NFL: For fans Super Bowl no longer a game, it's an 'experience'

Super Bowl has gone from sports event, to America's biggest party, to a week long and very expensive immersive "experience".That includes not only the game but also more in-depth encounters where you can take a sunrise hike up Camelback mountain with a retired NFL player or toss back a few "brews" with former New England Patriots linebacker Ted Bruschi.Next year it will almost certainly make another leap when "immersive experience" and "party" morph into one big Super Bowl supernova in Las Vegas, as Sin City hosts the game for the first time.After Los Angeles hosted last year it is almost as if the National Football League stopped for a breather in Phoenix with Las Vegas set for 2024 and New Orleans on deck for 2025.

Even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell could not keep from looking ahead, pushing already sky high expectations higher."I think I would be making a mistake under-estimating anything that happens in Vegas and how big it can be," said Goodell during his state of the league address.While Phoenix does not have glitz and pizzazz of Los Angeles or Las Vegas it was the ideal spot for this year's Super Bowl says Brian Wilder, executive vice-president of sports experiences and fan engagement for On Location, the NFL's official hospitality partner."When we looked at Phoenix, especially coming out of Los Angeles we saw a big opportunity," Wilder told Reuters. "In Los Angeles, coming out of the pandemic, corporate business had not quite returned yet because they have to plan so far in advance."Having the lead up to Phoenix with the pandemic in the rear view mirror it provided a return to corporate which we didn't see in Los Angeles."Los Angeles was a ton of fan demand, SoFi Stadium is amazing but Phoenix, so many corporate