As National Football League cities prepare to bid for the 2015 and 2016 Super Bowls, local organizers have asked the Miami International Boat Show to consider moving the event from Presidents Day weekend to another weekend so Miami could host the game.
That February weekend is one of three that NFL officials asked bidders for the 2014 Super Bowl to keep open for the game.
Show director Cathy Rick-Joule told the Miami Herald she resisted the idea, given the value of predictable dates for an event that attracts about 90,000 people a year. Given the crowded schedule of winter boat shows, moving to other dates would complicate logistics for exhibitors, the event’s main revenue source.
But Rick-Joule said she did not rule out other dates if the move came with a financial subsidy or other incentive to make up for the expected disruption.
“We have upwards of 10 or 12 landlords,” she said of a show that stretches from the Miami Beach Convention Center to docks at the Bayside Marketplace in downtown Miami. “They asked us and I basically said there would be some seriously compelling reason” to move, the newspaper reports.
William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, cited uncertainty involving the NFL – its collective bargaining agreement expires in March – in playing down the potential boat show conflict.
“There’s no major story here,” he told the Miami Herald. “They’ve not said ‘Move it or else you don’t get the Super Bowl.”
Cities vie for Super Bowls for the international media exposure the game brings and an estimated economic boost that academics say ranges from $40 million to $100 million. The NFL says it approaches $400 million.
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