In her office in the shadow of Lucas Oil Stadium, this Super Bowl committee representative played as if she was a member of the media.
While others around Indianapolis debate the merits of a particular team that could make its way to Indiana for Super Bowl XLIV, Director of Communications Dianna L. Boyce decided to stay in the middle.
"The host committe obviously needs to be Switzerland in this case," said Boyce when asked if the committee has teams in which it hopes would make it to town in February. "We don't necessarily have a team that we're rooting for."
At the same time, however, their are others who wonder just how much the coming a solid traveling team with a big fan base might bring to the Circle City and increase the estimated $350-to-400 million dollars of revenue the event would bring.
The question can be looked at from a number of angles beginning with the proximity of the said teams. Boyce points out that if you include the host Colts, there are nine teams in the NFL that are within 400 miles-or a reasonable day's drive-from Indianapolis.
Of these teams, six remain in solid playoff contention-The Bears, Bengals Lions, Packers, Steelers, and Titans-and might attract fans even if the teams fall short over the coming months.
"Regardless of whether teams from those cities are in the Super Bowl we know that those fans can come here and experience the Super Bowl," said Boyce.
Ticket brokers would probably like one of those teams to make it, considering that fans would be more likely to drive the price up since demand would increase with a quick drive. Jonathan Nedley of Carmel's Fanfare Tickets says its important but believes the historical strength of a fan base maybe just as important.
"The teams with the rich football traditions, that have fans that live all over the county, that are just really dedicated die hard fans travel well," said Nedley. "The Packers, the Bears, the Eagles, the Cowboys.
"That type of team, their fans travel really well, and they just have fans located everywhere."
Specifically Nedley lauds the fan base of the Pittsburgh Steelers as being one that can be counted on to travel despite seven previous Super Bowl appearances. As an example, Nedley refers to Super Bowl XL in Detroit, when the close-by Steelers helped to increase the value of a Super Bowl that featured a far west opponent in a northern city.
"A lot of people thought that would be a really bad ticket in Detroit, Seattle doesn't have a great team but because it was just a short drive for Steelers fans, the ticket ended up being a very strong ticket," said Nedley of the Pittsburgh's fans impact.
All of the teams that were mentioned above also rank in the NFL's top ten when it comes to merchandise sales, which last year's Super Bowl opponents Green Bay and Pittsburgh occupying the top spots.
The true influence of a team, however, is a difficult thing to judge as it is the entire impact of a Super Bowl as a whole. DePauw University professor of economics Humberto Barreto says their are a number of complicated things that go into figuring out the exact amount of dollars that Super Bowl brings in.
"There's two kinds of studies. There's a kinda simple version where you just kinda figure out on average how much a visitor spends and then just extrapolate that and just multiply that times how many people show," said Barreto. "Then there are these complicated, more sophisticated econometric analysis where you run regressions and try to find different variables.
"I think the hard part is knowing when to cut off the analysis."
When it comes to opponents, however, Barreto says the explanation is a little more simple.
"Its really not really necessary its not really a deal breaker," said Barreto on whether an opponent can make-or-break a big game financially. "I think the Super Bowl is such a mega event that its so great that Indianapolis has the Super Bowl and gives us the chance to show Lucas Oil and show downtown and increase awareness of the facilities that Indianapolis has and the quality of life that's available here."
