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Pinellas Is Poised To Cash In

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By ROD CHALLENGER

rchallenger@wfla.com

Published: January 28, 2009

CLEARWATER BEACH - There is a four-day minimum for a stay at the Sandpearl Resort during Super Bowl XLIII weekend, and the upscale hotel has only a few suites left.

"We'll do almost 40 percent of our revenue for the month of January in these four or five days," said Stuart Arp, the resort's general manager.

While much of the Super Bowl spotlight focuses on Tampa, Pinellas County also stands to reap substantial benefits from the 100,000 visitors expected to hit the Tampa Bay area for the game and related festivities.

"I think it's going to be really a great shot in the arm," said D.T. Minich, director of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. He said Super Bowl business will be a "tremendous help for our January, February business."

The Super Bowl also will provide a "good opportunity for us to showcase the destination to people that have never been here before," Minich said. He hopes that exposure will bring them back.

Minich said there are hotel rooms remaining in Pinellas for the weekend, but the managers of the Tradewinds Resort in St. Pete Beach and the Sheraton Sand Key in Clearwater say their hotels are sold out.

It's not only hotels that will benefit from the game. Arp said his hotel is buying more food and liquor than normal from suppliers.

"Our purchasing is just off the charts," he said. "It spills it down to everybody, not just the hotels." He said all the extra business helps the hotels suppliers and "our employees, the extra hours they get, the extra tips they get."

Super Bowl-related parties also will take place in Pinellas. The Venue nightclub in Feather Sound has events planned for Wednesday through Sunday, with celebrities including P. Diddy, Winky Wright, Derrick Brooks and Deion Sanders slated to attend.

"I think it's going to have a really big impact actually because of the national exposure," said Rob Uzzillia, one of the Venue's owners. He said the nightclub normally would do a brisk business on the weekend, but the Super bowl parties will give the club "exposure to other markets, and other people."

The Celebrity Beach Bowl touch football game is scheduled for Saturday at Al Lang Field in downtown St. Petersburg. The Taste of the NFL party will be held at Tropicana Field on Saturday.

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