The West is infamous for its ghost towns, complete with the cliched tumbleweed rolling across a dusty main street.
Ever heard of the one called downtown Phoenix?
Maybe the ghost town comparison is trite, but if you’ve ever experienced a weekend afternoon in the center of the city, it’s hard not to see the resemblance. Sure, driving is convenient because there are so few cars (you still have to pay for parking, though), and the line at the CityScape Chipotle is always short. But to an out-of-towner, it might make for a humdrum experience in the nation’s sixth-largest city.
Last weekend, everything changed.
I took a walk with Will Novak, a source for an upcoming episode of “The Rundown,” last Saturday. As we strolled south on Central Avenue from Fillmore Street, I began to notice something: people, and lots of them. We reached Central Avenue and Washington Street, the literal center of Phoenix from which all its addresses stem, and it was like we had been transported to another city.
People were taking up the sidewalk, dining on restaurant patios, probably even standing in line at Chipotle. And in the formerly nondescript parking lot at Washington and First streets, people were setting up the reason for this human explosion: Super Bowl Central.
This 12-block behemoth of a sports event is expected to bring in 1 million attendees, which I estimate will mean at least that many credit cards. Basically, it will have a huge economic impact on downtown Phoenix.
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As we wove through the mass of pedestrians, Novak told me most of the visitors downtown for Super Bowl Central will be local. Indeed, the Super Bowl Host Committee predicts the game will attract about 100,000 visitors to Arizona. That leaves the other 900,000 in that 1 million count who must be from in-state, if the estimates hold true.
Some of those local visitors might be trying out downtown Phoenix for the first time, or maybe the last time they were here was the early ’90s, back when Novak says he used to play street hockey here because there weren’t many cars.
“You just got to get them to try it once and they’ll like it,” Novak told me. “So even if all this stuff isn’t down here in the future, maybe this time they come down and go to Super Bowl Central, and maybe next time they come down and they go to Angel’s Trumpet Ale House.”
And this certainly isn’t the downtown Phoenix you would have encountered 10 or even five years ago. As Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton pointed out recently, downtown Phoenix has made major advancements since the last Valley Super Bowl in 2008. Super Bowl Central was not even a gleam in a Pepsi marketer’s eye back then.
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Even though I’ll probably be watching the Puppy Bowl instead on Sunday, I can tell that Super Bowl XLIX is making a mark on my city. Local restaurants and art exhibits are showing off their talents during many of the week’s events, vacant lots are being temporarily reactivated and ASU Preparatory Academy’s football team played on a brand new field this season, thanks to the Super Bowl Host Committee.
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So, what happens the weekend after next? When the 30-foot-tall Roman numerals and the 7,000-pound football come down, will this mirage of downtown Phoenix as a full, vibrant city outside the 9 to 5 workday come down as well?
For starters, one of the talking points the Super Bowl Host Committee has been pushing to the press is its CEO Forum. The committee invited 50 CEOs to come into Arizona for the Super Bowl, and you can bet they’re not just here for the game. A huge part of bringing people downtown is bringing money downtown, and this could be Phoenix’s time to show off to big business.
But beyond that, what brings people downtown is — you guessed it — other people. And that’s why I hope downtown shines, especially for all of the local visitors stopping by. Keep coming, folks. This ghost town needs you.
Contact the author at Annika.Cline@asu.edu
