NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell will be headed to Las Vegas next week for events that will mark the official Super Bowl hand over to New Orleans, according to our partners at Nola.com.
The hand over sets New Orleans up for next year's game in 2025 on Feb. 9.
Cantrell will be joining a big New Orleans delegation to Vegas, which is hosting its first-ever Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 11, where the Kansas City Chiefs will go head to head with the San Francisco 49ers.
"We're planning for 2025 and want to showcase our city to the world, not only for the Super Bowl but for the 20 years after Hurricane Katrina," Cantrell said during a news conference Thursday to discuss policing plans in the city.
The New Orleans delegation will include Saints owner Gayle Benson, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, Mayor Cantrell, Host Committee Chair Marcus Brown and GNOSF's Cicero.
A spokesman for Cantrell said the mayor's agenda has not been scheduled yet. They said it is not clear if Cantrell will attend the Super Bowl game or Monday's official hand off ceremony.
According to Nola.com, New Orleans has hosted 10 Super Bowls, with the last one in 2013, when the Baltimore Ravens beat out the 49ers 34-to-31 in Super Bowl XLVII. That game was named the "Blackout Bowl" after a breaker switch shut off the lights in the Superdome for 31 minutes.
Hosting the Super Bowl is a huge task and planning started after the city was awarded in 2018 said Jay Cicero, CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. He also said the hand over process is a "big production".
"As the host city for 2025, the National Football League invites and expects the host committee, including local and state officials, to visualize, learn and participate in a variety of activities and meetings during the year prior to hosting Super Bowl," Cicero told Nola.com in an email Friday.
Officials next week will go to an variety of public relations events in "Sin City", leading up to the official hand off ceremony on Monday following the game.
The event is managed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and will feature top officials from the Las Vegas Raiders organization, including leaders from the City of Las Vegas and the state of Nevada and members of the Las Vegas Host Committee, Nola.com reported.
Louisiana's Assistant Secretary of Tourism, Doug Bourgeois, said the NFL has strict oversight on all aspects of the Super Bowl and promotion around the events.
Bourgeois told Nola.com that Nungesser wanted to advertise for tourists by renting billboards near the stadium, but those plans weren't approved by the NFL. Instead, the ads are running on the Las Vegas Strip. He said Vegas's travel scene could help promote the city.
Our partners at Nola.com said the Louisiana Tourism Office will also throw a party at the Las Vegas House of Blues on the Thursday before the Super Bowl game.
The slogan on their advertisement is: "The Big Game may be here but the Big Party is always in Louisiana."
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.
