Hotel rooms filling up for Super Bowl XLI in Miami

BY DOUGLAS HANKS III
dhanks@MiamiHerald.com

Don't bother asking Steve Shalit for a hotel room during Super Bowl week. Two corporate groups snagged the bulk of his hotel's 192 rooms well in advance, and Shalit, the general manager, says he's saving what's left for last-minute VIP customers.

''Ninety percent of hotel is committed,'' Shalit said. ``We could sell as many rooms as we wanted. There's that much demand.''

But he's not talking about tonight's Super Bowl XL in Detroit. Shalit runs Fort Lauderdale's new St. Regis hotel, which is all but sold out for Super Bowl XLI -- 364 days from now.

Once the Steelers or the Seahawks emerge triumphant on Ford Field tonight, the official countdown to South Florida's Super Bowl begins. But the jostling for South Florida hotel rooms began months ago as tour operators, corporate entertainers, die-hard fans and the National Football League itself began staking out their Super Bowl territory.

''We won't go any farther than Boca,'' said Jay Smith, president of Sports Travel and Tours, a Hatfield, Mass. company that books trips to Super Bowls, spring training and other sporting events. He's in talks with five South Florida hotels for between 50 and 100 rooms.

Some hotels are fending off bookings as they wait for demand to increase. Alan Lieberman, owner of seven South Beach hotels, said his staff has fended off travel brokers looking to lock up Super Bowl rooms at a wholesale rate.

''This past fall, they were all over the place,'' he said. ``I would guess half the town's sold out for Super Bowl.''

South Florida's tourism boosters hope the high demand for rooms will mean an economic windfall for the region, though predicting the Super Bowl's financial score can be contentious.

Organizers tout a study showing the 1999 Super Bowl generated $240 million in spending for South Florida and sent hotel rates soaring 54 percent higher.

''It's a super feast for hoteliers,'' said Kathleen Davis, president of the SRMI in Weston and author of the 1999 study. ``Not to mention all the local transportation companies, all the caterers, the party planners . . . Everyone seems to really make out nicely.''

But University of South Florida economics professor Philip Porter said the sky-high room rates for the Super Bowl don't translate into an overall gain because the frenzy over the game wards off tourists who otherwise would be visiting Miami.

He cited data from the Florida Department of Revenue showing that Miami-Dade's total sales for January 1999, when Super Bowl XXXIII was played, hit $2.23 billion -- just under the $2.24 billion average revenue for January 1998 and January 2000

''The Super Bowl is not an extraordinary economic event,'' said Porter, director of the university's Center for Economic Policy Analysis. ``If you didn't have a Super Bowl, the hotels would be filled up with something else.''

Walter Banks, owner of the Lago Mar hotel in Fort Lauderdale, also sees a double-edged sword for the Super Bowl. While he plans to sell out that weekend months in advance, Banks says the Super Bowl frenzy tends to scare away travelers for the week after the big game.

''It washes out a little bit,'' he said. ``I think you're still probably a bit ahead.''

Whatever the bottom line, there's no doubt about the demand for rooms during Super Bowl week. Lago Mar is charging $475 for a suite that, the next weekend, could be had for $355. And like most hotels, Lago Mar requires a four-day minimum for Super Bowl -- pushing a suite guest's final tab over the $2,000 mark.

The NFL holds the biggest block of Super Bowl rooms -- the Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach tourism bureaus reserved 17,000 rooms for the league as part of its bid for the 2007 game.

League officials will dole out those rooms to sponsors, media, NFL staff, team owners and other VIPs. Party planners and travel bookers for sponsors and the league toured South Florida's hotels and event spaces on a recent trip led by local Super Bowl organizers.

For all the advance arrangements, diehard football fans shouldn't despair about finding a Super Bowl bed in South Florida -- at least not yet. Most hotels have rooms to sell for the weekend, and the NFL is expected to release a chunk of its block later this year.

And Super Bowl fever only spreads so fast. When a reporter inquired Thursday about rooms at the Clevelander for next Super Bowl weekend, a clerk at the South Beach hotel seemed unaware the big game was coming. Hours later, the $159 nightly rate she quoted for that weekend had soared to $329.

 

 

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