Meet The Host Committee

Executive Committee Chair Maury Gallagher and President & CEO of the Las Vegas Super Bowl LVIII Host Committee, Sam Joffray are guests on our debut episode of Inside The Vegas Huddle

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is Inside the Vegas Huddle,your podcast connection to the events and initiatives
led by the Las Vegas Super Bowlfifty eight host Committee in advance of the
big game at Allegiance Stadium. Welcometo Inside the Vegas Huddle. All right,

(00:22):
you are listening to Inside the Huddle, the first of many podcasts that
we're gonna bring you from the biggestsingle sporting event that's ever gonna hit Las
Vegas. Of course, we're talkingabout Super Bowl fifty eight coming up on
February eleventh, is gonna be alot of fun. We'll take you behind
the scenes what goes kind of intothe planning, the preparation and of course
pulling off one of the biggest eventsthe NFL has ever had. That's going

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to be Super Bowl fifty eight.So it's gonna be a lot of fun.
I'm Chris Matthew, sports director ateight News now KLAS TV here in
Las Vegas, along with Joe AnnaBauman, who is the morning show host.
Was Sonny one oh six point fiveand iHeart radio and boy, I'll
tell you what, Juanna, weare so thrilled to have this podcast and
talk about really kind of go behindthe scenes withinside the Huddle with a terrific
guest we have coming up right,there's just so much planning, preparation,

(01:06):
and then of course the execution leadingup to Super Bowl fifty eight. So
during Inside the Vegas Huddle, you'regoing to kind of get a behind the
scenes of how all that magic happens, and we're going to be really talking
to the huge playmakers. And it'shard to believe this game kicks off now,
Joanna, less than six months.The anniversary was Friday, six months
from last Friday. This game isgonna kick off right here in Las Vegas.

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We got the movers and shakers.Let's introduce him here. We got
Maury Gallagher, the chairman of theSuper Bowl fifty eight Executive Committee and chairman
of the board for Allegian Airlines.Of course, that name Allegiance sits right
on the side of the NFL's premierstadium, in the NFL Allegiance Stadium in
Las Vegas, so that's gonna bea lot of fun where the Super Bowl
will be played. By the way, we got Sam Joffer, who was

(01:49):
President and CEO of the Las VegasSuper Bowl Host Committee. So terrific guests
here for our first I'm amazed wegot these two gentlemen in here, because
these are the movers and shakers aswe get ready to Super Bowl fifty year.
Thank you guys for fitting us inyour schedule. How are you welcome?
Thanks for having us, glad tobe here. Well, we're very
excited to talk with you guys.Of course, we know that you guys
have been instrumental from start until todaysix months out now leading up to Super

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Bowl fifty eight. So we're gonnadive into some questions just to kind of
give people a little bit behind thescenes of the magic that has already occurred.
Now, we know that hosting aSuper Bowl in any city it is
no small feat. It is avery large undertaking to really kick it off.
Whose incredible idea was it to bringthe Super Bowl here to Las Vegas?

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And then, of course maybe talkto us a little bit about the
process of securing that. Well,I think without a doubt, the whole
process to even hosts a Super Bowlstarts with getting an NFL team in your
host city, because you have tohave a host team. And then next
step, obviously is a stadium tohost it in. And I know the
LVCVA and more. You can waitin the dream team that was working on
bringing the Raiders here. Building thestadium, which really is kind of the

(02:58):
first step to making has happened.And then and then some of us are
lucky enough to come in towards theend and put together the bid to hosted
a Bowl and then be part ofthe magic at that point. But a
lot of the heavy lifting happened inwhat twenty nineteen. Actually before that,
you go back to twenty sixteen,twenty seventeen, when mister Davis was wanting

(03:19):
to move. He didn't in Oakland. Have had their disagreements over the years,
and he was talking to both Laand Las Vegas. And I think
it's fair to say that Jerry Jones, who owns the Cowboys, we got
to meet him when we were doingthe stadium, and his background store was
very interesting. In eighty nine whenhe bought the Cowboys, he was a

(03:40):
newbie in the NFL and Cowboys werelosing money. It's hard to believe that
franchise would have ever lost money,and Al Davis the Raiders took him under
his wing, and so fast forwardthrough all the kind of the last thirty
years in the NFL and Jerry Jonesis arguably the number one guy owner in
that team, and he got hetaught the NFL how to market and sell.

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Fact, he went had to goto the mats and they had a
lawsuit in nineteen ninety three ninety fourwhen he tried to sell individual advertising inside
a stadium. And before that theyhad a committee of five, six seven
people and everything went through the NFLproper. It wasn't individual teams weren't allowed
to sell anything. And he showedhim the error and there's ways, and

(04:26):
he has made those gentlemen and ladiesa lot of money since then. And
to that end, he took misterDavis Junior under his wing. Maybe Mark
wouldn't quite agree with this, butgo to La come to Vegas, and
he coached him to come to Vegas. But what you had to do is
you had to sell the NFL onLas Vegas. Those that have been around

(04:47):
a while and then two thousands wewere being sued by the NFL for using
the Super Bowl name, and bettingand gambling were not something that we're you
know, in the NFL's you knowpr full You had the rules passed where
the courts found that gambling was okayat the state level, and you know,
it's one of those things that's goingto come, so you'd get you

(05:09):
to get on board or miss thetrain. And so the NFL got there,
and I'm sure mister Jones was justspeculating, very influential and making sure
that Las Vegas became a city thatwas interesting. And you know, you
go get mister Davis shows up,he makes his pitch, and this town
understood the power of NFL and it'sbeen amazing. I've been here since,

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like I said, ninety two,and it's been an entertainment capital. Now
it's both. Yeah, there isno city in the world like Las Vegas,
and the NFL was the kind ofkickoff you obviously had. The Nights
were there too, But that wholeexercise to bring the NFL here, the
joint venture with the state, thetacks that they put in place, the

(05:54):
money they invested in the stadium,If it's worked better any place else,
I'd be hard pressed to figure outwhere. Yeah, And when you think
about like you were saying, JerryJones was a huge advocate for bringing the
NFL Las Vegas. He was abig cheerleader when we were covering this story
when they first announced, Hey,we'd like to come here. If you
get the funding, if they buildit will come and so forth. You
know, like like Mary said,Jerry Jones was a cheerleader for Las Vegas.

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He loved last day. What's theperception now of the NFL as it
looks at Las Vegas now, Well, you know, Sam may be closer
to that than I am. Butyou can't help but be excited about Las
Vegas. This is an outside observer. We have one hundred and twenty thousand
hotel rooms within a you know,two mile walk. When we were in

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Phoenix, great place did a goodjob hosting, but you sat in downtown
and you drove twenty miles to Scottsdaleto do a lot of the parties.
You drove twenty miles to get tothe you know, Glendale for the field.
It's all right here. You justcan't match what Las Vegas can do.
And and another thing, when wewere being accorded for the stadium,
Mark Badane, who is then presidentof the Raiders, had us up on

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the hotel they are looking down onthe stadiums is being built. I'm not
sure what triggered it, but hesaid, you guys don't know how good
you are. What are you talkingabout. Well, the hospitality this town
is unbelievable in hospitality and you don'teven understand it. It's just part of
your DNA. You just do it. And I kind of stepped back and
I go, well, you know, I think he's right, and so

(07:25):
you're going to see that in spades. And you have the LVCVA, which
is arguably the best hospitality promotional groupin the world. I mean, look
at what Steve Hill and his teamare doing. They've got the F one
coming, They've had conversations from allkinds of people. If you're not in
Las Vegas today in the sports world, you're probably wanting to be here.

(07:46):
And I think, yes, theNFL is always a fan of anything that
helps elevate the brand, helps elevatethe Shield, elevate their events, and
is one of their if you lookat their key tent pole events between Draft
and prob what Vegas was able todo to help elevate those events further cemented
the fact that I think NFL,whether they would admit it or not,

(08:07):
or have a little bit of alove affair going on with Las Vegas and
what it can do for the forthe events and the brand. Well,
mister Goodell's quote after the draft,how was it? It was perfect?
No, it was better than perfect. Those are high praise coming out of
a pretty dour guy. Yeah.Absolutely, yes, And I know,
Sam, obviously you have seen somuch starting work with the NFL and the

(08:28):
Super Bowl host Committee back in nineteenninety seven to today. You've seen all
the different cities go through the process, go through you know, getting that
winning bid to present day. Imean, what type of things can you
walk us through that really can peoplecan understand the significant milestones that occurred during
a process like that. Well,yeah, I cut my chops back in

(08:50):
nineteen ninety seven. The back then, the Super Bowl is a different scale.
We had a media center that hadmaybe seventeen hundred to two thousand members
of the media in twenty five thousandsquare foot ballroom at the Hyatt next of
the stadium. In two thousand andtwo, that had grown to about thirty
five hundred members of the media andrequired a hall of the convention center.

(09:11):
Then by twenty thirteen they were takingup multiple halls of the convention center.
Six thousand members of the media,So to watch that growth year after year
has been really privileged to kind ofsee that. And we had gotten New
Orleans awarded Super Bowl twenty twenty fourthrough a lot of different complications with the

(09:31):
NFL scheduling and calendar. In ourbid to host twenty twenty four New Orleans,
there were some languages that said,hey, if the season changes and
the schedule goes to seventeen weeks,New Orleans can't host because of a little
thing called Marti Gras that would havebeen happening over the same time. And
to find print in that bid saidyou will allow New Orleans a chance to

(09:52):
come back and bid on the nextavailable Super Bowl. So redid the bid,
got twenty five awarded, that openedup twenty four. They left a
hole in the calendar, at whichpoint I was lucky enough to get the
opportunity to come work with the LVCVAto put together that bid. And I
certainly would have been very happy andcontent to stay in New Orleans and do
another Super Bowl New Orleans dust offthe plans, do it like we've always

(10:13):
done it. But the chance tocome here and be part of the first
one in Las Vegas, it's it'smore than just putting on the Super Bowls
being part of the history in thetimeline here. So after watching all that
growth and knowing that there's nobody inthis country better position to accommodate their growth,
there's also been another growth factor afterCOVID. You know, we saw

(10:33):
Super Bowl in twenty twenty, twentytwenty one after COVID in the height of
the pandemic, they got reduced toa no fans environment in Tampa that year.
Then uh, more and I gotto go to LA because we got
in the Super Bowl awarded at twentyone. Yeah, my years getting mixed

(10:54):
up. Twenty twenty was Miami,then twenty twenty one was Tampa, then
twenty two was LA, twenty twowas last year. Three was this.
Yes, so I think I thinkwe got it. I think we got
it all down. You can editall that outlet, But you know,

(11:15):
Morey and the committee, Steve Hilland Jeremy will be on with us in
our executive committee for the host committee. Right after we got it awarded in
December, went over to LA togo watch the operations there, try and
see what the comeback was like afterafter COVID, And that was the one
where you started to see everything comingback. Wasn't a full super Bowl yet,
the media attendance wasn't there completely,the sponsor by in wasn't there completely

(11:37):
yet. But what we saw thereI think more you can kind of speak
to it. I think it was. It was really interesting walking around with
this guy who has such a greathistory with with with NASCAR and major events.
But he was one of the onesthat came back with us after that
trip and said, whoa, wegot to get ready. This is this
is this is already a big dealcoming right out of COVID and then got
to see it again in Phoenix togetheras well. And I think that right

(12:01):
now, if Super Bowl is backat one hundred percent in Vegas, is
gonna be back to one hundred andtwenty percent because we do everything better here,
you know. I was thinking alsowhen we talked about Las Vegas is
the sports and entertainment capital the world. There are so many opportunities here in
Las Vegas, a myriad of opportunitieswith the resorts, the hotels, the
stadium, the outlying areas. AndI keep hearing from everybody this will be

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the NFL's biggest and best party they'veever hosted, which makes sense because there's
so many opportunities do things. Isthat kind of what you're seeing, sam
Oh, I think we all recognizethat Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas any
given year is already a huge weekend. It is a favorite destination. If
you're not going to Super Bowl,you're coming to Vegas because you know it's
a party for the Big Game,feeling parties and the sports books and all

(12:43):
the excitement the city brings. Sowhen we lay to the actual Super Bowl
in on top of that, it'sgonna be an incredible opportunity. And what
one of the things that Vegas bringsto the table. And we beat this
during the bid process A lot iswe had to educate the NFL very carefully
on what's generally at one size fitsall bid document and bid process. We

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had to say, no, alot of this does not apply to Vegas.
The way transportation and hotels and specialevent venues goes, everything's a little
different here and a big part ofthat was the fact that we've got these
incredible resort partners here who are notjust hotel room providers, whereas in most
other cities they would go and negotiatewith a hotel for hotel rooms for guests

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to sleep in. But here inLas Vegas, it was quickly evident that
the resort partners. Yes, they'rea key part of the hotel rooms we
need. But by the way,we got one hundred and fifty thousand of
them, so I think we cancarve out some for Super Bowl. But
those properties are also an integral partof our special event planning because they're hosting
our venues. They're part of ourtransportation plan because they all have incredible fleets

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and services that they provide on aregular basis for their clients and their customers.
They're part of our safety plan.They've got incredible security forces that we
can layer into a Super Bowl.So it's kind of forced everybody to think
about this super Bowl very differently becauseof everything that Las Vegas brings that they
will well, just as an outsiderlooking at this process, and you get

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a notebook that's an inch thick withsmall print of all the stuff you have
to think about, and there's tenmajor sections. Security, obviously, transportation,
hotels. We're talking about fifteen thousandvolunteers, So how do you get
fifteen thousand people to show up forone day, train them, make sure

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they're all dressed properly, make sureit just goes on and on. And
I've had the privilege of being inthese meetings now as these people are starting
to come up to speed and thetalent in this town, and you go
through each of these ten sections andyou listen to the people. I mean,
this isn't like colly g I surehope we can get there. They're
on their game. They're right now, they're here hotels. There's guys with

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thirty years of experience doing this stuff. Security. The Las Vegas Metro has
done security since the you know,we were all shep was a pup.
It just all the expertise in thistown is set to do it. And
that's not to say others can't doit and haven't done good jobs. But
you're just going to see an experiencehere that's going to be I think,
exceptional, and it's going to besmooth. And not to say again it's

(15:16):
not smooth, but like what Isaw in Phoenix, it's just distance and
you know, it's it's tough toput together. But the biggest problem we're
going to have, I think,is we don't have enough parking spots for
airplanes. That's yes, where's thatgene Airport? I was coming back from
from Phoenix and I sat an houron the runway wow in Phoenix because they

(15:41):
had a hold here in Las Vegasbecause of all the airplanes taken off right
from the party. And you bringup a good point when you've attended the
recent super Bowl in Arizona. Whatwere some of the lessons that you learned
there that you're like, up,that's not happening in Vegas, or maybe
that is happening in Vegas. Well, again, i'm the amateur Sam Scott
better, but it's just a physicality. You can't overcome twenty miles to get

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to some of the parties, twentymiles to get here, and you know
at the stadium, I think theparking at the stadium was a bit of
a problem. I know we satfor quite a while in a parking lot,
just like a bad jam, youknow, just sitting there and so
but you know, it was avery successful super Bowl. It worked well.
I don't think we're going to havesome of those same problems. If
we do have problems, logistics willbe you know, it's a tough place

(16:30):
to get to at times, butyou can walk there. Sure. Well,
it's like like Sam was saying,you were even saying that you're you're,
you're down to the nitty gritty justin terms of how many people are
going to walk over Hacienda A Streetover I fifteen, or how many people
are going to travel this way orthat way, and the three hundred foot
guard around the stadium. Talking aboutthat little that's interesting. I mean back

(16:51):
to when we were saying earlier toothat applies to that is that we're very,
very lucky that we have those elevensections of the bid document that we
had to sign off on get signedoff on by a separate entity called the
Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee.So we are a nonprofit signs the contracts
with the NFL, raises all themoney, and delivers on all the obligations

(17:12):
that were put forth in that bid, heavily supported by a lot of great
stakeholders here, the LVCVA and theresort partners and chambers. And the first
step in that nonprofit though, iswe have a very small, lean mean
staff of about fourteen people that aredoing all this. We couldn't do it
without this host committee structure and thisnonprofit structure, which consists of nine executive

(17:37):
committee members that oversee subcommittees. Theseeleven subcommittees that align with all those obligations
we have with the NFL. Sothere's a Transportation Committee, a mediumpr Committee,
a hotel committee, public safety list, goes on and on. This
committee helped identify incredible chairs to volunteertheir time to chair these subcommittees and extendimentations

(18:00):
to anywhere from fifteen to forty membersof each committee that are assisting our staff
and making sure that Las Vegas' bestinterests, best practice is best expertise is
brought to the table for all ofthese details so that our staff can lean
heavily on them, and we dolean heavily on and they all meet monthly,
so we start doing the math.We've got over three hundred committee members

(18:22):
serving on all those committees. They'reall meeting monthly, so that's dozens of
meetings every month that we're doing ontop of full board meetings where everybody gets
together. So we've got a TransportationCommittee that is sitting there on a biweekly
subgroup calls monthly group meetings, workingwith the NFL, their contractors, their
providers to help make sure that thisplan is set up as frictionless as possible

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and for the best case for success. So to your point, they are
looking at and asking those questions,how many people are coming by the hour
on game day across you know,historically from Phoenix, LA all the way
back. Let's take a look atthe hourly breakdowns. Then let's take a
look at the entry points the stadiums. It's been reconfigured because as stadium's gonna
look nothing like it does for aRaiders game for Super Bowl Sunday. Once

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you're taking no account the public safetyand federally mandated SEER one status security plan
that goes in place for Super Bowl. So where you see all this great
parking for a Raiders game, that'sgonna be parties, hospitality, back a
house, staging of media production trucks, and and halftime rehearsal space. So

(19:33):
that creates trickle down problems that wehave to solve. So working with the
community in the neighborhood to find alternateparking solutions or alternate transportation plans altogether,
and what's a different way to getpeople to stadium. So there are a
lot of smart people volunteering their timein this destination to help us figure it
out. Yeah. I think that'sa tough one because a lot of people,
I think don't wrap their heads aroundthe fact that this is not just

(19:56):
a Raiders game, right, andso thinking about that perspective from the outside,
so much has to change and somuch has to happen. That's different.
You start this stuff two years inadvance. Yeah, and you have
to. And you know the complexity, the size, the scale. And
I've worked in a reasonably sized business, this very few organizations, and you
do it for one day and oneday only, and God help if you

(20:18):
don't get it right. No,but make no mistake, this could not
and this would not happen without anincredible destination that is solidified with stakeholders all
working toward a common goal, andwithout the expertise of those people weighing in
on medium pr and transportation and publicsafety. And I could go on and
on and on. This just doesn'thappen. It cannot happen with our we

(20:40):
have a great staff, but thevolunteer expert from every level, from our
committee volunteers all the way to thenine thousand plus volunteers that will be using
throughout the community to help welcome fans. We want to make sure that the
welcome experience and the hospitality that's shownhere in Vegas is second and none,

(21:00):
and that the minute somebody steps offthe plane at the airport, that they
are treated like a VIP and thatthey get that crazy, crazy Super Bowl
meats Las Vegas vibe that only canhappen here and very exciting. Let me
ask you this too. We gotthe resort corridor, you got the stadium
where all the people will be gathering. What about as the preparation continues and

(21:22):
you count down to that February eleventh, Super Bowl fifty eight, what will
the average citizen in Las Vegas maybekind of wants to partake in some of
this stuff and have some fun associatedwith the Super Bowl. Are there going
to be things for us, theaverage common Las Vegan. No, they
won't even know the Super Bowls happen. There will be There will be no
shortage of wild and crazy things goingon that week because you got Summerland,

(21:45):
you got Henderson, you got thesearenas, these small little bags, and
it'll all start on Monday night ofSuper Bowl Week. So Opening Night is
the first official event of Super Bowlweek, and that is when the two
teams have arrived. It's the media'sfirst opportunity to interview them. It's quite
the production. It's nationally broadcast,but there will be publicly available tickets for

(22:07):
that, so that'll be the firstthing the public can buy a ticket.
Two is to go participate Nobody Nightand see that circus spectacle of what happens
on Monday Night. And then willthat be at Team Mobile or will it
be at the stadium. That willbe at a venue that we're going to
announce on August twenty. Thank youfor that beautiful segue to August. The

(22:29):
next episode will not the NFL's comingto town, and we are jointly doing
a very exciting press conference that daywhere we're going to kind of give everybody
a first look at what Super Bowlis gonna look like here in Vegas.
So a lot of the events thatwe've been talking about for months and that
where they're going to be will beunveiled. A lot of the community programming
that we're doing is going to beunveiled, whether that's environmental programming or community

(22:52):
affairs initiatives and and uh different effortsthere. We'll talk about a lot of
the people that are making this happenin the NFL will participate in the press
conference. It'll be an incredible dayand give us a couple of weeks and
you'll have a front row sea.I cannot wait that long. I'm impatient.

(23:17):
So the Super Bowl, Now,let's let's just talk about the volunteers
that you've that you've you know,participated and gotten and these people are helping.
Was that a big, big challengein this town? Like marisays,
this town is so tremendous in termsof giving back and helping and patting each
other on the back. Would youagree this is a it's a it's a
big city, a two point fivemillion, but it still has that small
town feel of I got your back, you got my back. Oh,

(23:37):
it's definitely a big little town.And uh, you know, the size
and the scale. I don't thinkany place on Earth is constructed to have
the ingress egress of people coming infor the number of people here, the
ratio, there's always a factor ofwhat ten to fifteen twenty times the normal
population that it's in this town justbecause of the size of what it does.

(24:00):
And so you build systems and processesto do that, from coming through
the airport, from driving from theLAS to all those ways you get here,
and you know, this is abigger weekend, but it's pretty much
a lot of what we do already. Yeah, So for those locals who
are looking that have already signed upthe volunteer I was shocked, honestly.

(24:22):
Usually that recruitment effort to get thosenine thousand volunteers that have gone through every
step of the process from filling outthe application to uploading their identification to providing
a headshot and getting scheduled for anorientation and a training that's usually a two
to three month process at least,with a daily checking of how many we
had today, how many we hadtoday, and activating our media channels and

(24:45):
activating our social media and trying torecruit, recruit, recruit, And I
don't if I remember correctly. Welaunched the program on a Tuesday, and
I think by Thursday or Friday alreadyhit the seven thousand number and they just
kept trickling in after that. Sowe're well over nine thousand volunteers that are

(25:07):
that have signed up to do that, and it speaks volumes about a the
excitement in LAS Vegas to be partof it, be the spirit of of
of of giving here in time here, and they're going to be an integral
part of what we do. Again, like I said earlier, you know
we need that that VIP treatment fromthe airport to Fremont Street to the strip,

(25:30):
everywhere you turn it super Bowl andmore. You've seen it in Phoenix
a little bit. They weren't aspresent in LA because of the spread out
demographics, but those volunteers become agreat touch point with all those visitors that
are here. So we couldn't havebeen more thrilled with the response the community
came. And you know that thatvolunteer force is not replacing any jobs.

(25:52):
That was some of the feedback.We got. Our concerns because this is
our first Super Bowl here in Vegas, and a lot of questions about that
volunteer program. But we're going totap out everybody who does this on a
day to day basis or part timebusiness for being ambassadors at trade shows and
working registration boots and things like that. Those aren't what our volunteers are doing.

(26:12):
We're gonna every body here in Vegasit does that on a regular basis,
will still have those and more opportunitiesthroughout the week between the NFL,
their partners, the other events thatare going on to be a very busy
time for the entire tourism industry.These volunteers are brought in to represent the
community and to do some of thosethings that normally you wouldn't see. So

(26:33):
when you are just meeting and greetingand being a friendly a friendly face talking
about how great Vegas is is notjust a great place to visit, but
it's a great place to work andplay and maybe come back here and live,
we never know. Absolutely. Canyou pull back the curtain a little
bit and tell us maybe about someof those special elements that you're incorporating to
really reflect the spirit of Las Vegas. Well, I think one of the

(26:56):
things we've been very adamant about isthat we want to make sure we bring
the Super Bowl out to Las Vegas. To the community. It is much
more than just a game on Sundayat Allegiance Stadium for sixty thousand plus you
know, Ish people. It's morethan just the fan fest that will be
happening, but the NFL produces weas a host committee, felt and obligation

(27:17):
to extend this out, So you'regoing to be hearing later about some really
exciting, big event activations and thingsthat will do so that anybody who wants
to be part of Super Bowl'll beable to come out and participate in different
activities, whether that's activations, whetherit's music and food and autograph sessions and
all those fun things that you wouldimagine that we will be unveiling at the

(27:40):
appropriate time. I think the thingI learned as a neo fight I haven't
been to one Super Bowl many yearsago. I've found that television does such
a marvelous job. But you know, I'm not much of a partygoer.
But this town, you know,is going to do things that people haven't

(28:00):
understood. And after going to seea couple of them in La and here
our Phoenix, the ability to kindof put it all together, to be
as organized as you're going to be, and more importantly, we've done it
before and so all that stuff isgoing to pay dividends as we get down
the road here. But uh,you know, having guys like Sam,

(28:22):
having all these professionals running the committees, it's going to come together. There's
going to be some issues, butI think we'll recover very well as a
result of that. So yeah,I'm couldn't be. When I took the
job as a committee chairman, Ireally, you know, I knew I
wasn't going to do a lot.More importantly, I needed to know that
the guys were going to be heredoing this stuff. Knew what they were

(28:44):
doing, and Sam and and youknow coming in behind and particularly the LBCVA.
Kudos to those guys. They're reallygood at this stuff. It's a
top notch professional team. And I'malong for the ride, so to speak.
But I'm I'm their biggest cheerleader,you know. You know what I'm
excited about coming up here. Whenthey started announcing the acts, the halftime
acts and so forth, and wehad the CBS NFL crew in doing some

(29:07):
promo stuff about two months ago,so I asked them, I want to
ask each of you also, ifyou could pick any halftime act for Super
Bowl fifty eight, no matter whoit is, who Marie, who would
you like to have as the SuperBowl act for fifty eight here in Vegas.
I think that's gonna be one ofthe tough ones to top last year's.
They rolled out these hundred yards ofwhatever you call those things and then

(29:33):
elevated two hundred people up to onehundred feet and they did an act up
there Herborne. So I'm the wrongguy recall the pick. Well, you
kind of wonder if it's going tobe a group of lofts like the Killers
and Wayne Newton and a lot ofpeople talking about that, dragons all the
Vegas, or will it be youknow, a residency stars. Yeah,

(29:55):
that's gonna be interested. Sam,how about you? Who would you like
to have none? I'm gonna askJoanna who let's put let's put a cobby
on that first. Uh. Youknow, the halftime show selection process isn't
a pay grade way much higher thanme. Apple Apple will play into that.
Jay Z's production company that produces thehalftime show CBS. You know,
it's very very calculated process, butwe have and will continue to always advocate

(30:21):
that personally, I missed the oldensemble halftime shows that wasn't just one headliner.
I agree, I love you hadyou know, I'm not saying the
up with people model that one,but when you had four or five acts
that were coming together within a themeand performing and it's who's next, Who's
next? And oh I would loveto see something like that that celebrates Las

(30:44):
Vegas rich history with with live entertainers, and so that's my personal take off.
That's almost that's mine kindgo with Sam. I'd love to see the Killers
and imagine Dragons and panic at thedisco and maybe throw in Way Newton a
couple of what Vegas is OK anddo that and all this hologram. I

(31:06):
think I'm on board with Sam aswell. I mean, in my mind,
I'd love to see some of thoseJust Vegas Residency stars, right.
We got Garth Brooksy, got LadyGaga, I got a death everybody coming
to have already performed that. Ibut have them all to your points and
to have them all together. Yeah, it could be a tribute to some
of those artists. It could be. Yeah, it's a good point.

(31:27):
We got to put it out thereon the universe. Yeah. I do
trust, and we have had conversationwith the NFL. We do trust that
that halftime show will be an incrediblerepresentation in Las Vegas and the destination one
way or another, whether it's thetalent, whether it's the staging, the
costumes, the props, I thinkit's going to be an incredible showcase of
us and at the end of theday, that's one of the biggest reasons

(31:47):
the LVCVA credit for for for foruh for believing in this so strongly.
But that representation on TV to thosehundred and however many millions of viewers is
an incredible, un intangible asset andbenefit of hosting Super Bowls. The eyes
of the world will be on LasVegas for the game and the halftime show

(32:08):
and reinforcing the cva's constant message thatwe are the greatest arena on Earth and
Super Bowl is only one of manyevents that are going to follow in the
you know, yeah, fill thatstadium. It's it's well, what Las
Vegas has becomes frement when you thinkof the f one. You got the
NBA Cup coming in December, February, you have the Super Bowl, then

(32:30):
you have the Frozen Four, theFinal Four, it's just college championship will
be here. Sam's gonna want tomove here and live here forever. I
think we've got a hook at him. Good good, We don't want to
let him go. That's great.Well, here here's a little tidbit that
part of the reason we did thenaming rights with the Allegiance the stadium last
year was the number one billboard stadiumin the world. Ye did one hundred

(32:52):
and eighty five million dollars of nonfootball business. The next closest was LA
with one hundred million, hundred andten. So everybody wants to come to
Vegas. Yeah, if you're nothere, you're not in the middle.
Excellent. The countdown to the biggame, Super Bowl fifty eight it is
on. Obviously you got a verybehind the scene sneak peak of the planning,

(33:15):
the preparation, the execution, andwhat's to come for Las Vegas.
First of many, Oh yeah,first of many, first of many.
The Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committeeand Inside the Vegas Huddle would not be
possible without our incredible sponsors. Wewould like to thank the following sponsors,
Caesar's Entertainment, Howard Hughes Corporation,and Intermountain Health. Las Vegas Super Bowl

(33:38):
Host Committee would also like to thankthe following partners a Legion, Air,
BOYD Gaming, FEVO, MGM,Rewards, PNC Bank, UFC, Bank
of Nevada, and the Las VegasSuper Bowl Host Committee would like to thank
the following Community Affairs program supporters.Bank of America, Boyd Gaming, m

(34:00):
s, G Sphere, p NCBank, UFC and Vichy properties