This is Inside the Vegas Huddle, your podcast connection to the events and initiatives
led by the Las Vegas Super Bowl fifty eight Host Committee in advance of the
big game at Allegiance Stadium. Welcome to Inside the Vegas Huddle. Welcome back
to Inside the Vegas Huddle. This episode, Chris, is going to be
a lot of fun, a lot of interesting stuff we're about to learn here.
Well, we've been doing this for what like six months now as we
count down to Super Bowl fifty eight. Inside the Vegas Huddle, we're almost
a Super Bowl fifty eight and one of my favorite guests is here. We
talk numbers, and that's always fun because when you talk numbers in Vegas,
it's always seems to be positive. We love it. Jeremy Aguero, Welcome
back. We are so excited to have you here with us today to talk,
like Chris said, all things numbers, because you were the guy in
town to go to for that stuff. Oh, thank you, appreciate it.
Glad to be here. Jeremy Agarro, Treasurer of the Super Bowl fifty
eight Executive Committee. Now, some of the things we do want to talk
about today is the long term impact of Super Bowl fifty eight right here in
Las Vegas, so to get things kind of started. What are you currently
seeing, even though the super Bowl hasn't happened yet, What are you currently
seeing right now in terms of changes to come for the city of Las Vegas.
Well, I think there's going to be a few long term impacts that
are going to be really important. First and foremost, there's a lot of
capital that's gone in to prepare for the super Bowl. A lot of improvements
the hotels and casinos have been pushed forward relative to that, and that's really
good for us. Overall. We've also done we're talking before the show just
about some of the transportation that's being done out there. We've made a ton
of transportation improvements. Some of them were for the super Bowl, but some
of them were really pushed forward to try and be ready for this incredible series
of events that we have, including the super Bowl as part of all that.
But beyond that, there's some impacts that I think are going to be
much longer lasting. Right. Not only that, I think there's a piece
of just being a super Bowl city. Right. They talked about it a
lot in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen about having an NFL Stadium, this being
a possibility and what that meant for us, this idea of the rising tide
lifting all boats, and I think we're already seeing it. The amount of
exposure that we've gotten around the super Bowl is pretty terrific. And for a
community that's trying to attract forty million visitors every year plus, to be on
a stage where you know one hundred million people plus are going to be watching
you is a pretty big deal overall. And that brings me to the sort
of this third longer term component, which is really the exposure element to it
overall. Right, the idea that look at the LVCVA leaning into it,
look at the resort industry leaning into it. This is pretty great for us
in terms from a marketing perspective, and frankly, nobody does it better than
Vegas in terms of talking about who we are and really developing on that brand.
Beyond that, if there's a fourth element that I would really point to,
it would be the business element that's going to be left behind when the
super Bowl is gone. Those businesses that we're able to be identified and participate
in the bus Connect program are going to have a leg up going forward,
right gonna have some of them are gonna have the Super Bowl on their resume,
and let's be honest that that matters in today's world. Others are going
to be able to have gone through a system to be registered as a minority,
woman owned business, a veteran owned business. They may not have had
the opportunity to do, or may not have had someone help them through that
process, and today they did. And when I think you, when I
think you, you you you look at businesses like Maeshius who's running that and
now her footprint all over the United States is a result of what we're doing
here, right, I think that legacy is going to carry on long after
February eleventh. I love that, you know, Jeremy, it seems like
we judge events by the cost of the hotel rooms during that event. Cees
and you know, the F one and so forth. Super Bowl is run
up there with all those big ones, and that gives you an idea of
what Las Vegas can charge and do as a whost city. I don't think
there's any doubt about it, right. I mean, let's let's be clear,
we have capacity for about three hundred and twenty thousand people to be in
Las Vegas on any given night, three hundred and twenty thousand people. The
people that will actually attend the super Bowl is not that different than what Allegiance
Stadium can normally hold somewhere between fifty five and sixty five thousand people, depending
kind of how it's configured. So you we understand that there are people that
are descending upon Las Vegas just because the super Bowl is here. They're not
even going to go to the super Bowl, but they're coming for meetings,
They're coming to be part of the parties that are here. All of those
type of things is what makes it so magical. We we always like to
talk about the fact that the fact that even when we don't have the super
Bowl, there are more people coming here for the super Bowl than are going
to where the super Bowl is. We love to talk about that it's a
great Las Vegas stat But here now what we've seen is that's even greater than
it was before because we've got folks and let's be honest, there's fifty five
to sixty five thousand VIPs that are going to be in that building during Super
Bowl, but we have all kinds of folks that are coming here because It
is going to be the greatest party on planet Earth during that week. It's
where the celebrities are going to be in, the players are going to be
and you know, the media is going to be thousands of media folks are
going to be around the city and the number of events is just unbelievable.
When you think about things like NFL Honors and you think about the Soulful Celebration
and all those things, They're all going to happen here in Southern Nevada.
And I think it's a big deal for us, absolutely, and the momentum
obviously there right now leading up to it. But Jeremy talk to us a
little bit about the strategies that need to kind of be in place to keep
that momentum up after the super Bowl happens. Yeah, Look, I mean
you have to sort of point to the LVCVA in all of that, right,
I Mean, none of this happens without them and the resort industry making
it happen and their ability to kind of carry that forward. As we talk
about that, right, what is the most important thing to come out of
the Super Bowl? The best fan experience anyone ever could have had, the
people coming to Vegas us delivering on the promise and the possibility I think is
incredibly important. Beyond that, we'd like to see some of the tax numbers
come out where we'd like to see those be Obviously, there's a lot of
events taking place that are to pump up things like liven or dayment tax get
out to pump up things like the retail SAE and use tax and room tax
and those type of things, and those go to fund everything from our schools
to public safety to roadways, those type of things. These major events are
really important to bolstering some of those numbers. And then I think you have
to look at the social and environmental side. Right The NFL is so socially
conscious relative to what it does and the things that are important to the players
and the fans and the NFL and its owners. And I think whether it's
them planting trees or going to schools or going to hospitals, having the NFL
here and raising awareness about things that we need to do from an environmental standpoint,
water, things that we need to do from an education standpoint, and
the schools that could really use some time and attention. I think those things
matter to us and will last a lot longer than this first super Bowl here
in southern Nevada. Yeah, and you mentioned this first super Bowl. We
don't have the super Bowl with that Allegiant Stadium, and here in Las Vegas
with Allegiant Stadium, it's open the doors for all sorts of things. And
this won't be the last super Bowl either. I hope not, and I
think that that's really the case. Do you think about Allegiance Stadium and you'd
look. You and I were there for the whole process and what we expected
Allegiance Stadium to be. It is about doubled what we anticipated it to be.
In terms of economic impacts. Jobs, we just salaries activity that are
happening, and in terms of the fiscal impacts, the impacts on our community,
it's been unbelievable in terms of the investment we made versus the return on
that investment that we're getting as a community. And I'll be honest with you,
man, when we were going through that process, we knew we were
going to get the Raiders. Well you know, the super Bowl was we
really hope we can get that. But then all of these concerts that have
been there, right, You've got Beyonce and Taylor Swift and BTS. I
mean, look, people are coming to Las Vegas just to go see those
concerts that are there. I mean some ninety percent of the folks that are
in those stands are people to say I would not have come to Las Vegas
but for that event. And when we talk about people wanting to get experiences
and you build a venue where you can deliver unbelievable experiences to them, including
a Super Bowl, Wow, what does that do for us? It means
room rates are going up. It means people are spending more in our restaurants.
It means that they're going to more shows and doing more things in our
community. And those dollars that are getting spent aren't just on the strip.
Right. We just saw the Culinary Union get the biggest set of raises that
they ever got. That is part because our gaming properties are doing so well.
We just saw our teachers get among the biggest raises they've ever seen.
That's because we just put two billion dollars into K through twelve education. And
whether people want to draw the relationship to it or not, what is driving
our economy today are these special events and the increase in spending that we've seen
as a result of those generating more taxes and creating more opportunities not just for
our strip operators, but for small businesses, big businesses, and families across
our entire community. Yeah, and I like that you said that because I
think oftentimes, like we know when big events come to town, we know
what industries are automatically going to see that economic return, that sometimes we don't
think about the smaller sectors, the smaller industries that are also going to be
affected by the money that's coming in. I think it's so important, And
you know, we take we use the term bisconnect in the program that's there
and what it kind of means. But you know what, I like to
say that all economics is personal. Right for that small business that gets that
first start, that gets that first job, for that business that gets to
put the Super Bowl on their resume, that is a life changing, career
changing experience for that person, and those interns and those volunteers that get to
do something along those lines. I mean, wow, I mean what an
experience To say I was part of the biggest event in Las Vegas history matters,
and it matters economically to those businesses, and I think it matters to
our community on a social community pride level. Surely no Jeremy grew up here
in Las Vegas, so he can answer this question. This city has such
a it's a big city at a small town. I got your back,
you got my back. There were so many volunteers that volunteered, that came
forward and said, hey, I want to help with this event Super Bowl
fifty eight that it was so impressive. Sam Joffrey talks about that all the
time, how this community everybody just came forward volunteering. I want to ball,
I can help, I can do, what can I do? What
can you do? That's that's the spirit of Vegas. There is no doubt,
right, And I think you have to give some credit to the Super
Bowl host committee and all these people that came together to make this happen.
Right, I mean, think about who is running our volunteer program here.
One, it's Stow Shoemaker, the former dean and current professor, was my
professor at UNLV right, and then Patty Charlton, right, the chancellor of
the university system, is the one who is helping make sure that our volunteer
system works. You tell me a better group of folks to have in our
community helping to make those things happen. Right. We have the best minds
in marketing, we have the best minds in hotel operations, we have the
best time minds in traffic management. All that came together. Not one person
said no, I'm not interested in doing that. Right, overseeing traffic and
traffic and transportation management is Commissioner Michael Knaft, Right. I mean, this
guy's got a few other things going on. He is out there, shows
up to every meeting and says, here's what we're gonna do to make sure
that this works. Right. That is how a community comes together, and
that is why this community is gonna be so successful again our first Super Bowl.
I love it, Love the momentum that Jeremy brings to the podcast.
Thank you so much Jeremy for stopping bye. We appreciate you. On Mark.
One more real quick question because we didn't ask Jeremy this last time because
he hasn't been around for a while. The halftime show, Usher, what
do you think? Look, first of all, I am not fair because
I'm a huge Usher fan, right, So look, I can't wait for
it. I think he's just gonna he's gonna blow it up. And I
think it's gonna be amazing and I think it's gonna be great for us as
a community. But again, I'm probably not the right guy. I don't
think that guy has ever put anything out that I didn't think it was fantastic.
That is so true, so true. Thank you, Jeremy Guerra.
I appreciate you. Thank you all. Right now, next we are pleased
to welcome Jack Grow who is the NFL Green Director, and Susan Grow,
NFL Green Associate Director. Privileged to have you guys here in studio today and
to talk about NFL Green. And you guys have seen so many super Bowls?
Was it thirty or thirty one? What separates the Las Vegas one in
your own eyes, from what you guys are doing from all the other ones.
I think there's two really unique things about Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
Well, first of all, it's the first time you've had a Super Bowl
in Las Vegas, so that's always a big deal. There are a number
of cities who've had multiple Super Bowls and not that it's not a big deal,
but you know, they kind of get used to it if you've hosted
a lot of Super Bowls. But having it be here for the first time
does two things. Number One, it energizes the whole community because it's new,
it's unique. Nobody here has ever seen a Super Bowl, you know,
up close in their own community. So it creates this enthusiasm and that's
really helped the projects that we work on in terms of getting people engaged.
People want to come out as soon as they hear Super Bowl. It doesn't
matter if we're planting trees, it doesn't matter if we're building gardens, doesn't
matter what we're doing. They hear Super Bowl and they want to be involved.
So I think that that's one of the most unique things around here.
Is there anything else? I think The other thing that's been really fun is
we've been here now for Pro Bowl, in the Draft, so we have
deep ties to this community already, which has been really fun engaging around Super
Bowl. Because we already have those relationships. People know us, They're ready
to jump in on the community greening project, super kids, super sharing,
everything else we're doing. So nice to have those relationships in place and really
know who we want to be working with, and we know which restaurants to
eat in we do. I love that. Now, let's dive in a
little bit deeper into the NFL green initiatives. Can you provide an over view
of you know, just I know you guys do so much, but a
little sample of what you're doing this year in years past. Oh, I
talked about the overview of the program a little bit, and then we can
focus on the green specifically. Yeah, I mean in terms of the program.
You know, Chris already mentioned it. You know, the NFL was
the first professional sports organization thirty years ago started to look at the environmental impact
of what happens when they go into a community. And since then we do
a lot around recycling, around material recovery, around food recovery, around renewable
energy, and I think it's been Sue can talk more about this, but
we started a look at legacy, and that's what the greening is for us.
It's all about legacy. So that's the way we leave our kind of
leave our mark in the community. Right, So we create a green legacy
here. So the communities that host these great events like Las Vegas for Super
Bowl, once we're gone, once the game is gone, we want to
make sure that we've done something really positive and we've left something really great in
the community. So we create a lot of community greening projects and those are
everything from planting trees, to building community gardens to restoring habitat and years from
now when we come back, those things will still be in place. So
that's the legacy part of Super Bowl and this year for Super Bowl fifty eight
in Las Vegas, we've done By the time Super Bowl gets here, we
will have implemented our fourteen different community greening projects. We've been everywhere from Warm
Springs to Henderson, City of Las Vegas, everywhere in between. Clark County
has been a fantastic partner. We've done a lot of projects with Clark County
Parks and some really unique ones going back to the really to the long term
relationship we've had here just a few years, but our partners, we've been
able to tie some of those projects together. So we worked with Clark County
Wetlands Park around Pro Bowl and the Draft and we planted a bunch of trees
and plants out of the Wetlands. Next year we came back and we greened
up their new nature play corner, put in trees and pollinator plants there.
And then this year we came back and kind of tied it all together and
planted out their trailhead loop, which actually connects those two areas. So it's
nice to see that continuing impact and see that we're able to continue building on
that green legacy. That's amazing. What's been the response from the community with
what you guys are trying to do the initiatives, the sustainability initiatives as you
kind of related to Super Bowl fifty eight, Well, like I mentioned before,
Chris, you know, because it's so unique and super Bowl such a
big name and such a big draw, the reaction from the community's been terrific.
We've got lots of partners here. We've worked with lots of nonprofit organizations
that have worked with us on the community greening. We've we've got a big
military event, which which may sound like it's outside of sustainability, but we're
doing an event called Salute to Service where we bring in about one hundred and
fifty active and former military folks and we show a documentary film. And the
documentary film is about a project that NFL did a couple of years ago with
retired combat divers to restore a coral reef off the coast of Florida, and
we brought in marine scientists, and we brought in some funding from federal agency
state agencies to make that project happen. It's something that was so unique to
the world of sports. So all these kinds of things energize the community to
bring people forward and they just want to be involved because they know that you
know, I hate to say it, but it may be a once in
a lifetime thing for some folks to have a Super Bowl here, although a
lot of folks are telling us super Bowls coming back, but we don't know
what. I think. Also, beyond just the you know, engaging with
the county and parks and our nonprofit partners here, it's been fun to see
the community come out and engage around these things. We talked about the Warm
Springs project. We revitalized two acres of land up there to its native habitat.
People drove that hour up to Warm Springs to volunteer to come out and
help. We've had volunteers at all of our greening events. Last I think
just yesterday, we were up at Caesarshabaz Park doing a project and some of
the volunteers told us this was their third or fourth time volunteering. So they've
kind of been following us and saying, oh, this was really fun.
We brought the family out to plant trees. Let's go do it again.
Oh. I love that. We hope then the legacy from that will be
that after we're gone, they'll still plant trees and keep going. I was
going to ask you next, Yeah, but the long term objectives of something
like this, But like you said, people have, you know, this
shared experience, and usually together with a shared experience, is that passion,
right, They want to do more to make their community, to make the
environment in this world just a better place. So you really kind of bring
energy almost to our community. I love that, and that's been a really
fun part to see people come out and engage. I also think it's important
for people to know what's going on with the environment, especially in the desert
Southwest. It's getting hotter and hotter here. And if we're out there planting
trees and we can shine the Super Bowl spotlight on the importance of that,
people know that we need to start doing things to cool things down a bit,
you know, create some shade and some cooling. Look at those urban
heat island areas. That awareness thing is Big, Sue. I'm glad you
mentioned that because everybody, everybody in this country and worldwide too, are going
to see Super Bowl, but they're also going to see all those feature stories
about what's going on in Nevada, in Clark County and around Super Bowl.
And I think one of the most important things is they'll see what the environmental
issues are here because they're different. They're different here than they are let's say,
in Michigan or in Massachusetts or somewhere else, but it affects everybody in
the country. And if they don't begin to realize now, you know,
I mean what happens when folks in New York are paying twelve dollars ahead for
lettuce and they say, why did this happen? Well, you have to
look at what the environmental issues are countrywide and if we don't address those countrywide.
So having all this happen in the Las Vegas area in Clark County really
creates awareness about those issues too. They're not just local issues. They may
seem like it, but there are issues that are gonna affect everybody in the
country. Yeah, you know, I kind of wonder too. You guys
have been doing this for so many years. Have you had a chance to
go back to some of those early years or you see you planet, that's
right thing and yeah yeah, and you plant the garden, the trees,
and now you say, wow, look what thirty years, Look what twenty
five years did We're grateful that we were here at the beginning. Yeah,
yeah, we've done that. Yeah yeah, And it is fun to go
back and see that those little seedlings, those smaller trees you put in are
now big and kids are sitting under those trees and they're shade you know for
those kids. And we do target areas that are really in need, so
we look at low income, disadvantaged areas for trees, for community gardens,
for habitat restoration. So it really does have a positive impact. And it
is fun to go back and look. I think we get so busy working
project to project because we don't just do Super Bowl, we do Draft and
you know, Kickoff and Pro Bowl. Yeah, but it's nice when you
can step back and when you go back to those communities and you can see
how well things are doing well. You know, we prime the pump for
that too, because all the grants that we give out for community greening,
Yeah, have a provision in there that part of what the organization has to
agree to is that they'll provide a minimum of two years of care and maintenance
for whatever the project is, because we don't want to go into a community
and let's say, you know, plants one hundred trees in a park and
then come back a year later and see a bunch of dead sticks in the
ground. So we haven't had any we haven't had any issues here because the
folks here who are working with us really do want to create legacy projects.
But it's something that we always look at when we put the RFP out for
a grant. It's built right in, you know, it's baked right into
that show proposal that there has to be a plan given to us that shows
that it'll be at least two years of care because most of the planting projects,
whether it's landscaping projects, whether it's trees or even community guards, if
you take real good care of him for two years, they're going to be
well established and then they should, but the first two years are the sensitive
part of it. Yeah, I mean, that's great information to know that
you kind of set that standard up front for community, right and for an
initiative is that maintenance right, it's just not okay, we're doing it now
because the spotlights on the Super Bowl. No, you guys need to make
sure that this continues for a few years and powerful we choose really good partners.
So we've looked broadly into the community. We rely a lot on the
host committee to kind of lead us in the right direction. We find those
partners that have a really good reputation here and we know that they're going to
be carrying on that good work, and we look at things beyond planning trees.
We make sure there's irrigation in place and the writings will be maintained going
forward. Absolutely. Roger Goodell gets out to a lot of these events,
doesn't he. Yeah, what was the event he was had? Yeah,
Kim in North Las Vegas. Yeah, he's been a great supporter. You
know, over the years, this program grew from in nineteen ninety three,
it was just a small experimental resting project for Super Bowl twenty eight in Atlanta,
and that's that's how we started. And it was the first recycling project
ever done in a sports facility in North America. Wow. You know,
nobody ever looked at the environmental impact and it's grown and to not just registrated,
but all of the top leadership at NFL over the years has been supportive
when we've gone and said, look, maybe we should expand into this,
Maybe we should expand into this, maybe we need to look at food recovery,
material recovery, renewable energy, community greening. And there's always been the
support there to grow the program and to more and more get more responsible for
the impact that we have in a community. And that includes those legacy items
that you know, we could get by easily without those, but now that
we've we've sort of gotten into that, gotten our fingers into that, it's
just become sort of standard operating procedure. Now we go to a community and
we want to leave it better than we found it. And you're right,
the commissioner has been out there, you know, pushing wheelbarrow planting trees with
us. He gets right into this with us, which is great. Yeah,
we put them to work. Yeah yeah, yeah, Now that is
a great information. And I love to think about the lasting impact that NFL
Green will have in our community right here in Las Seguess. I think a
lot of people probably don't realize that when like you were saying that the game
comes into its city, but there's so much more that goes on bese I
mean, the small business owners that get an opportunity to do things. It's
more than just a game, like you were mentioning, Jack, Oh yeah,
yeah, it's tremendous. And that's why, going all the way back
to the very first thing that we talked about about how unique it is for
a city to have Super Bowl for the first time and to get to see
that it's not just a football game. I mean, it's a great football
game, but it's such a big thing and such an impact for so many
folks in the community. I'm glad you mentioned the business piece of it too,
because that is that Business connect program is just and you know it works
hand in hand between the NFL and the host committee to make that happen.
But what an impact that has on small local businesses that really need to learn
a couple of things that need to learn how do you contract? How do
you get a contract with the big event that comes into town. And what
they learn around Super Bowl is going to apply to everything. It'll apply to
Formula One, it'll apply to NBA All Star, it will apply to the
Major League Baseball All Star They've learned how to contract with big events, and
that again is another legacy project that continues a little bit different from the greening
piece of it, but again it's a legacy that you leave behind. Awesome.
Well, thank you very much for your information today, Jack Grow,
Susan Grow, NFL Green, Thank you so much for being a part inside
the Vegas Huddle. Thank You're welcome, Thank you. Chris all right,
welcome back. We're excited to talk super Bowl fifty eight inside the Vegas Huddle
continues. And you know what's really cool, Joannie, as we have a
couple of people here that are really involved with Super Bowl fifty eight, the
initiatives, the green initiatives, and really sponsors of this big game that's happening
here in Las Vegas. So Joanna, go ahead and introduce our two guests.
Yes, you're two special guests in studio right now. Alberto hasco director
of Strategic Philanthropy at San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. Well, welcome,
thank you so much for having me. Thank you. And we also have
John Dorn, Associate director of Sustainability at Verrise and welcome. Thanks for having
me. Well, we are very excited to get talking with you guys and
kind of discuss your support of the Las Vegas Super Bowl host Committee. But
I'd love to start it off by you guys both introducing yourselves and letting us
know what you do for your organization. Yeah, well, definitely, I'll
go ahead and get started. My name's Alberto Hasselm, the director of Strategic
Philanthropy with the Seminal Abandoned Mission Indians. I have the honor to represent a
fairly recognized Indian tribe that's based out of southern California. We're the first tribe
to own and operate a casuno here in Las Vegas gaming history, which we're
really excited about. But with that, not only are we a business community
member, but we're also a community partner. When we were thinking about coming
to Las Vegas, we really wanted to make sure that we brought our tribal
values and principle. So I have the opportunity to represent their philanthropy arm.
So the tribe over the past twenty years has awarded over three hundred and fifty
million dollars in charitable investment. Wow. And with that significant investment, of
course, comes a lot of stewardship responsibility. It comes with a lot of
working with different community organizations, understanding the needs and so forth. So myself
and my team have the opportunity to represent Semonel and their philanthropic investments. Oh,
that's wonderful. And John, Yeah, I'm John Dorn. I'm the
associate director and the Sustainability Group at Verizon and my team is over the Sustainable
Business Integration Team, and so part of that entails the employee engagement piece,
which ties directly into NFL Green and our efforts to get with NFL Green for
Super Bowl. That's awesome. Let me ask both of you guys, how
fun is it? How great has it been just to be involved in Super
Bowl fifty out of the city's just buzzing, it's close now, a couple
of weeks away, and as we count down to February eleventh, How great
has it been for your company to be involved in this? Yeah? For
us at Semonol, it's been a unique opportunity. It's a great opportunity for
us to participate, and even for us too, it's an opportunity. One
of our values at Semonol is unity, and I think with the Super Bowl
when you think about it leading up to the big Game, all the pre
events, the post events that will happen, and even to the long term
impact. It's an opportunity to bring people together. And we see this as
an initiative for us to again bring the nonprofits together, bring us as Salmon
will bring Verizon, even us just here in this room. It's a good
opportunity for us to again come together. So when we think about this,
we think about not only our short term wins, but also in the long
run. We're working with people that otherwise we probably wouldn't. We're probably in
the same business, but we don't really talk, but now we are,
so we're excited. I love that, John, Yeah, I love doing
this. So we've been doing this with the NFL Green for several years.
But the great thing about it is we started back in October doing events and
getting to be involved with the community, seeing the efforts, sustainable efforts across
the board, and you know, fourteen or fifteen different events all of leading
up to the Super Bowl. It's really exciting to see that and see how
to be involved and be a part of it. And honestly, you have
to feel good. If you don't feel good about doing events like this,
there's something wrong, right, So so no, it's really good to see
the impact on the community and the different groups get to work with, how
thankful they are forwarded. They really appreciate, you know, the efforts to
go in and you know, it's it's definitely an advantage for them, absolutely,
OLBERTA. I wanted to ask you recently, sand Menuel Ban of Mission
Indians donated two million dollars to the Las Vegas Super Bowl host Committee programming.
Tell us about that contribution and how it came to be. Yeah, most
definitely. You know, for us at a Minola, when we think about
it philanthropy, we're always thinking about collective impact. And again, as I
was sharing a little bit earlier, we saw this in an opportunity to share
our tribal values and principles and really follow our our one of our models,
which is principal philanthropy, right, and what that means to us is again
bringing people together. But we also saw this as a holistic opportunity to do
a few things. Number one than NFL Green initiatives, that's a very important
initiative for us as a tribal community, sewardship, being good sources of the
land, of the environment, the animals, and the people. That's something
that aligns with us. The unov internships that are also being offered to first
time students to work behind the scenes, the Business connect program, that's another
audience that is also captured. And lastly too, the Grand Awards that we're
going to be able to awards a different community organization, both micro grants but
also long term grants. And again for us, we see as a collective
impact opportunity and with our two million dollar investment, we're seeing the benefits of
our investment. That has also being leverage with the NFL Foundation, with Verizon
and a few other flks. So that's what it means to us. Jo
Let me ask you collaborating with the Super Bowl. From Verizon standpoint, what's
the main goal? What do you guys hope to achieve. So our primary
goal at Verizon is the planning trees and that ties to urban forestry as far
as reforestation efforts as well. So all the events that we have with NFL
Green all tied to that and all ties to one of our goals. So
we have a goal of planning twenty million trees by twenty thirty at Verizon,
and so all the events that we do with NFL Green and Community all tied
to that and go towards that objective. And in addition to that, we
also get to form partnerships with a lot of the different organizations we work with,
and that continues on after the Super Bowl, So it's an opportunity for
employees to get involved with volunteer events, but again to strengthen those partnerships.
Hopefully some of those twenty million trees will be implanted here in Las Vegas,
because we certainly need more green here. Right. I love that. Now,
John, you mentioned earlier when you were doing your introductionhit that Verizon and
the NFL have had a partnership for a long time. How long does that
go back? Yeah, So it's an interesting story for that. So NFL
Green was looking for another company that had strong sustainable initiatives and goals and in
their research they found Verizon was one of the companies they're interested in. They
reached out to us directly and so it's been a great partnership started back in
twenty thirteen with them. So the first time we met with them, we
immediately realized there was a lot of the same sustainable initiatives and goals on both
sides. So we knew it was going to be a good, good partnership.
So again start in twenty thirteen, and it continues to be a strong
partnership moving forward. That's wonderful, I guess to collaborate from both. I
mean you hear from John with the plant and the trees and twenty million around
the country, and how that continues. These super Bowl cities are getting are
really benefited. One thing that I've been so impressed with, and I've really
realized that this happens until the Super Bowl comes to a host city is all
the extra curricular, all the LIKEI the green initiatives doing this, the volunteers,
how people like you say, come together in unit. That's been really
positive, isn't it? Yeah? Most deftely, And I think also too
just even just when you think about this weekend. Right on Saturday, we
were at the Las Vegas Indian Center. You had tribes all throughout Nevada.
You had the Inner Tribal Council of Nevada those here. You had tribes that
came out from northern Nevada to come to this gathering. And for us as
a tribal community. We also saw this as an opportunity to uplift Indian country.
And when I talk about Indian country, I talk about all the tribal
governments that are here in Nevada, but also all throughout the United States,
and we were seeing that. Yesterday we were a Caesar job As Park,
another great park that we were able to again plant the trees. Verizons was
there. But again, we're also using this as an opportunity to really speak
on behalf of the communities that we have here in Las Vegas, and I
think that's one thing that we're really enjoying with this partnership. Yeah, that's
pretty incredible. And one last question, the legacy. Obviously we know how
important Super Bowl fifty eight is going to be right here in Las Vegas,
but the legacy for your organizations, what are you guys most excited about?
Okay, So the legacy we like to leave behind is the impact of the
communities from the variety of sustainability events, including the trees that are planted.
So since our partnership began with NFL back in twenty thirteen, we've had over
one hundred and fifty different community events and planned over two hundred and seventy four
thousand trees with NFL Green alone, So it's been amazing to do that.
And not only that, again, it enhances our partnerships with the different organizations
across the city for the future, and it's also something that we use as
we move forward with NFL Green and other host cities as well. Definitely,
yeah, And I think for us that's em and I think the legacy we
want to leave is that, in addition to the economic and social fact that
the Las Vegas Super Bowl that will bring to the community. At Semina one,
we have this concept and all throughout Indian country, it's about thinking about
the next seven generations and throughout all these community initiatives with the NFL Green,
the Business connect program, the opportunity to intern with the Las Vegas Super Bowl
and so forth, we think about the next seven generations and what is this
going to mean? Right, And I think for a lot of folks it's
going to be the first time that they get to experience. For us as
the city as a region, it's going to bring economic benefit that we'll hopefully
see in perpetuity. And we're really the legacy we're going to leave behind is
that we're creating a positive difference for the next seven generations. And that's what
we want to remember from this this big game. I love that. Thanks
all stuff. Thank you guys so much talking with us about the support that
your organizations have had with the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee and two communities
all over. Thank you very much, thank you, thank you, Thank
you to the Super Bowl fifty eight House Committee sponsors, Caesars Entertainment, Health
Howard Hughes, sand Manuel Band of Mission Indians would also like to thank our
partners MGM Rewards, Allegiant, UFC, PNC Bank, cevo iHeartMedia, Bank
of Nevada, Bank of America, MSG, Sphere Beachy and Southwest Gas