Head of Super Bowl Committee says preparations are on schedule

PHOENIX — The head of the Arizona Super Bowl Committee says preparations are right on schedule for the 2015 game in Glendale, Ariz.

Jay Parry said that even though it has only been six years since Glendale held the Super Bowl, the challenges of hosting the game are different.

“What I have found with the NFL is that it’s a dynamic process, it’s a growing process, and the Super Bowl has gotten a whole lot bigger than in 2008,” Parry said.

For example, the NFL Pro Bowl will also be played at University of Phoenix Stadium one week before the Super Bowl.

Parry said the additional duties of hosting an exhibition between the league’s top stars won’t be too big of a challenge.

“We’ll take the infrastructure that was going to be already in place for the Super Bowl and just extend it a little bit, because the Pro Bowl is going to be so close to Super Bowl,” she said. “It might be a little more work, but I think the payoff far outweighs what that expense is going to be.”

There are other changes in store, too. The NFL Experience will be held in downtown Phoenix. In 2008, it was next to the stadium in Glendale.

Parry said there’s a reason it was there six years ago.

“It’s because downtown Phoenix was under construction,” said Parry. “Now, because we have so many new things going around the Valley, we want to make sure that all of those activities are spread around the Valley.”

But most of the supplementary Super Bowl events were scheduled away from Glendale because Arizona Cardinals President Michael Bidwill complained earlier this year that the city was not able to lock in guarantees for hotel rooms near the stadium, and that it was not pulling its weight when it came to hosting the Super Bowl.