“Things went far better than you, or I, or anyone could have realistically hoped for 9 months ago,” said Michael Hecht, President and CEO of GNO Inc. “From Uber drivers to Roger Goodell — who I spoke to briefly — to the Internet… We can say objectively and without exaggeration: This was the best Super Bowl week ever.”
There's hardly a sentence I could agree with more, New Orleans set the bar for throwing a Super Bowl party. And there’s no denying it, what made every inch of last week special was the people of this city.
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Hecht resoundingly agreed, “Whenever you talk to anybody, a visitor, journalist, or someone from the NFL, it’s the authenticity, the people, the pride of place, that makes it fundamentally different from just about every other city."
“I was talking to somebody who's been to the game in L.A.,” Hecht explained. “They said, L.A. is so big and so transitory that when they have the Super Bowl there, it feels like there's a big game going on around the stadium. But the rest of the city just continues business as usual.”
We all know that that’s not how we do things around here. And Hecht doubled down, “It felt like this perfect amalgamation of Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl. And it was just a joyful celebration all week that I think visitors and residents all participated in… As the kids say, the vibe was outstanding.”
There was only one major screw-up, as I see it...Whoever was supposed to give Kansas City the memo that they came to New Orleans to play football failed. And that cost New Orleans in terms of publicity.
According to the NFL’s stats, viewership peaked about 25% through the second quarter at 137.7 million. But the blowout caused many to tune out, resulting in a 127.7 million average for U.S. viewership, which still set records, but didn't shatter them.
Could it have been bad juju from Travis Kelce’s bashing of New Orleans cuisine that led to the loss? Hecht considered the possibility, saying, “One of Taylor Swift's most well-known and liked songs is ‘Karma is a god.’ And I think when you go out there on national TV and say that New Orleans food is not very good…The universe speaks back to you. And I don't care what type of clown outfit or glittery 1970s thing from Studio 54 Kelsey wore, he probably should have kept his thoughts about Jambalaya to himself for the good of the game."
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Now the sights are set on Mardi Gras, and Hecht is already all over it. He explained, “And we're now rolling into Mardi Gras. And I think that everybody has seen that the process works. Everybody has seen that if we focus on a goal and become problem solvers collectively, we can be world-class. And I give a ton of credit to Joe Threat, to Gilbert, to the city, the state, everybody. They're determined to keep up this rhythm. So, you know, I guess we had a couple of days off. But I think the thing is that this winning is fun.”
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