When the Super Bowl comes to town, you see the spectacle. Levi’s® Stadium under the lights as football’s two best teams face off in a final showdown. The halftime show still living rent free in our heads. And yes, we are still not over Benito’s performance.
You see Santa Clara’s hotel lobbies packed shoulder to shoulder with guests arriving from across the country and around the world. Football-themed touches everywhere, from window decals to specialty cocktail menus. It feels massive. It looks effortless.
But it is only one of those things.
What you don’t see are the years of competition required to win the Big Game in the first place. The closed-door pitch meetings. The regional coordination across cities and agencies. The infrastructure planning built to withstand scrutiny. The operational strategies designed so that when millions arrive, the city feels ready.
Hosting the Super Bowl is not a weekend job. It is a long game.
How the Bay Area Won the Game Before Kickoff
Before Levi’s® Stadium filled with fans, the Bay Area had to win the bid.
That process was competitive and exacting, led by the Bay Area Host Committee and its President and CEO, Zaileen Janmohamed. Bringing the Super Bowl to Santa Clara requires meeting a rigorous set of standards, from hotel room availability and convention center capacity to airport infrastructure, transportation planning, and overall market strength.
“It’s a complicated process that I don’t know if I understood before I had to do it,” Janmohamed says.
But the pitch goes beyond logistics.
“With these types of major global sporting events, there’s a ton of competition to host because the economic impact they bring to a city is intangible. Pride and community engagement come with that.”
For the Bay Area, the case was clear. With Silicon Valley at its core, a diverse global audience, and direct access to Fortune 500 companies, the region offers leagues a place to grow their sport and expand their reach.
Once selected, planning begins almost immediately. Monthly coordination starts right after the previous Super Bowl ends, and foundational decisions are made nearly two years out.
Inside Levi’s® Stadium
For the Levi’s® Stadium team, the Super Bowl is not just a bigger game. It is an entirely different category of event. Hundreds of millions of viewers are watching across the globe. Every operational detail, from security protocols to broadcast infrastructure to guest flow, carries amplified scrutiny.
What separates the Super Bowl is not just attendance. It is visibility.
In the final week leading up to kickoff, much of the heavy lifting has already been done. The infrastructure is in place. The plans have been tested. What remains is the final layer of precision, the last few percentage points that determine whether an event feels smooth or exceptional. At that level, attention to detail becomes the difference between competent execution and a global showcase.
Preparation begins long before the countdown clock appears on screen. The most successful host cities start earlier than they think they need to and remain adaptable through the unexpected. At this scale, flexibility is not optional. It is essential.
Positioning Santa Clara on the Global Stage
With all eyes on Santa Clara, football’s biggest night created a rare opportunity to shape perception and tell the city’s story on its own terms. Discover Santa Clara, working alongside its agency of record, Madden Media, positioned the city as more than just the home of Levi’s® Stadium.
The strategy focused on meeting guests where they were. Inside hotel lobbies, custom key cards, door hangers, and signage created a unified presence across properties. QR codes connected visitors to the Build Your Game Plan feature, guiding them to local events, dining, and experiences beyond the stadium gates.
On the PR front, national coverage in USA Today, Vogue, Forbes, Condé Nast Traveler, Food & Wine and other major outlets extended that visibility. Santa Clara was not framed as a backdrop. It was presented as a destination.
This was about more than exposure.
It was about leverage.
“The long game for us is really the repeat business,” said Christine Lawson, President and CEO of Discover Santa Clara®. “How do we turn a visitor that’s here for the Super Bowl or FIFA and showcase enough of the city so they get enough of a taste that they have a curiosity and desire to come back?”
Hosting the Super Bowl was a moment. Turning that moment into momentum is the objective
When Hotels Became Part of the Experience
For guests arriving in Santa Clara, the Super Bowl did not begin at Levi’s® Stadium. It began at check-in.
Hotel lobbies buzzed with team colors and fans swapping travel stories. For hotel teams, this was not a routine weekend. It was a once-in-a-lifetime audience.
Hilton Santa Clara’s open-to-the-public Tailg8 activation delivered classic pregame atmosphere. Their branded Tailg8 food truck, specialty cocktails, and a live DJ drew crowds hours before kickoff. Then came the moment many still talk about: visitors stepped outside and caught the official Super Bowl flyover as jets thundered overhead, bringing the scale of the event directly into the hotel parking lot. Fireworks followed, turning the entire area into part of the show.
At Element Santa Clara, bold football-inspired décor transformed the property for game week. Behind the scenes, the NFL Network converted meeting space into a hair and makeup room for on-air talent, leading to surprise encounters with actor Rob Lowe and broadcast personalities. Staff wore custom jerseys and invited guests to sign the General Manager’s jersey, putting visitors at the center of the celebration.
Embassy Suites leaned into thoughtful hospitality, welcoming guests with curated snack trays and hosting a Dunkin Donuts Cruiser pop-up that added branded giveaways and surprise samples to the lobby experience.
Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, located steps from Levi’s® Stadium, transformed multiple areas of the property into an immersive Big Game Sunday Access Party. The pool deck featured a live DJ and bar stations, the mezzanine hosted a viewing party, and interactive games kept guests engaged throughout the day. Even fans without tickets felt fully part of the atmosphere.
While many properties were hosting fans and watch parties, Santa Clara Marriott prepared for a different type of guest: an NFL team.
As an official Team Hotel for the New England Patriots, the property operated under heightened security protocols, confidential check-in procedures, and controlled-access spaces aligned with league standards. A cross-functional command center brought together Sales, Events, Security, Front Office, Food and Beverage to coordinate team movements, media presence, and VIP expectations with precision.
Hosting a franchise of that stature required operational discipline well beyond a typical event weekend. It underscored another layer of what it takes to stage the Super Bowl in Santa Clara.
Meeting the Moment in Santa Clara
Hosting the Super Bowl is not about one Sunday. It is about years of preparation, partnership, and pride coming together in a single spotlight.
For a few hours, the world watched. Santa Clara did not just host the Big Game. It owned it.
And with the FIFA World Cup on the horizon, the next global stage is already approaching. The foundation is in place. The experience is proven.
Santa Clara is ready.
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