Super fun: Map pinpoints parties, more

For the past several months, Bob Miller has played a key role in staging this year’s South Florida-hosted Super Bowl. But his efforts don’t involve anything remotely related to the showdown next Sunday between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts at Sun Life Stadium.
Instead, Miller is fixing homes in a neglected Miami neighborhood.

“I won’t even be going to the game,” says Miller, who chairs Rebuilding Together Miami, an organization that’s partnering with the National Football League on this community-minded venture.

Miller provides the hammers and nails and organizes the volunteer labor force; the NFL provides the all-important stamp of approval and a few players to add some star power to the effort.

But the game beyond the game doesn’t end there. Of course, there are the parties — public and private — with all the boldface names. There are also concerts, including free ones held in Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale with artists ranging from Rihanna to the Barenaked Ladies. Finally, there are charity events, from a bowling tournament to a gourmet showcase, that raise an aggregate sum likely to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Oh, and the lineup isn’t limited to two-legged creatures. Witness the Dog Bowl, an event at Miami’s Bayside Marketplace in which dog owners can show off their animals and vie to win two tickets to the game.

It all speaks to the power of the Super Bowl, especially a South Florida-hosted Super Bowl that this year is preceded by the Pro Bowl (being played today at Sun Life Stadium). What was once a game has turned more into a kind of block party writ large — a showcase for South Florida, a chance for corporate America to kick back in style and a philanthropic platform that connects football fans to a range of causes.

Little wonder that host committee planners for this year’s event anticipate that 40,000 people will come to South Florida just for the action beyond the game. (That’s on top of the 75,000-plus folks who will be on hand at the stadium.)

“The Super Bowl has reached well beyond football to become a celebrity-driven event on par with the Oscars,” says Elizabeth Kelley Grace, co-founder of The Buzz Agency, a Boca Raton-based public relations firm. Like countless locals, Grace will be in the action: A client, the III Forks restaurant chain, is the culinary sponsor for a Super Bowl charity event hosted by Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy.

It wasn’t always this way, of course. When the first Super Bowl took place in 1967, the action was limited to the field (and the halftime entertainment wasn’t The Who, but trumpeter Al Hirt and two college marching bands). But as the game grew in stature and popularity, it was inevitable that a “scene” became attached to it.

Especially since the Super Bowl is singular among sports championships in that it’s played in a host city that’s announced years before the game.
“This allows event planners to scout locations, send out invites and plan their parties well in advance,” says Andrew Fine, director of marketing and broadcasting of RLR Associates, a New York firm that represents sports broadcasters.

Another key: The Super Bowl host cities tend to be in picturesque, warm-weather locales that are perfect for partying. It’s no accident that South Florida has hosted the game a record 10 times, including this year’s bowl.

Just consider what happened when the NFL moved the game one year to Detroit.

“I was going to a party, and we got lost in a snowstorm!” says Rodney Barreto, a prominent Miami businessman who’s the chair of this year’s Super Bowl Host Committee.

At the same time, one Super Bowl event planner says it was the decision to move the game to an occasional chillier location that may have been the real sparkplug for broadening its scope and reach. Simply put, when you can’t throw a block party in the traditional sense, you’re forced to get creative.

“There’s no way you’re having a golf tournament in Minnesota in the middle of the winter,” says Wayne Kostroski, a Minneapolis chef who created the Taste of the NFL, an NFL-sanctioned Super Bowl gourmet event, when his city hosted the game in 1992. The bash, now with a top ticket price of $600, features chefs from all 32 NFL cities and raises money to eradicate hunger. To date, Taste of the NFL has generated $9 million for charity.

Kostroski also says that the Super Bowl has become bigger because host cities, which commit countless tax dollars to bring the event to their town, are painfully aware that most locals can’t afford a ticket to the game — or to those $600-and-up parties. So there’s been a growing emphasis on free events as well. Witness this Thursday’s special Super Bowl-themed edition of Clematis By Night in downtown West Palm Beach.

Still, it’s easy to be a bit cynical about all the Super Bowl hoopla and all the offbeat events connected — officially and unofficially — to the game. What does a bowling tournament — yes, there’s an NFL-sanctioned Super Bowl one — have to do with a championship football game?

But again, think of those 40,000 “other” Super Bowl attendees. Certainly, Pam Dzierzanowski does. She’s the events director for Patron, the high-end tequila that’s a major sponsor of Super Bowl events.

It’s her job to promote the brand at some of hottest pre-game parties, including the famed Saturday night Maxim magazine bash, where A-listers of all kinds hit the dance floor, sip $200-a-bottle tequila (Patron, of course) and spend a few hours just being, well, fabulous.

And come the morning of the big game?

“They’re on a plane headed home,” she says.

FIVE SUPER BOWL BASHES

What’s taking place in connection with the big game?

Here are five noteworthy Super Bowl events:

Dog Bowl 2010 Touchdown Treats Championship

Thursday, Bayside Marketplace, Miami, starting at 9:45 a.m.

A pooch-themed Super Bowl event, hosted by Hill’s Science Diet.

Cost: free

Info: innovamarketing .com/dogbowl2010

Super Clematis By Night

Thursday, downtown West Palm Beach, starting at 5 p.m.

A Super Bowl-themed edition of the popular downtown weekly concert series. Cost: free

Info: clematisbynight.net

Pepsi Super Bowl Fan Jam

Thursday, Miami Beach at Seventh Street, starting at 6:30 p.m.

Concert featuring pop star Rihanna and 15-year-old singing sensation Justin Bieber. Cost: free (but tickets distributed in advance through TicketMaster.com)

Info: nfl.com/fanjam

Taste of the NFL

Saturday, Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, starting at 6 p.m.

A gourmet-themed, NFL-sanctioned event, benefiting food banks across the country and featuring chefs from all 32 NFL cities, plus appearances by NFL players past and present.

Cost: $500-$600.

Info: tasteofthenfl.com

Maxim Super Bowl Party

Saturday, Raleigh Hotel, Miami Beach, starting at 9 p.m.

The men’s magazine’s ever-popular pre-game bash — with plenty of celebrities and football players on hand. By invitation only.

For a full list of Super Bowl events, go to South Florida host committee’s site: southflorida superbowl.com