Unless you are a restaurant owner, special events vendors, advertising partner or hotel manager, you may have been wondering what, other than lots of traffic and crowded cold weather events, the 2014 Super bowl means to your community.
Well this week some of that came to shape when the National Football League and NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee were joined d by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to announce a series of charitable initiatives to be completed by the Host Committee’s Snowflake Youth Foundation.
The plan will revitalize a number of venues throughout the five boroughs, many of which serve the city youth, and suffered major damage in fall 2012 as a result of Hurricane Sandy. Other projects earmarked for the rest of the area will be announced in the coming weeks, with more than more than $1 million dollars, jointly contributed by the NFL Foundation and NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee to create a legacy that will lift many areas where the advertisers and players will never set foot during game week.
All five boroughs of New York, as well as key urban areas in New Jersey, will benefit from the dollars that flow through the Super Bowl coffers, restoring parks and community centers for thousands of area youth for years to come. In the spring of 2013, the NFL Foundation and the NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee already announced a combined $2 million grant commitment, and this week’s tangible announcement amplifies and defines that effort.
It is through efforts like this, and the other programs Snowflake Youth have established that will extend the Super Bowl brand far beyond the game for millions who will never make it to Met Life Stadium, and even for scores who have little or no interest in the final score of the game. While virtually Super Bowl every city, through its host committee, has found ways to engage and grow community efforts over the years, the challenge of 2014 was to satisfy a massive urban footprint with legacy experiences in two states. Snowflake youth has continued to find ways to do just that, re-investing the millions in geographic areas that rarely play together and impacting worthy programs who may have thought the “Super Bowl Experience” was just an event that was happening in Times Square in the days leading up to the game. Now the experience has become personal and tangible for scores of youth, just the type of program the New York/New Jersey region and its Super Bowl stakeholders had hoped about.
So while hotels and store keepers and scores of other businesses can rake in the dollars around the game, millions of others will be able to enjoy the benefits of the world’s largest sports and entertainment event coming to the area as well, with a payoff in fun and healthy living for years to come.
Soccer and Snacks Score Together…