We’re 52 days away from Super Bowl kickoff.
But really, the craziness kicks off about a week before when players, staff, press, and early-bird tourists get off at MSY for a piece of the action.
The preparation for this event began over a year ago. Still—the city’s scrambling to get New Orleans in gear to host a flood of what’s estimated to be around 125,000 visitors.
One of the leaders of the Super Bowl cleanup efforts is Michael Hecht, President and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc.
Newell Normand sat down with Hecht on Wednesday to see where everything’s at. He expressed entirely positive feelings about how the city is shaping up for the monumental event.
“We're basically in the red zone of this thing. But I'm more than cautiously optimistic, I'm downright optimistic,” Hecht stated.
He explained, “We're beginning to see the fruits of our efforts and our diplomacy beginning to blossom and ripen…That's really exciting and gratifying.
So what’s changing in New Orleans in anticipation of Super Bowl LIX?
Hecht explains, “We’re going to see a lot of murals starting to go up. Gorgeous ones are going to be on the civil courthouse and on the Gerard Gateway towards the the Superdome; the ferry terminal as well. There’ll also be one by the guy who did Obama’s “Hope” poster on the side of the Marriott entry into the French Quarter.”
In addition to artistic changes, Newell and Hecht discussed changes to the city’s infrastructure and public services.
“Down in the French Quarter, they've started work,” Hecht stated. “Charter Street is getting repaved and they’re getting new lights put up. We've got the contract signed to get signage put up. We also saw the emergency garbage contract that was one by one by Sidney Torres and IV Waste.”
With the Super Bowl only weeks away, the heat is on. But in a city that can often drag its feet to enact change—Hecht explains that the heat might be just what’s necessary in a time such as this.
“I think people are feeling the pressure of the deadline, but in a positive way,” Hecht said.
GNO is also doing it’s best to communicate these changes to the public, so stakeholders can track and plan around it.
“We're going to begin putting out a press release every Wednesday,” said Hecht. “That's going to be an infrastructure update. It's going to go to all of our partners and press. It'll include what's already been completed, so we can take a victory lap. Most importantly, it’ll highlight what's happening this week so people can plan their schedules. Then it's going to talk about future work—including an estimation of how long the work is going to last.
Hecht hopes for the people of New Orleans to look at Super Bowl LIX, seeing it as a catalyzing factor that led to many longstanding, citywide improvements.
Hecht says, “These improvements that we're living through right now are going to benefit us for decades. And we're cleaning up stuff that was done at the World's Fair 40 years ago."