Super Bowl Experience at Super Bowl LIII, Feb 2019 1

The Super Bowl Experience (formerly the NFL Experience) is an annual event which has been held since 1992 at a venue in the host city of the Super Bowl. The event is described as an interactive "

theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

", featuring various fan-oriented attractions, including football-related activities and

autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Inter ...

sessions with current and former players. Proceeds from the sale of Super Bowl Experience tickets go to fund the NFL's Youth Education Town (YET) initiative, which constructs facilities (typically in low-income neighborhoods of Super Bowl host cities) offering

afterschool ''Afterschool'' is a 2008 American drama film written and directed by Antonio Campos and stars Ezra Miller in their film debut. Filmed at the Pomfret School in Pomfret, Connecticut, ''Afterschool'' premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival in th ...

programs for youth.Tickets to this event are free and can be assessed at the OnePass App on the NFLs main website. In November 2017, the NFL opened an NFL Experience attraction at

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

's 20 Times Square, in collaboration with

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Ju ...

, which featured a similar array of interactive experiences and memorabilia. Consequently, the NFL began to refer to the travelling event as the ''Super Bowl Experience'' beginning in 2018 for

Super Bowl LII Super Bowl LII was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2017 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles defeated the American Football Conferen ...

Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...

. The Times Square experience was later closed.

History

The first NFL Experience was held at the

Minneapolis Convention Center The Minneapolis Convention Center is a large convention center located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota that opened in 1990. It is located one block away from Nicollet Mall Nicollet Mall is a twelve-block portion of Nicollet Avenue runni ...

in January 1992 prior to Super Bowl XXVI. The NFL's interactive theme park was followed by

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

's first "FanFest" in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

six months later. In 2013 the NFL Experience was hosted at the

New Orleans Morial Convention Center The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is located in Downtown New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The lower end of building one is located upriver from Canal Street on the banks of the Mississippi River. It is named after former Mayor of ...

. The NFL Experience was not held for

Super Bowl XLVIII Super Bowl XLVIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos and National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for th ...

. Instead, the NFL organized an outdoor festival, Super Bowl Boulevard, along

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

, which featured a similar array of fan-oriented events and attractions (such as an artificial toboggan hill).

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...

held a "Puppy Bowl Experience" at the Discovery Times Square exhibition promoting its annual ''

Puppy Bowl The ''Puppy Bowl'' is an annual television program on Animal Planet that mimics an American football game similar to the Super Bowl, using puppies. Shown each year on Super Bowl Sunday, the show consists of footage of a batch of puppies at play ...

'' special (which traditionally airs on the day of the Super Bowl), to ride the festivities' coattails. The 2015 NFL Experience was hosted at the

Phoenix Convention Center The Phoenix Convention Center is an events venue in downtown Phoenix, Arizona located along East Monroe, East Washington, East Jefferson, North Second, North Third, and North Fifth Streets. It opened in 1972 and hosts national and regional conve ...

. The 2016 NFL Experience was hosted at the

Moscone Center The George R. Moscone Convention Center (pronounced ), popularly known as the Moscone Center, is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco, California. The complex consists of three main halls spread out across three block ...

in San Francisco. The 2017 NFL Experience was hosted at George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. The Houston Super Bowl Host Committee also hosted its own outdoor festival, ''Super Bowl Live'', in the adjacent

Discovery Green Discovery Green is an public urban park in Downtown Houston, Texas, bounded by La Branch Street to the west, McKinney Street to the north, Avenida de las Americas to the east, and Lamar Street to the south. The park is adjacent to the George R ...

park, which featured entertainment events. For

, the event was renamed the Super Bowl Experience, and was held at the

. The Super Bowl LIII edition was held at the

Georgia World Congress Center The Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) is a convention center in Atlanta, Georgia. Enclosing some 3.9 million ft2 (360,000 m2) in exhibition space and hosting more than a million visitors each year, the GWCC is the world's largest LEED certi ...

. The Super Bowl Experience for

Super Bowl LIV Super Bowl LIV was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2019 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the National Football Conferenc ...

was held at the

Miami Beach Convention Center The Miami Beach Convention Center (originally the Miami Beach Exhibition Hall) is a convention center located in Miami Beach, Florida. Originally opened in 1958, the venue was renovated from 2015-2018 for $620 million. The re-imagined and enhance ...

. Super Bowl LV's Super Bowl Experience was held at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park, with capacity and health protocols in place due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Super Bowl LVI’s Super Bowl Experience was held at the

Los Angeles Convention Center The Los Angeles Convention Center is a convention center in the southwest section of downtown Los Angeles. It hosts multiple annual conventions and has often been used as a filming location in TV shows and movies. History The convention center, ...

NFL Experience Times Square

On November 30, 2017, the NFL opened an attraction known as NFL Experience Times Square, within four ground-level floors of 20 Times Square in New York City. The 40,000 square-foot attraction was a collaboration with Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group, and featured various interactive activities and multimedia experiences, including a 4D film, a simulated locker room and practice area, displays of memorabilia, and a bar and restaurant that would feature a rotation of menu selections from NFL stadiums. In February 2018, it was announced that

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NF ...

's ''

Good Morning Football ''Good Morning Football'' is a live NFL morning television program on NFL Network. The program premiered on Monday, August 1, 2016. It airs from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET. The program is hosted by Kyle Brandt, Jamie Erdahl, Jason McCourty and Pe ...

'' would move to a studio at the attraction in April, after having previously used a

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

studio in New York City. In September 2018, it was announced that the attraction would close, citing underperforming attendance numbers (which analysts pegged to poor promotion by the NFL, and high ticket prices). It was to remain open through at least the end of 2018. ''Good Morning Football'' moved to

SportsNet New York SportsNet New York (SNY) is an American regional sports network owned by Sterling Entertainment Enterprises, LLC, itself a joint venture between the Fred Wilpon (which owns a controlling 65% interest) Sterling Equities, Charter Communications th ...

's facilities at

4 World Trade Center 4 World Trade Center (4 WTC; also known as 150 Greenwich Street) is a skyscraper constructed as part of the new World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The tower is located on Greenwich Street at the southeastern corner of the ...

in November 2018.

References

External links

Official website
{{Super Bowl National Football League Super Bowl culture Entertainment events in the United States

History

NFL Experience Times Square

See also

References

External links