One Hot Market: Party Central

Phoenix-area restaurants prepare to welcome thousands to Arizona for the Super Bowl.

By Lisa Bertagnoli, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 11/28/2007

The University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale , Ariz. , is a good 45 minutes west of Scottsdale and its blossoming downtown. Nevertheless, Scottsdale restaurateurs, as well as those nearer the stadium, are preparing for an onslaught of football fans, all of whom presumably will be ready to party.

The Super Bowl will attract at least 150,000 visitors, 73,000 of whom will hold tickets to the game, taking place next year on Feb. 3. The remainder will tag along to be part of the excitement surrounding what is arguably the United States ’ biggest sports event.

All told, it’s an upscale crowd. According to the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, the average economic impact of the Super Bowl on a host city is $300 million to $400 million. Attendees, for the most part, are affluent: 38 percent earn more than $100,000 a year, and 65 percent say they’re key decision makers at their companies.

Festivities Galore

Downtown Scottsdale will host at least 45 Super Bowl parties, says John Little, executive director of Downtown Scottsdale, a booster group that supports downtown businesses and development.

Fox Restaurant Concepts has several parties on the books, including one for the Matt Leinart Foundation, a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged children, and another for a popular sports drink, says Sam Fox, CEO , president and founder of the Scottsdale-based multiconcept company. The players are staying at the Westin Hotel across from North, one of Fox’s nine concepts, “so I’m confident [North] will be busy,” Fox says.

Fox doesn’t expect the parties to boost 2008 sales considerably. Rather, “I think the Super Bowl will offset some of the housing softness,” he says. He anticipates a “huge January,” a 30 percent revenue increase in the first quarter, and same-store-sales gains of 10 percent to 12 percent for the year. Most important, the Super Bowl “will keep the name of the city on the national stage and keep the flow of visitors coming,” Fox says.

A Lot of Wings

Native New Yorker, a Gilbert, Ariz.-based chain of chicken-wing restaurants, is hustling for a December opening of its new, 170-seat restaurant located across the street from the stadium, says Sherri Lind, vice president of franchising for the 19-unit concept. The chain is getting help: “The town of Glendale has been amazing at trying to get a lot of businesses to open” before game day, she says.

For the Super Bowl, “we are planning to make a whole weekend of it,” Lind says. On game day, the restaurant will host a parking-lot party complete with canopies, a kids’ area, a beer truck and another truck with a jumbo TV screen. Native New Yorker also plans to get past and current NFL players to sign items, which will be raffled off. The chain will sell tickets to the party; the ticket price will include food such as wings, brats, burgers and chili, as well as beverages, Lind says.

Yet Lind doesn’t expect the party to significantly impact Native New Yorker’s revenue. “We are hoping to cater to people who wouldn’t get Super Bowl tickets,” she says. “That’s our main goal.”

Click here for a look at how Scottsdale’s downtown is booming.