NFL, Arizona host committee heading toward final stretch of Super Bowl 57 planning

This is the first of an occasional series of stories looking ahead to Super Bowl 57 in Glendale.

The NFL regular season is in full swing, which means planning for Super Bowl 57 on Feb. 12 at State Farm Stadium has entered a significant stage.

One executive heavily involved in the planning labeled this point of the process, less than four months out from the most-watched sports event in all of the U.S., as the third of four phases.

The fourth would be the execution of the actual event: the game itself and all that comes with it.

"This is now kind of the overall design and look and feel of what Super Bowl is going to be, we're now going through the process of securing all of our vendors that will work on Super Bowl," said Jon Barker, the NFL Senior Vice President of Global Event Operations & Production. "And that is everything, from food to tenting to infrastructure build."

Barker said a typical Super Bowl takes about 18 months to plan, and major parties involved — the NFL, the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee and owner Michael Bidwill and the Arizona Cardinals — had already begun to meet even as the execution phase for last season's Super Bowl in greater Los Angeles was underway.

"There was a second team, working behind the scenes that was getting this ready and prepared for Phoenix. And that really starts with a lot of our foundational pieces, which is designing our campus, building our transportation plan, and then trying to determine kind of all of our different locations, and what really happens there," Barker said.

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There have been three previous Super Bowls in the Phoenix metro area, which is key to the comfort level of planning the event. The 1996, 2008 and 2015 games showed that the area was more than capable of hosting Super Bowls.

"Having worked on Super Bowl 49, we have a great blueprint for success. That was a record-breaking Super Bowl," said Jay Parry, president and CEO of the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee. "And so we are focused on how do we elevate from Super Bowl 49, and really create a great experience and great impact for Arizona."

In the months ahead, locals will start to see structures go up and communal areas set up.

"I really think that the valley understands what it means to bring an event like this to that area. The infrastructure is there, the knowledge is there, the skill set is there," Barker said. "And that's why major events want to come to the valley and be produced in the valley. It's a great place to do it."

Things are beginning to be announced and take shape. Rihanna will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, and the host committee and NFL will on Monday announce a lineup of Super Bowl events in the month leading up to the game.

Barker said plans are being made for the major public events of Super Bowl week, including the Super Bowl Opening Night the Monday before the game and the two fan gathering locations at the Phoenix Convention Center and downtown's Margaret T. Hance Park.

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Parry said host committee representatives and the NFL events team learned from the most recent Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium in Southern California, observing how that region handled hosting the event.

"What we know is as we go into hosting Super Bowl for the fourth time, we really want to create that unique Arizona experience. And we have so much to offer from the business community and from the natural beauty of the state," Parry said.

She feels the NFL enjoys coming back to the Phoenix area because of the ease of working with businesses, the hospitality community and the Native American communities.

One of the challenges of planning is how to spread out major events during the week between Downtown Phoenix, Glendale where State Farm Stadium sits and Scottsdale, where many fans and tourists want to spend time.

But Parry said the committee isn't limiting activities to those places. She and her team have met with city officials in Tempe, Mesa, Avondale and Peoria.

"We do want to share the love," she said, "and we want the residents and the locals to feel like they're a part of Super Bowl, too. So we do think of it as this regional takeover."

NFL personnel will be in the area as soon as next week, more than 100 people from the league and its partners, for Monday's announcement and a status meeting.

Barker touted the NFL's diversity-promoting Business Connect program, through which more than 200 local smaller companies considered diverse get the opportunity to be involved with the NFL and the Super Bowl, some getting contracts for projects that are part of the event.

"That's the process that we're in now, we're thinking about the look and feel of Super Bowl, we're thinking about the operation of Super Bowl, we're thinking about the build of Super Bowl," he said. "And that's a long process for us that will take several months, we'll do that through the end of the year. We'll refine those plans going through December, the first part of January. And then I'd say probably by the second week of January, you're going to start seeing things being built on the campus of State Farm Stadium."

Get in touch with Jose Romero at Jose.Romero@gannett.com. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM. 

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: NFL, Arizona host committee in final stretch of Super Bowl 57 planning