Super Bowl Chat

[Green to the Bone]

From today's DMN chat with George Bayoud, president of the local Super Bowl committee:

From e-mail: Since the average person in Dallas won't actually get to see the Super Bowl, can you list the events surrounding the Super Bowl that a regular person might get to see and participate in? — Mark in Bedford, Texas

George Bayoud: The NFL Experience — an interactive football exposition — will be available in the 10 days prior to the Super Bowl. A minimum of 100,000 people are expected to tour it. We'll have public festivals across the region, fireworks displays and football clinics. One of the key things I emphasized in our bid was including all of North Texas in the Super Bowl activities and festivities.

• • •

Jason L: Do you worry about the North Texas area being too spread out in terms of hosting all the events and festivities of the Super Bowl week? Will it be a challenge to make sure everything runs smoothly in all the different cities?

George Bayoud: No. The stadium is only 16 miles from downtown Dallas and 14 miles from downtown Fort Worth. In Super Bowl terms, that's relatively close proximity. The NFL and its bid requirements asks for the hotel room block to be within 60 miles of the stadium. We were actually able to secure over 23,000 rooms within 43 miles. • • •

From e-mail: What type of volunteer opportunities are out there? — Todd in Dallas

George Bayoud: An event like this depends on its volunteers. We expect to have a volunteer team of 10,000 people involved in putting this game on. The majority of those opportunities will come as the game gets closer. But in the immediate future, we'll be putting together the structure of the host committee. As we get that structure finalized, we'll be able to begin identifying volunteer opportunities.

Sounds like a no-brainer for the University of North Texas to make sure it's well represented in and involved with this huge event for North Texas.

Edited May 24, 2007 by Green to the Bone