Game brings super parties

A host of private and fundraising parties are on tap for Super Bowl week, and some give you a chance to rub elbows with stars.

By BABITA PERSAUD

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 7, 2001

TAMPA -- Magic Johnson is having a party at the Florida Aquarium. Evander Holyfield will be at Lee Roy Selmon's new restaurant. Ricky Martin is performing in an airplane hangar.

Denzel Washington will be at the Wyndham Harbour Island Hotel.

Daisy Fuentes, former MTV veejay, and Niki Taylor, supermodel, will be at Maxim magazine's bash at the newly remodeled A La Carte Pavilion on Dana Shores Drive. Entertainment news show Access Hollywood is covering the party.

Playboy.com's party is at Rain Lounge at Channelside. The magazine was eyeing the Florida Aquarium as a venue, its planners enchanted with the idea of "Playmates in mermaid gear," said Sue Igoe, director of event marketing at Playboy. But opted for Rain's "mansion away from the mansion" feel, she said.

This Super Bowl will be one like Tampa has never known, even though the city has been host to two previously. In 1984, during Super Bowl XVIII, parties just weren't of the magnitude they are now.

In 1991, Super Bowl XXV, the country was at war. The Desert Storm ground attack was launched the Thursday before the game. The commissioner's party that Friday night was canceled out of respect for soldiers. Other parties followed suit.

This time, in peace, in prosperity, "it's really no-holds-barred," said Todd Cooper of Toast in New York, which plans events. He's planning Maxim's "Pure Rush" party.

The theme pays homage to Mother Earth and the elements. There will be nitrogen fog, fake floors and volcanoes, simulated earthquakes, thunder, lightning, giant boulders as tables, an oxygen bar, a coral reef bar, and because Maxim is a men's magazine, a 10-person hot tub and models in fig leaves.

Smirnoff's party at the Rain nightclub in Channelside will introduce a line of new flavored vodkas. The theme is "futuristic middle-eastern."

Guests will enter a corridor of fog, plants and oversized fruit, said Don Kendzior of Miami's Beyond Horizons. Guards part a curtain. Inside will look like a casbah in north Africa, and Cirque du Soleil-like acrobats in black-and-neon bodysuits will be suspended above, dancing.

How did football get to this point?

The main bash at Super Bowl I in Los Angeles was a cocktail party, said Jim Steeg, the National Football League's director of special events. Mostly media covering the game attended. A folding partition had to be moved to make room for the band.

Then, television networks started having parties, then athletes. The corporations started in the mid-80s.

They used to settle for hospitality tents, which were set up first at Super Bowl XVIII in Tampa, Steeg said. "I think we had maybe eight or 10 tents."

At Super Bowl XIX, the number jumped to 26.

"Everything with the Super Bowl always grows exponentially," he said.

Now, anyone can throw a gala, and almost everyone does.

The Evander Holyfield party is a client party for National Graphic Imaging, a local company, which is printing Super Bowl posters. Owner Martha Korman met Holyfield in Atlanta, became good friends with one of his friends and invited him as host.

"We wanted to throw a good party," said Sara Jones of Graphic's marketing department.

In all nooks of Tampa, throughout the week, parties are planned. Yachts will venture out into old Tampa Bay to party. The NFL Players' Huddle party will be in an airplane hanger on MacDill AFB.

Buccaneer players Damien Robinson and Chidi Ahanotu are throwing a masquerade-themed event at the Museum of Science and Industry.

They wanted that venue.

"The props are already there," said RaShawyn Morris of Set the Date in Detroit, an event planning company. "There's hands-on exhibits, games, more to do besides the typical walking around, eating or drinking."

With so many parties on the books, "you want to stand out," she said.

Sometimes, supply is having a hard time keeping up with demand. Rain is host to three parties: Smirnoff's, Playboy's and ESPN's. FUN, a new nightclub in Ybor, will be host to two.

There will be parties that you can only dream of attending, like the one at FUN for pregame and halftime show performers Aerosmith, Backstreet Boys and Sting.

And Playboy.com's party, which is mostly attended by celebrities, playmates and sponsors. And Hugh? "Hef rarely leaves the mansion," Igoe said.

The NFL will have a series of closed parties. The traditional commissioner's Friday Night party, held this year at the Tampa Convention Center. "An intimate gathering of NFL friends," said Steeg; 5,000 will attend.

The NFL also is holding an invitation-only party Saturday night at MacDill AFB's Hanger 3. Ricky Martin will perform, and CBS will broadcast live. The hangar is being carpeted by the NFL for the event.

Probably the hottest exclusive party is Leigh Steinberg's, the sports agent made famous by Jerry Maguire. But not every party is invite-only. Many are charity fundraisers. Maxim is raising money for the HollyRod Foundation, a Parkinson's disease non-profit. Admission is $250.

The Players Masquerade, Robinson and Ahanotu's party, is raising money for underprivileged youth in Tampa. Cost is $60.

An Evening with the Stars is a fundraiser for the United Negro College Fund. Denzel Washington, Vivica Fox, James Ingram, Peter Warrick, formerly of Florida State Univerisity, now with the Cincinnati Bengals, are on the guest list. Cost is $150, $250 VIP.

And the stars won't just sit in VIP rooms the entire time, planner Cecile Mitchell promises. They know they are there to mingle.

A typical Super Bowl extravaganza takes a great deal of planning.

"Security, traffic, staff, you think about all of that," said RaShawyn Morris, planning two parties in town.

The bashes can cost hundreds of thousands, with most of the money recouped through sponsors.

It takes a network of event planners such as Toast in New York and Set the Date in Detroit, and local party planners, like Casino Designs, where Morris went looking for tiki torches for the Survivor-themed Players Gala.

For local venues involved, it's can be profitable.

Green Iguana general manager Kathleen Bambery didn't think the person who called her in June wanting to rent the Ybor venue in the middle of Super Bowl week could afford it.

Then she found it was veteran broadcaster John Madden. "The money's in the bank," she said, although she wouldn't reveal how much.

You're invited

While many of the star-studded parties being put on by corporations and celebrities are private, ordinary citizens can attend some events -- for a price.

Friday, Jan. 26

Players Masquerade: No costume required. Purchase of $10 mask goes to charity. Damien Robinson and Chidi Ahanotu are hosts. Tickets $60. Museum of Science and Industry, Fowler Avenue. www.theplayersgala.com Super Web Cast Party: Sponsored by Code Magazine and MVC1, the New York company broadcasting Gasparilla live on the Internet. Desmond Howard of the Detroit Lions is host. Tickets $33-$55. Tampa Museum of Art, downtown. www.MVC1.com Maxim Magazine's Pure Rush: Nitrogen fog, simulated earthquakes, thunder, lightning, oxygen bar and models in fig leaves. Niki Taylor and Daisy Fuentes are hostesses. HollyRod Foundation fundraiser. Tickets $260. A La Carte Pavilion, Dana Shores Drive. www.maximonline.com NFL Players Premiere Party: Official party of the NFL Players Inc. Light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. is co-host. A different theme on each level of Ybor City's Cuban Club, including sports bar, martini & cigar, South Beach and reggae. Party continues Saturday and Sunday. Tickets up to $40 in advance. www.nflplayers.com

Saturday, January 27

Sunday, January 2

Magic Johnson's Players Paradise: Watch the game with NFL players. NBA All-Star Magic Johnson will attend after the game. Tickets $25, $50 VIP. Florida Aquarium, Channelside Drive. Call (800) 289-6187

Michael Jackson's Players Post Game Reception: Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Michael Jackson is host. At Blues Ship in Ybor at 6 p.m. and Pleasure Dome at 9 p.m. Tickets $30 and $45. Call (877) 249-5899.

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