Running a Super Bowl host committee is not a new endeavor, but the 50th Super Bowl is different. So Keith Bruce, CEO and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl Host Committee, has had to tackle obstacles his predecessors did not. For one, because it’s the 50th Super Bowl, the NFL expects everything grander and greater than the typical Super Bowl week. Bruce also has had only 2 1/2 years to get ready, not the normal 3 1/2 years, because of delays in awarding the game stemming from the 2011 lockout. A veteran of the sports marketing world and a two-decade-long resident of the Bay Area, Bruce, 50, envisions the coming week as one that’s uniquely techy and interactive, as befitting Silicon Valley, and one that also leaves an unprecedented philanthropic mark.
We are known as the center of innovation — creative technology — and we are really going to put that on display.
On the “wow” factor for this year’s Super Bowl week: When you come to Super Bowl City, you will be surrounded by technology. You will see the SAP Fan Energy Zone, which will be basically a digital media coming-together in terms of the fan experience: the idea of interactive gaming, social media data visualization, and social media on display. There will be a big fan wall, a massive, 60-foot-long fan wall that will feature information, social media posts, everything that is about how people are communicating. … This is our version of the toboggan run in New York, the climbing wall in Arizona, and the zip line in Indy. It is distinctly Bay Area.
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On running the host committee with such a deep personal background in the sports industry: That gave us the ability to get on our feet and get moving. We were also unique in that we were awarded the bid with 2 1/2 years run time. … Because of that, the bid committee felt the need to have someone who could come in right away who had established relationships and understood global sports events from the inside out.
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On the budget of the host committee: We don’t publicize the budget, but what we talk about is what we have raised, and it’s north of $50 million in cash and in-kind services from our sponsors, partners and benefactors. … We are a privately financed host committee. Other host committees have been the beneficiaries of state funding or if there is a tourism budget. I inherited exactly zero; we raised every dollar.
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On the charity component: Our goal is to be the most giving Super Bowl ever. Our 50 Fund has done incredibly. We will raise north of $12 million. When everyone goes back home, the Bay Area has also won because we will be able to donate so much money to Bay Area nonprofits.
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— Daniel Kaplan
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