelt:
Well, there'll be a lot of preparations. We're getting ready for a record number of people to come to the Valley, and then to our city as well. What we really saw when we were in Miami is that people come that don't have tickets to the game. I mean, your football fans come that want to be part of the festivities. And so, we need to make sure that we have the activities and infrastructure in place to accommodate them. So the activities, the NFL experience, the other events, the tourist attractions, to keep them here that weeklong. But in terms of other things, we want to make sure that transportation plans are in place to get people in and out of the stadium and to the activities. So there aren't problems on our roadways and things like that. And we want our city and our Valley to be beautified and aesthetically pleasing to tourists, too, especially if it's their first time to Arizona.

Cary Pfeffer:
And speaking of for example hotel rooms, we know now that there aren't that many hotels. There's not a bunch of resorts right in that immediate area, and that's got to be a challenge right from the start.

Jennifer Reichelt:
Definitely it's a challenge now. We do have a number of hotel properties under construction. And we know that they'll be completed in time for the Super Bowl. Right now we have a number of properties under construction. We should have about 1,000 more rooms in the immediate vicinity of the stadium ready in time for the Super Bowl. But, I mean, that's obviously not going to be enough for 70,000 people. So they're going to be staying in hotel rooms across the Valley, and that's why the Super Bowl is such an economic impact and generator for the entire region.

Cary Pfeffer:
And Bob, what do you say to people who are not football fans, the only time they tune in to watch the game is to maybe catch the commercials. They're saying: oh, these numbers get thrown around about economic impact, but how does it really impact me? Why should I really care?

Bob Sullivan:
Well, If you take economics out of it just for a second -- let's just take economics totally out of it. If nothing else, it's civic pride. It's the fact that in our booth this last week in Miami, I talked to production and news crews from Hungary, from London, from Japan, from Shanghai, as well as from New York, Dallas, Detroit, Miami. They're all coming here not just to cover a football game, but to report on what Arizona has to offer. I mean, if there's one crew that comes in and does one story on Glendale, and it's seen by 3 million people, that's huge. And it means civic pride, and it means that potentially future business's gonna come here, future tourism's gonna come here. And we all benefit from that.

Cary Pfeffer:
And what are those numbers? There are a number of them that get thrown around. But what is that -- when you talk economic impact what is the number you use?

Bob Sullivan:
We feel pretty accurate that this game, the event itself, the week long event will bring in $400 million in total economic impact. How did we get there? '96 was, in all estimates, 350 million. Miami looking at about 375. So, we're estimating at least 400, if not above that, in terms of total overall economic impact. And that is money directly into the coffers of businesses in Arizona.

Cary Pfeffer:
Okay. And Jen, for the city of Glendale what sort of check does the city have to write in order to have all of those people and some of those host responsibilities?

Jennifer Reichelt:
You know, what the city did as we were getting ready to open the stadium and looking at the number of activities in line looking for the Super Bowl, over a 18-month period the city put away about $5 million. So that included the opening of the stadium, two Fiesta Bowls, a BCS and Super Bowl. So the city has invested $5 million for infrastructure, beautification, transportation issues, a number of things to get ready for all those events.

Cary Pfeffer:
And what's your estimate as far as the city's return on that money?

Jennifer Reichelt:
Well, we're really listening to the host committee and the NFL in terms of economic impact. So we really are echoing their number in terms of the economic impact to the region. I think we'll know better after we see the fiesta bowl, the BCS numbers, as they start rolling in. Next year's fiesta bowl, and then obviously next year we'll know after the Super Bowl exactly what that number will be.

Cary Pfeffer:
Right. And last word, Bob, on what you'd like to see. Obviously, like I say, this long "to-do" list. What you'd like to see happen, top two or three goals over the next few months.

Bob Sullivan:
Over the next few months? We really want to get people involved with the membership club. The membership club gets them involved in all the activities relative to the Super Bowl. In about a month and a half, we're gonna start launching our volunteer efforts. We need about 10,000 volunteers, most of those out at Glendale at the NFL Experience Interactive Park. That's a minimum need. And already, just since Sunday we had close to another -- not another, but 1,000 additional people sign up just by being excited about the press conference we had on Tuesday and wanting to be a part of the Super Bowl.

Cary Pfeffer:
Alright, we will see what happens. A couple of busy people here. Thanks very much for being here. I appreciate it.

Cary Pfeffer:
For 12 years, former broadcaster J.D. Hayworth served Arizona in Congress. But in November, he was one of several Republicans swept out of office as Democrats reclaimed Congress. Hayworth was defeated by Democrat Harry Mitchell, in Arizona's Fifth Congressional District. And Hayworth spoke publicly for the first time as part of the 2007 Goldwater Lecture Series, which was taped by Eight TV at the ASU Kerr Cultural Center in Scottsdale yesterday. The entire speech will be shown here, on Eight, this summer. Here's an excerpt from Hayworth's speech. He started by talking on an article about him in a Congressional publication.

J.D. Hayworth:
I don't stand here in criticism of any particular publication. I was surprised that when the editors of roll call, the newspaper of record on capitol hill, asked me to compose a document under the heading "what I've learned as a memoir" I was somewhat surprised that no local publication saw fit to pick it up. So taking advantage of our good friends at channel eight and the auspices of this gathering today, let me offer these remarks to you. Because this appeared now two months ago. December 7, I believe, was the edition of last year in roll call. "a representative's reflections, 12-years in the house. The phone rang early the morning of November 9, 1994, but not so early that I couldn't pick it up on the first ring. "Congratulations, old buddy," said the voice on the other end. "Do you realize you're going to do something I never did? You're going to preside over the house as Speaker Pro Tem. You're going to be part of a new majority." the voice belonged to John Rhodes, the man who had served Arizona and America so capably as House Minority Leader, the man who had vented his frustrations over the Republican's seemingly permanent minority status in his book "the futile system", and the man who had taken a chance and endorsed a political newcomer, known primarily as a television sportscaster in a crowded priMary field. That newcomer was now a Congressman-elect, seeking advice from his mentor. "You and Mary need to take a couple of days to get away and rest. But make sure you rest. When Betty and I went to Las Vegas after our first win in '52 we ended up making reservations with the stork."

[laughter]

J.D. Hayworth:
Nine months later, the new member of Congress had a new addition to the family. True to form, I followed the leader's advice, partially. Mary and I got away to a nearby resort and stayed overnight. The stork had paid us a visit 11 months earlier. We felt we needed to be home. Besides, we were just too excited to rest. Rest would remain in short supply for more than a decade of service in the House of Representatives. Ours is now a commuter Congress. We live at home on weekends, and work in Washington most weekdays. George F. Will has described those serving in the House as "modern day Willie Loman's living out of their suitcases." certainly that long commute takes a toll on those traveling weekly from the west. But I came to view airliners as school buses in the sky, getting me where I needed to be when I needed to be there. That certainly was not the case when we flew back to Washington for freshman orientation. We left phoenix on a chamber of commerce type of Sunday, sunny and warm. But the further east we flew, the cloudier the conditions. We landed in Columbus, Ohio to catch a connecting flight into Washington National, and took off into a gray curtain of clouds and drizzle. About 20 minutes into the flight, the plane shook violently and there was a massive "kaboom." "What was that?" Mary asked. "Lightning, I think, I hope." I responded. 30 seconds later, the pilot talked to his passengers, via the plane's public address system. "Folks, that wasn't supposed to happen," he said in a seemingly obligatory pilot's drawl. It looks like we've been struck by lightning even though radar indicates the closest storm cell is 50 miles from here. We got a choice. We can turn around and go back to Columbus. But they're up to their armpits in airplanes. Or we can go on to Washington. Tell you what? Let's go on to Washington. It appears everything is okay." with two intact wings and more than one prayer we continued eastward. When the plane landed in Washington, the pilot shook hands with each departing passenger, much like a pastor greeting his parishioners at the end of a Sunday sermon. As Mary and I were leaving and I said "thanks for the ride, I think" the pilot didn't hesitate. "You haven't even been sworn in yet, and you've already started with a bang."

[Laughter]

J.D. Hayworth:
That plane flight serves as a metaphor for my time in Congress. These have been trying, turbulent times, marked by historic events. The first Republican majority in 40-years. The second time a president has been impeached in our history. The contested 2000 presidential election. The dastardly attacks of 9/11. And now a Democrat majority. Through it all, I've witnessed acts of extreme kindness, but also actions of extreme pettiness. Actions of incredible foresight, as well as actions of momentary expedience. Decisions proven right, and decisions proven wrong. In short, the human condition has been on full and free display, again proving the genius of our founders in names the institution the House of Representatives. John Quincy Adams, the only American to serve, thus far, first as president, then as a member of Congress, said it best: "there is no greater honor than serving the people's house "stowed upon my successor. To Congressman-elect Harry Mitchell, and those who will join him in the 110th Congress, I offer every good wish for success. To those with whom I have served during my six terms, I know I leave to the regret of some and the relief of many.

[Laughter]

J.D. Hayworth:
But most of all, to the people of Arizona who allowed me the chance to serve for 12 years, I say "thank you." much has changed in those 12 years. And the most notable changes for Mary and me have taken place in the people closest to us, our children. Our eldest, Nicole, who was about to turn 18 the day I was sworn in, will soon turn 30. Our youngest, John Micah, who was 13 months old and who I held in my arms on that first day of the 104th Congress, is now 13-years old. And our middle child, Hannah, who was -- Hannah who was four, is now 16. Then the outcome of this most recent election was in doubt, Hannah sent me this e-mail: "to my daddy, I love you no matter what. I was raised around this. I grew up in this world of politics. I'm not quite sure how to leave. I'm not quite sure if we even have to leave it yet. But just in case, I always love you, daddy. The race has been a tough one. You fought hard. It's not over yet. All the issues you faced, all the lies you've been through, all those hard weeks in DC, if you leave you will leave with your head raised up high. You've been working hard for these past 12-years. Only god knows if it will go to 14. But if it doesn't, ha-ha. You'll be home to bug me every week instead of being in DC. You'll be able to come to my basketball games. You'll be here for more daddy-daughter events that you've had to miss over the years. No more stupid events from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. ha-ha. Maybe now you'll even get the chance to sleep. Everything will be okay, daddy. But who knows? You still have a chance to win. I love you."

J.D. Hayworth:
from John Rhodes phone call to Hannah's e-mail, much has taken place. But there is something that I have learned. Yes, serving in the house is a honor. Yes, serving in the house is exciting. Yes, serving in the house is important. But the house is no one's home. Thank you for your time. I'd be willing to take your questions now. Thank you very much.

[Applause]

Announcers:
Teen drivers could face new restrictions on Arizona's roads, including when they could drive, and how many passengers they could carry. Mesa city council minute Tom Rawles continues to sit during the council meetings and the public is speaking out on both sides of the issue. The journalists' Roundtable, Friday on "Horizon".

Cary Pfeffer:
Thanks very much for watching. I'm Cary Pfeffer. I hope you enjoyed our program. I enjoyed my time in this seat. Have a good night. We'll see you next time.