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Super Bowl Boosts Tampa's Image 6%, Thanks To Al Michaels
The Associated Press
Pittsburgh Steelers fans had a reason to cheer for Tampa.
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Published: February 9, 2009
Local Super Bowl organizers might want to send sportscaster Al Michaels a thank-you present.
Competitive Edge Research and Communication, a polling company in San Diego, found 6 percent more people viewed Tampa favorably after Super Bowl XLIII.
The company's president, John Nienstedt attributed the bump, in part, to the great weather and a thrilling game, but mostly to glowing comments about Tampa from sportscaster Michaels as he and John Madden brought the game to the NBC audience.
Michaels mentioned Tampa 13 times, using words like "beautiful" and "gorgeous" and praising the city's downtown, Nienstedt said.
"I am becoming more and more convinced that it comes down to how much the sportscasters chat up the city during the Super Bowl," he said.
Competitive Edge Research surveyed 500 people before and after the Feb. 1 game.
The poll found 37 percent of respondents viewed Tampa favorably after the Super Bowl, up 6 percent from the days leading up to the game.
Less than 1 percent had a negative impression of the community after the game, down nearly from 2.5 percent before the game.
Nielsen Media Research said that Super Bowl XLIII was the most-viewed television program in U.S. history, with a total audience of 151.6 million viewers.
That means roughly 9 million more people view Tampa favorably than before the game.
In the past six years, only San Diego's image got a similar bump when it hosted the game in January 2003. Nienstedt attributed the rise to sports commentators who boasted about the community during the telecast.
Houston and Jacksonville got no perceptible bump when they hosted the big game in 2004 and 2005. Those communities got little mention during the broadcast.
If Tampa made the most of its time in the spotlight, halftime performer Bruce Springsteen flopped.
After the performance, 68 percent said they won't buy his new album, "Working on a Dream." Before the game, 64 percent said they wouldn't buy it, Competitive Edge Research found.
Young people surveyed found Springsteen "not hip," Nienstedt said.
Tampa wasn't the only big winner from Super Bowl exposure.
Raymond James Financial got $37.3 million worth of media coverage from its stadium naming-rights agreement, according to Joyce Julius & Associates, Inc., which measures the value of sponsorships.
The bulk of the value came during the game, when Raymond James' signs were clear and in focus for one minute, 51 seconds, the company found.
Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668.
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