TAMPA, FLA. — Ed Palladini has run a limousine company in Tampa for 27 years, accumulating a fleet of more than a dozen luxury cars, ranging from a basic Cadillac sedan to a plush Mercedes minibus that seats 14.
Even now, during Super Bowl week, when Palladini's business should be booked solid, some of those beauties will not leave the lot.
"I've got a car that hasn't moved in six months, but I've had to keep the insurance on it for the Super Bowl," he said. "All your big executives, they aren't coming like they did when the Super Bowl was here in 2001. And if they are, they want Town Cars or SUVs or 15-passenger vans. They don't want to be seen in stretch limousines."
Both locally and nationally, this Super Bowl week -- which culminates with today's game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals -- is as much about setting the right economic tone as it is about scoring touchdowns.
"I think we've been very cognizant of the fact that our resources are limited and that everyone's resources are limited," Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio said in a news conference that kicked off the week. "We are going to put on a first-class Super Bowl in the most frugal way that we possibly can, and that's been our approach."
In a Super Bowl study released in mid-January, auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted that personal and business spending cutbacks will result in "fewer visitors and media, a shorter average stay per visitor, and less spending in the hospitality and related areas."
The firm projects $150 million in direct spending tied to Super Bowl weekend, 22.3% less than when the 2008 game was held in Glendale, Ariz.
In the days leading to the game, there were still hotel rooms available in Tampa and surrounding areas, although most required a minimum stay of three or four nights. Among the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, there are roughly 46,000 rooms of lodging, ranging from large hotels to bed-and-breakfast inns.
"I did hear from a couple hotels that they saw more room requests from individual fans this year, when they normally would have expected more group and corporate business," said Steve Hayes, executive vice president of Tampa Bay & Co., the area's convention and visitors bureau.
The Super Bowl is still America's biggest annual sports extravaganza, one that the National Football League expects to draw a television audience of 140 million viewers.
