He helped bring the Super Bowl to Las Vegas and aims to keep it coming back.

Sam Joffray, President & CEO of the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee, is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority tapped him to help get Las Vegas a Super Bowl.

Having been successful at that, he now leads Las Vegas' Super Bowl Host Committee.

Sam Joffray, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you.

-You sit up straight for that.

-Yeah.

[laughter] -Let's start with how did you get this job?

Will you tell me that story?

(Sam Joffray) Well, I came with about-- the past 20 years in New Orleans, I worked with an organization that attracted and managed sporting events for the city of New Orleans.

So whether it was Super Bowls, Final Fours, NBA All-Star Games, WrestleManias, we were the entity that did the bids and then served as the Host Committee for those events.

So when Vegas got invited to bid, I think they were looking for some help with this 186-page document that they received in a very short timeline to be able to respond to the NFL to bid.

I think that it was pretty obvious that Vegas was going to get a Super Bowl, but you still need somebody that can put together the terms and the deal points and the operational side of it and make sure that it works and demonstrate to the NFL that you have the capacity to host it, the means to host it, and the enthusiasm and-- so, yeah, the LVCVA was was deep in that process.

They already attracted the Draft and the Pro Bowl.

Super Bowl was next, but it was a little different of a scale.

And, yeah, they were able to talk me into leaving New Orleans after 25 years, actually, of doing that.

-New Orleans, means what to you?

It's your home.

-Born and raised.

But a lot of similarities in tourism and hospitality and knowing the value of that, knowing how to host events and make people feel really special and make events feel really special and make them very successful was a great recipe that we developed there.

-I was going to wait to ask this later, but you bring it up.

How do you make a Super Bowl in Las Vegas special and unique?

I mean, isn't it already just kind of baked in to-- -Well, yeah.

I think that Las Vegas on Super Bowl weekend is already such an exciting place.

What better place to drop the Super Bowl actually on top of?

So I think that having those couple of hundred thousand people that are here every year, because this is their mecca for celebrating that weekend.

If you're not going to the Super Bowl, you go to Vegas.

Now we're bringing the two together, and I think it's gonna be pretty epic.

-Do you have to work to make it unique, or is that just part of it?

-Yeah, definitely.

-You have to work around.

We want to make sure that we're not interrupting the normal pace of business on Super Bowl weekend for a lot of the partners here.

We want to make sure that we're enhancing the experience for the Super Bowl visitors so they don't feel like they are walking into something that is just every other year in Vegas, they're a special audience, and we're gonna make sure they feel special.

And then hopefully for all the Southern Nevada residents, we're gonna make it an incredible experience that they can be part of.

So instead of just watching it on TV, be able to come down and do some of the special activities that are happening that week.

-You think you'll get locals when the Strip is going to be packed?

-Maybe not to the Strip.

I think we'll bring them to other places and create some-- we've got some plans we'll be announcing soon, ways to be part of the Super Bowl, whether you're a volunteer or want to come get autographs or you want to celebrate in the weekend.

We'll have ways to do that in different parts of town.

-What are some big challenges you're facing right now with putting on this Super Bowl here?

-I think it's the fact that we just don't have any data from past Super Bowls or major sporting events like this.

When we bid on the Super Bowl, we had to throw some educated darts at the board on things like staffing and public safety and what the stadium looks like.

We had no Raiders game with fans yet-- -Wow!

- --to draw from, so one of those is just figuring out everything for the first time.

It's also really exciting.

What I've enjoyed the most is not just dusting off old plans, but authoring everything from scratch.

So our staff, our committee, our volunteers, everybody kind of has a pride of authorship in this Super Bowl being the first.

-So that strikes me that when you were submitting this bid, there had not been one Raiders game with fans.

-Correct.

Correct, we had to go through and estimate budgets and estimate attendance numbers and how do people get to the stadium and how's this all gonna work.

So we're now learning; we've got data since then, so we're able to kind of look at it and see how what we guessed aligned.

And then once you take that and throw in the Super Bowl part of the equation, which means they're gonna turn everything upside down anyway.

It's gonna be nothing like a Raiders game.

-Yeah.

-But you need that baseline to be able to flip from.

-So you moved here officially January 2022, you said.

-I was working here a lot in 2021 throughout COVID, working on the process.

And then once we got it awarded in December of '21, I moved here January of '22.

-What would have kept Las Vegas from getting the Super Bowl?

-Well, you know, the bid process, Vegas was the only city invited to bid for that year because of a lot of complications with the schedule.

New Orleans was supposed to host in '24.

The NFL went to a 17-game season, which moved the Super Bowl by a week, so New Orleans, in our bid for '24, were given the opportunity to rebid for '25.

So I had just done that.

-Because it landed on Mardi Gras?

-Exactly.

So I'd just done two bids, actually, for New Orleans.

And even though you're only bidding by yourself, you're bidding against yourself.

So if the numbers aren't right, if the hotel rooms aren't there, if the rates aren't there, if the revenues aren't there-- a lot goes into that bid package that you have to agree to or say, You know what, we're not going to do that, but we're going to do it this way instead.

So you got to gain that confidence of the NFL staff who officially endorses the bid to go on to the NFL owners who then vote to award it.

-So those numbers were kind of worrying you about whether Las Vegas might get a Super Bowl?

-Yeah.

We had no idea what it would cost to produce a Super Bowl here.

-Yeah.

-We're still figuring that out.

-What is a successful Super Bowl, in your opinion?

-Oh, that's easy.

On Monday morning, we want to make sure that everybody that came to town for Super Bowl, whether they were the teams, the sponsors, the owners, or the fans, the media, that everybody is saying, That was awesome.

The Super Bowl should be here every year.

And we also want everybody here in Vegas, the residents, the nonprofits, anybody who was part of the Super Bowl in Vegas to say, That was awesome.

It should be here every year.

-Does it matter whether the game is actually a good game?

-It's got to be a great week.

-Okay.

-The game is the culmination of what-- you're gonna find it's gonna be an incredibly exciting week that starts on Monday night when the teams arrive, with fan events that happened at the stadium, fan events happening all weekend, parties, fundraisers-- -But do people associate the quality of the game with that week?

That's something you-- -With the host city?

-Yeah.

-No.

I don't think any host city has ever been blamed for what happened on the field.

-When was that really defensive Super Bowl that was within the last few years, and people complained about it?

-You got me there.

-Yeah.

-But I don't think, to your point, nobody's remembering what host city it was-- -Right.

- --complaining about the host city.

-You're so right.

I'm bouncing all over the place, but I mentioned you moved here permanently?

-Yeah.

Yeah, it's a full-time effort.

We built out a staff, office space for the Host Committee.

So the Host Committee is actually a full-time staff of 14 supported by an executive committee and 11 subcommittees of volunteer professionals from around the city that are helping our staff make sure we get it right on all fronts, from media and PR to the volunteer operations to the event operations, transportation, public safety.

So we've got about 300 committee members that are volunteers from the community, helping our staff as we then work with the NFL.

We're kind of like a wedding planner between Vegas and the NFL, but we're definitely representing Vegas in the effort.

-Who's the bride?

-They're-- I guess you could say we're both bridezillas.

[laughter] -It's two great brands finally coming together after how many years of not even being able to be mentioned in the same sentence.

You can imagine that it's a little more Shakespearean than, than even Romeo and Juliet.

-I haven't heard the Super Bowl described that way, coming to Las Vegas.

But in your role, you were also an ambassador of Las Vegas.

And so I wonder how have you familiarized yourself with the city, and how much do you feel you need to know about its history, etc.?

-Well, you know, that was 2021.

That was learning about venues, I was learning about traffic patterns, that was learning about hotel rooms, putting together the bid.

As soon as I moved here, I learned quickly that Vegas is a very, very hospitable city, not just for tourists, but for residents.

I think many people moved here the first time themselves.

I was open arms, really welcomed, and found it very easy to kind of navigate and network through introductions from a couple of key people to start.

And then those introductions just kind of kept flowing and flowing.

So you know, that's one thing that Vegas has that I don't think anywhere else has is that hospitable nature for residents.

-Even compared to New Orleans?

-Even compared to New Orleans.

In New Orleans, totally different culture.

You've got decades of generations of families that have been there forever.

And here, what, you tell me.

It's more-- I have one employee who's a fourth generation native, and his kids are now fifth generation.

But-- -And that's a rarity.

-Usually, I'll meet one or two generations deep; whereas, in New Orleans, you gotta crack through, eight to ten generations worth of families.

-Wow!

Does that make planning a sporting event more difficult?

-No.

I think the caliber of the venues here, the caliber of hosting events and the staff and the professionals here is a whole nother level-- -In New Orleans.

-Oh, I'm sorry.

-Does the social structure make it more difficult?

-Well, no, because the tourism corridor in New Orleans is still, you know, has decades upon decades of experience in hosting.

You know, our Bourbon Street versus our Fremont or our Strip, very similar in that aspect.

But when you get outside the Strip and you start talking about neighborhoods and feeling welcomed to a community, I was shocked at how welcomed I was made.

-That's really neat.

I understand that in your operations you do not use any countdown clocks, no Super Bowl countdown clock.

-No.

We try not to.

It's just a nice little distraction and stress point for the day.

But, yes, you did your research.

-But why not do that, I mean, to keep people on point?

-Because it really is, it's about today.

It's not about 180 days away.

It's not about 191 days away.

It's what do we do to get done today?

What needs to be done this week?

You gotta know where you're going to get there, but you gotta know where you are in the present as well.

-How would you describe your management style?

Because I know, you mentioned I did my research, on your LinkedIn, I saw that you posted a freeze frame from a Zoom call in which you froze in a funny position, and everybody laughed about it.

[laughter] -I don't know.

I've never been asked about my management style.

We have a team, so we're a lot of cooks in the kitchen.

We're not a very top-down, heavy organizational structure.

And we're also temporary in nature.

So it really does take a team to get this thing done.

-Temporary in nature, but you plan on staying in Las Vegas?

-Absolutely.

We need to figure-- it's gonna take us probably three to six months to wrap up the books on this thing.

And if we're not invited to bid on another Super Bowl in that period, then, yeah, we'll be looking for the next chapter on what we do here.

-Any concerns about-- I guess it depends on this Super Bowl and how it goes?

-We got to make sure that this one goes right and that everybody on our staff will be, I think, well positioned to-- for their next chapters after we pull this thing off.

-And how can-- yeah --Vegas best-- -Knock on Formicha.

[laughter] -Hey, now, I mean, we don't want to expose our set here.

[laughter] -How can Vegas best set itself up to continue hosting Super Bowls after this one?

-I think we get this one right.

Then we learn from what we didn't get right, because we're not going to get 100% of it right.

To be honest.

The first time we hosted?

-Have you ever?

-No.

-How many Super Bowls have you worked?

-I've worked every Super Bowl since 1997 in one capacity or another, but I was part of the Host Committee for three of them in New Orleans.

-Okay.

-So we're not going to get 100% of it right.

But what's important is that we are really diligent about studying what doesn't work, coming up with a plan to address in the next bid to say, That needs tweaking, but we know how to tweak it now.

Really, it's about documenting the successes and the challenges so they can be properly addressed for the next bid.

-Is there something you learned in a past Super Bowl that you automatically applied to this one?

We're not going to make that mistake again.

-I don't want to say that we're not gonna make that mistake again.

So I'm not gonna reference it yet.

-But, yes, there have been things I want to make sure do not happen here.

But I don't want to jinx them.

-Sam Joffray, Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-It was a joy.

-And thank you for watching.

More interviews like this are at vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

♪♪