Ak-Chin sponsors Super Bowl XLIX events with host committee

The Ak-Chin Indian Community started hosting events Thursday leading up to the 2015 Super Bowl to be held at University of Phoenix stadium in Glendale.

The tribe’s partnership with the state’s Super Bowl Host Committee officially was announced Thursday at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club before an inaugural golf tournament.

Next up, a community tailgate party at Ak-Chin’s UltraStar Multi-tainment center Feb. 2 for the 2014 Super Bowl, which is being played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Arizona and the tribe are readying for the state’s third hosting of a Super Bowl. The last one, in 2008, pumped more than $500 million into the Valley economy.

“It was broadcast to over 150 million people right here in the United States and it was broadcast worldwide to an audience of 1 billion people,” Arizona Cardinals President Michael Bidwell said during a press conference Thursday at Southern Dunes. “There’s no doubt that the world’s eyes were on the Valley in 2008.”

Ak-Chin Chairman Louis Manuel Jr. knows that and his Community has become one of the first to join the team of the Super Bowl Host Committee.

“I think we have an opportunity to really address some of the things we have, that we think are insightful for the community,” Manuel said. “Our diversity on our airport, our multi-tainment center, our casino, (farming community) in general are all some of the things that we felt that got us to this point in our community.”

Manuel said the Super Bowl partnership, as well as achieving the naming rights by sponsoring the former Cricket Pavilion to Ak-Chin Pavilion, will help bring awareness to Community efforts and their heritage in farming.

“Over the next 14 months leading up to Super Bowl XLIX you will see numerous examples of our partnership initiatives,” Host Committee Chairman David Rousseau said. 

More information is available at AZSuperBowl.com and Ak-Chin.NSN.US.