Now that teams for the Super Bowl have been established and the event nears, the years of planning and anticipation for host city Indianapolis are about to pay off. This is the first time that the state of Indiana has hosted a Super Bowl event, which will be held February 5, 2012 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. As part of the planning efforts, the NFL sought participation from Indianapolis-area minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) through its popular Emerging Business Program. This is a huge opportunity for M/WBEs to get involved in the bidding process and provide goods and services for the Super Bowl and the many affiliated events leading up to it.
The NFL has established the Emerging Business Program to ensure that minority- and women-owned firms in Super Bowl host cities are involved in the procurement process. According to the NFL, the purpose of this program is to:
- Inform minority and woman-owned businesses of available opportunities surrounding the Super Bowl.
- Provide business development education, training and programming that reflects the needs of the local business community.
- Work with minority and woman-owned businesses to forge local connections benefiting business development and growth in connection with the 2012 Super Bowl and beyond.
For the Indianapolis Super Bowl alone, 880 businesses representing 10 states applied for the program and over 400 Indiana-based firms qualified. Over 900 businesses made the cut in Dallas last year. A searchable list of firms participating in the NFL Emerging Business Program for the Indianapolis Super Bowl is available online. The NFL is even encouraging local residents to support area emerging Businesses by giving away two tickets to the Super Bowl . There’s also a photo slide show that highlights some of the participants in action.
While not all of the qualified businesses will offer goods or services for the Super Bowl or related events, the experience of the application process and the exposure given is far more valuable.
Businesses interested in participating in the Emerging Business Program for future Super Bowl events should stay tuned to the host committee sites for New Orleans and New York/New Jersey, the sites of the 2013 and 2014 events, respectively.
You can read an in-depth article about this program, including testimonials from participating businesses in the Indianapolis Business Journal.
