For Sodell, the Super Bowl starts long before kickoff on game day. He often begins planning two years in advance, making multiple trips to the host city to scope out potential store locations. This year, Sodell has kept three stores open since the start of the holiday shopping season. During the week of the Super Bowl, his makeshift chain will total 17 stores across the Tampa Bay area. The stores will shut down one week later, and Sodell will turn his focus to next year's game.
NFL-licensed merchandise -- hats, T-shirts, and other collectibles sold at the game venue -- is a booming business. Sales of such merchandise peaked at about $125 million in 1997, according to the NFL. And though Sodell won't disclose his exact revenue figures, he says the company pulled in between $1 million and $5 million last year.
The key is to target the local retail market, Sodell says. "I found a niche in the market where there was demand for Super Bowl merchandise among local fans in the city that was hosting the Super Bowl," he adds. "Now my business keeps increasing in volume and sales, and my stores keep getting nicer every year."
And even as the recession deepens, Sodell expects the novelty of Super Bowl-branded items to prop up sales, especially if the Pittsburgh Steelers play this year. "Not everybody can get a ticket for the Super Bowl, and the next best thing is a piece of memorabilia or a piece of history," he says. "The Steelers fans are just so rabid and passionate. If that team makes it to the Super Bowl, then we expect business to be just as good as ever."
"It's fun to come up with all these off-the-wall events!"
Many people don't realize it, but the Super Bowl is the biggest party of the year, according to Sherri Foxman, a Cleveland-based event planner and founder of Party411.com, an online retailer selling party supplies.
January is one of Party411's busiest months. Orders start in December and continue until the week of the Super Bowl.
"People call the Friday before the game asking if they can get their orders by Sunday," Foxman says.
The website's homepage points the way to their Super Bowl party-planning guide, which leads customers to their selection of football-specific products. Offerings range from personalized bottle labels to a beer cooler topped with a goalpost. The company sells football-themed balloons, confetti, banners, candles, and, of course, inflatable footballs.
The novelty decorations come from a wholesaler, but Party411 also designs, makes, and sells an array of customized products, including a popular series of invitations designed to mimic Super Bowl tickets.
Foxman's path into the party-planning industry was an unconventional one: It began when she married a blow-up doll.
In the early 1980s, Foxman wrote a guide to personal ads. But on her book tour, she repeatedly encountered people who wondered how she, a single woman, could be a relationship expert. She responded by returning home and marrying the doll, a move that generated a great deal of publicity. Charities began to write, asking her to plan similar attention-getting events.
"The next thing I knew, I was in the events business," Foxman says.
In 1997, she launched her party-supply site. Her events firm supported her e-commerce venture until online sales took off, and Party411 now far exceeds the party planning company.
But Foxman, who writes for the site as "the Party Girl," continues to draw on the enthusiasm that brought her to the business to create their party guides. "It's fun to come up with all these off-the-wall events!" she says.
"It's a complicated business"
As anyone who has ever attended a major sporting event knows, scoring tickets is only half the battle. Where to stay, where to party, and where to find transportation in an unfamiliar city all complicate a visitor's plans.
That's where PrimeSport steps in. This subsidiary of venture-backed ticket vendor RazorGator offers clients travel packages that include hotel rooms, game admission, and other amenities for popular events like the Masters, the Rose Bowl, and the NCAA Final Four.
But according to CEO Jeff Lapin, the Super Bowl is hands-down their biggest event of the year.
PrimeSport's major challenge lies in the game's venue changing annually. Every year, the company goes in early and reserves hotel rooms, scouts locations for the pre-game party, and interviews local vendors. Meanwhile, the staff continues to plan for other events as varied as Formula One races and Major League Baseball games.
"It's a complicated business, and it requires a lot of people and logistics," Lapin says.
While the sports travel industry is competitive, PrimeSport has seen three years of growth. Lapin attributes his company's success to its commitment to excellent customer service for corporate clients. "They come back year after year, and that's really a testament to our people."
RazorGator was formed in late 2004 with the merger of several companies, one of which was PrimeSport. Lapin, who had been involved with several companies, including Starwood Hotels, was recruited as CEO.
The two companies are a perfect fit, Lapin says. "We move a lot of people to those large events, to the Rose Bowl and to NCAA games, and we're good at it," he explains. "It's a natural extension of the business to sell packages."
Lapin, a big sports fan himself, says he loves the excitement of the Super Bowl and the chance to talk to PrimeSport's clients. "It's a three- or four-day event with constant parties leading up to the game itself," he says. "It's great."
