Oakland's Super Bowl Bid Set Plan For SF Super Bowl City Today #SB50

Oakland's Super Bowl Bid Set Plan For SF Super Bowl City Today If you're wondering where the Super Bowl City concept came from, which is being built in its latest version in San Francisco right now, look no further than across the Bay, in Oakland. Between 1999 and 2000, Oakland completed with Jacksonville and Miami for the right to host the 2005 Super Bowl, and to battle the problem of losing patrons and media attention to San Francisco, the Oakland Super Bowl XXXIX Bidding Committee, of which I, Zennie Abraham, was the Executive Director, came up with an idea called “Jack London's NFL Playland.” The idea was to have an enclosed space that would allow corporate parties, concerts, and other activities to be concentrated in Oakland, and all at a place accessible from San Francisco via ferry, as much as cars, bus and train transit. “Jack London's NFL Playland.” set the tone for the Super Bowl City concept. No other city had proposed such a concentrated activities plan at the time: Jacksonville had a four-mile zone, but nothing like our concept. And were it not for a last-minute plan to use cruise ships to add to the Jacksonville hotel stock, the winning vote may have gone to Oakland, and not Miami. As it was, we managed to make the vote close, and much of that was due to an amazing speech by then Oakland Mayor and now California Governor Jerry Brown at the Fall NFL Owners Meeting. It was also due to the fantastic bid book design work by San Francisco-based GMO Hill-Holiday, and Nancy Hill and her staff. They created a tech-based theme, complete with a football designed like an integrated circuit, and 32 specially designed Palm Pilots, each one with the name of each NFL Owner in it. So, when you visit the San Francisco Super Bowl City for Super Bowl 50, keep in mind that it was Oakland that set the tone, as much as San Francisco has done a fantastic job in building the latest version of this concept.

via IFTTT

Newer Post Older Post