Any notion that a baffling economy and competition from the 2026 FIFA World Cup might buffer the Super Bowl’s inexorable growth this year can be set aside. Both supply and demand for corporate entertainment, brand activation and fan-facing events is higher than ever in the San Francisco Bay Area six weeks ahead of Super Bowl 60, even as costs soar.
On Location, which controls the preponderance of Super Bowl tickets, reports sales are pacing more than 15% ahead of last year for New Orleans’ Super Bowl, and 25% ahead of Arizona in 2023, said Chief Operating Officer Ed Horne. (The game’s Las Vegas debut in 2024 remains an outlier.)
Meanwhile, the scale of the week keeps growing, with the Pro Bowl and several other new featured items on the calendar. That means 2026 will not simply be a replay of Super Bowl 50, when the Bay Area last hosted in 2016.
“From a B2B perspective, the Super Bowl is certainly the epicenter of the sports world,” said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president who oversees Super Bowl Week. “[Super Bowl 50] was big and had tons to it. It’s just gotten that much bigger and is really that place for people to come together in the industry, in addition to everything fan facing.”
A key driver for year-over-year growth is the ample supply of hotels in the Bay Area compared to much smaller New Orleans. Last year, supply was tight; On Location and other hospitality/travel package companies had some clients staying outside of Louisiana. “San Francisco has capacity and selection, so now demand is high,” Horne said.
On Location’s top-tier packages, including Champions Club and On the Fifty packages, are sold out. All-inclusive packages, which bundle amenities such as golf at Pebble Beach or a wine tour in Napa Valley with game tickets and hotel room, are pacing ahead of the last two Super Bowls.
“Hosting an elevated experience has never been more important,” said Horne. “Everyone wants the access that no one else has.”
Surmounting cost, safety and transit concerns
The three biggest concerns among hospitality professionals in San Francisco and its environs are linked: cost, security and transportation.
“We’ve all done other events here recently, whether it’s NBA All-Star or whatever, and it’s got one of the highest costs of living,” noted Tyson Webber, CEO of GMR Marketing, which will run the NFL House for the league. “The best news is that we’re not seeing any diminished demand.”
Wasserman hospitality chief Candice Shantz has seen costs increase about 10% compared to New Orleans. “Yes, everything’s at more of a premium, but no, it’s not a surprise,” she said.
San Francisco’s reputation for widespread homelessness and public disorder has colored some anticipation of this game. But local organizers believe they can tell a comeback story in February, and some planners agree.
“We’ve been pleasantly surprised there,” said Michelle Roguso, CAA senior vice president of hospitality. “It feels like the city is cleaned up, safer and walkable, especially around the Moscone Center, where there will be so many activities.”
Transportation is another concern, and not only because Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara is a traffic-clogged 43 miles south of San Francisco. Most veterans understand game day will be hard; the goal is to minimize traffic and trips during the week.
That may be hard for some. The majority of corporate events will be in downtown San Francisco, but almost all the region’s growth in hotel capacity since Super Bowl 50 has come to the south, in the San Jose area. That’s a good spot for game day, but a poor spot for doing business or partying during the week.
According to real estate data firm CoStar, Greater San Francisco and San Jose combine for more than 96,000 hotel rooms, up about 8% from 2016. But nearly 80% of the growth has occurred in San Jose.
“It could be a pain point, so working with the best white-glove transportation providers has jumped up in priority,” said Tracy Ogrean, director of hospitality for Excel Sports Management. “We need to retransform transportation into something premium.”
Negating the World Cup effect
At the root of it all, demand for luxury hospitality and unique experiences is unabated. That’s true even during a year in which FIFA World Cup organizers are charging upward of $5 million a suite for one match, said Tony Knopp, co-founder and CEO of TicketManager, which handles ticketing for major corporate clients.
For all the warning signs in the broader economy, the dominant California tech companies show little evidence of trouble. Levi’s Stadium suite sales are trending ahead of last year, the NFL said.
“Silicon Valley is booming,” Knopp said. “They have the resources to fill any holes. … Anecdotally, I can say that I haven’t heard any of our 600 customers say they are scaling back Super Bowl because of World Cup.”
Also pushing up costs: the expectation that events outdo last year’s version. “It’s about reinventing yourself every year,” said Chrissy Delisle, whose Delisle Group has staged a 400-500 person “culinary kickoff” during Super Bowl Week since 2012. “If you touch technology in your business — and they all do now — you’ll want to be showing that this year.”
Betting on bigger and premium
In recent years, Excel has claimed Thursday night to host what’s become the industry’s weekend kickoff party of choice. Success comes with a price. “Now there’s pressure to make it bigger and better,” Ogrean acknowledged, noting the soiree is expanding from 1,200 to 1,500 guests.
Private aviation impresario Kenny Dichter is bringing a pop-up version of the famed New York City restaurant Rao’s to the Super Bowl for the seventh consecutive year on behalf of his Real SLX high-end sports and lifestyle club. This year, he’s added a diner and speakeasy.
“If we’ve learned anything over those years, it’s that memories matter more than merchandise,” said Dichter. “It’s ‘experiential hospitality,’ and anyone that can do that as part of a Super Bowl has something that’s more valuable every year.”
Private, self-contained hospitality houses are becoming more routine. Athletes First, which reps more than 300 NFL players, is staging The Block, a 25,000-square-foot event space at the Saint Joseph’s Arts Society in the SOMA section of San Francisco. The agency is looking to host thousands over three days.
“We wanted to do something larger and premium. So, we’re making a massive bet on this,” said Matt Shulman, Athletes First’s head of properties. “It’s also a content engine for sponsors.”
GMR’s Webber says the trend has staying power, because planners can best control the content in houses.
Aiming for earlier buzz
Historically, the full energy and commerce of Super Bowl Week only hits full speed late Thursday in the host city. But that could come earlier this year because of the Pro Bowl.
Shifting the Pro Bowl into the Super Bowl city has two main implications: It will pull some activity earlier in the week, and make more A-list NFL stars available for brand and media appearances, perhaps in calendar slots with less competition.
Usually, some Pro Bowlers skip the Super Bowl circuit, and some veterans do the reverse, said Dexter Santos, vice president at NFL Players Inc. But now, there will be 88 players already there for the flag football exhibition.
“It really gives us best of both worlds,” said Santos. “We’ll usually do 500 to 600 player appearances in the Super Bowl city, and we’re expecting to do more of that.”
There are two other notable additions to the calendar. The first is the “Culture Club,” a small space run by the NFL that will emphasize its growing ties to the fashion and entertainment world. Think of it as an NFL House for influencers instead of sponsorship execs.
On Friday, the Bay Area Host Committee is hoping to make a big splash with a new event, an Innovation Summit presented by YouTube. Slated for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, planners hope the uniquely prominent Super Bowl platform can help distinguish it from the more established NBA All-Star Tech Summit, said host committee CEO Zaileen Janmohamed.
“Innovation” is the theme for the host committee, Janmohamed said. She doesn’t just mean technology. They want to tell a story about the Bay Area’s industrious creativity, from the 1849 California Gold Rush to its recovery from the pandemic, or perhaps even hosting both the World Cup and Super Bowl in the same six months.
“If a project sits in front of anyone in the Bay that feels hard and challenging — like hosting two global events in the same year — that’s something we’re born to do,” she said. “And that’s not being cocky, but being proud of the fact we can do hard things.”