Glendale Gears Up for the Big Game
By Cassaundra Brooks
At last, Super Bowl XLII comes to Arizona! This means less traveling for Arizona football fans, but it also means something special for the city of Glendale.
“The city of Glendale has been preparing for this Super Bowl for the last four years, and staff has been working to make it the best ever,” says Jennifer Stein, Glendale’s marketing and communications manager. “Come February 3, 2008, the world will know not only where the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale is, but [everyone] will get a glimpse at the amazing amenities and opportunities that embrace Glendale, Arizona.”
An event of this magnitude will, of course, create a weeklong economic jump for the host city, and it also offers long-term opportunities for economic development. Out-of-state football fans will experience the wonderfully mild Arizona winter and see Glendale’s potential as it steps up its game to welcome the NFL.
“The city plans on rolling out the red carpet for the NFL, as well as visitors and fans coming to the Super Bowl,” Stein says. “We want everyone to feel welcome and have an unforgettable experience.”
Some of the ways in which Glendale will transform itself into a fantasy football land is through complementary Super Bowl events. Downtown Glendale will be a chocoholic’s paradise on February 1 and 2, with its annual Chocolate Affaire—chocolate hand massages, anyone? The Seventeenth Annual NFL Experience—a theme park with games, displays, entertainment, youth football clinics, free autograph sessions, and the world’s largest football card show—will be open the last weekend in January and the first weekend of February. The Glendale Visitor Center will provide walking tours through Glendale’s historic district; and Westgate City Center, which will see most of the action, will offer live programming throughout the week.
“It is a collaborative effort,” Stein says. “We could not flawlessly execute a Super Bowl without all of our partners and the community support.”
Westgate City Center is a relatively new and still growing development that now, according to Stein, serves as the main hub for the sports and entertainment district. Offering more than just the University of Phoenix and the Jobing.com Arena, it provides attractions, from retail to restaurants to residential. This makes it a perfect location for the Super Bowl festivities as well as a great glimpse of Glendale life for the week’s flood of visitors.
But you don’t have to be an out-of-state visitor or a Glendale resident to enjoy Glendale’s Super Bowl experience. With the relatively simple access to Glendale from all areas of the North Valley, North Valley fans and volunteers can easily share in the football festivities. Whether you watch Super Bowl XLII from behind a bowl of chips with your friends and neighbors or from the 50-yard line at the University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale is offering an entire playing field of exciting ways to celebrate the American pastime with the whole family.
For information on the city of Glendale or Super Bowl XLII, including traffic, parking, event and tourist information, check out glendalesgotgame.com, azsuperbowl.com, or visitglendale.com.