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Mayor LaToya Cantrell will be heading to Las Vegas next week for events that will mark the official Super Bowl hand over to New Orleans, which will be hosting the game on Feb. 9, 2025.
Cantrell is joining a large New Orleans delegation traveling to “Sin City,” which is hosting its first-ever Super Bowl on Feb. 11 at the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium, where the Kansas City Chiefs will take on the San Francisco 49ers.
“We’re planning for 2025 and want to showcase our city to the world, not only for the Super Bowl but for the 20 years after Hurricane Katrina,” Cantrell said on Thursday during a news conference to discuss policing in New Orleans.
Lights on
New Orleans has hosted 10 Super Bowls, the last one in 2013, when John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens edged his brother Jim’s 49ers 34-to-31 in Super Bowl XLVII. It was dubbed the “Blackout Bowl” because of the 31 minutes that play was suspended when a breaker switch cut the lights in the Superdome.
Jay Cicero, CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, said that hosting the Super Bowl is a huge undertaking and planning began after it was originally awarded to the city in 2018.
Even the hand over process is a big production, he said.
“As the host city for 2025, the National Football League invites and expects the host committee, including local and state officials, to visualize, learn and participate in a variety of activities and meetings during the year prior to hosting Super Bowl,” Cicero said Friday via email.
Next week there is a dizzying array of public relations events in Las Vegas, culminating in the official hand off ceremony on the Monday following game day.
That event is conducted by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and will feature top officials from the Las Vegas Raiders organization; leaders from the City of Las Vegas and the state of Nevada; and members of the Las Vegas Host Committee.
The New Orleans delegation will include Saints owner Gayle Benson, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, Mayor Cantrell, Host Committee Chair Marcus Brown and GNOSF’s Cicero.
John Lawson, a spokesman for Cantrell, said the mayor’s agenda has not yet been set. It is not clear if she will attend the Super Bowl game or Monday’s official hand off ceremony, he said.
Doug Bourgeois, Louisiana’s Assistant Secretary of Tourism, said the NFL is keeping tight control on all aspects of the Super Bowl and promotion around the events.
He said Nungesser had wanted to rent billboards near the stadium for Louisiana tourism advertisements but the plans weren’t approved by the NFL. Instead, those ads are running on the Las Vegas Strip nearby.
“There’s a great travel industry scene in Las Vegas, so we’re fishing where the fish are while the Super Bowl is in town,” Bourgeois said.
The Louisiana Tourism Office will also be throwing a party at the Las Vegas House of Blues on the Thursday before the Super Bowl for some of the thousands of media representatives in town for the game.
The slogan on their advertisement is: “The Big Game may be here but the Big Party is always in Louisiana.”
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