Local Disappointment With Low Turnout During Super Bowl LVII
The downtown Phoenix area had a large increase in visitors over the week leading up to Super Bowl LVII, however, not every local business was impacted as expected.
Roosevelt Row in the downtown area especially had to adjust for the traffic due to the Super Bowl LVII watch party being held on Feb. 12 at Hance Park. The art district had to adjust to over 25,000 spectators in a single day and over 300,000 visitors in total during the Super Bowl LVII Experience being held in the area throughout the week according to the Super Bowl LVII Host Committee.
To accommodate all of the fans flooding into Arizona, some businesses hired more staff. According to the Phoenix New Times, the 2015 Super Bowl created 6,700 jobs in Arizona. It was expected that a similar number would be reached if not surpassed again this year.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Anna Veatch, a cashier at Black Amethyst, shared that they are still selling the rings Franco made for that week due to the lack of customers they expected. “It was hard to watch my boss do all of that and not be able to show her any fruit for her labor,” said Veatch.
Although the shop is in extremely close proximity to the Super Bowl LVII Experience at Hance Park, Veatch explained that there were very few customers not only in their shop but for all of the Pemberton vendors. “The road in front of us, which is our only access point, got shut down,” Veatch shared. “It was a random exit that people were coming out of at midnight.”
The store also experienced a loss in local customers that frequently shop in their business during the week of the Super Bowl. “All the locals were terrified of downtown,” said Veatch.
Despite the setback Black Amethyst experienced from the slow business during and after Super Bowl LVII, they are not letting it deter their efforts for the future. Franco and Veatch have seen a slow but steady return to normalcy. “It was one of those moments you just have to work on building your hope,” said Veatch.
Local businesses were expecting and preparing for a large influx in customers, however, that was not the reality on the day of the game for some. Black Amethyst, a small woman-owned business, experienced the opposite during Super Bowl LVII.
The store is a crystal and jewelry shop located inside Pemberton PHX on Roosevelt Row. It is one of over 15 vendors housed in the historical property and a local hotspot in downtown Phoenix. Black Amethyst is owned by Melanie Franco who is a local metalsmith that handmakes all of the jewelry sold inside the store.
Franco not only prepared for the expected crowd by making over 40 rings but spent time learning about the Super Bowl bracket teams to better prepare to cater to the clientele of the fans that would be coming.
Super Bowl fans walking into the Super Bowl LVII Experience at Hance Park in Downtown Phoenix on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023. Each entrance into the event had the streets blocked off which was common all over downtown Phoenix during the eventful weekend.