200 days out: Super Bowl LVIII excites valley businesses

Outside of Allegiant Stadium around 200 Las Vegas businesses selected to bring services to the multitude of activities associated with Super Bowl LVIII got a chance to take a picture with the Vegas Super Ball.

These 200 businesses are a part of the Super Bowl LVIII Business Connect program and gathered to celebrate the Super Bowl — scheduled for Feb. 11 — being 200 days away.

Although Wednesday marked 200 days before the Super Bowl there are plenty of opportunities for these businesses to connect with other contractors involved with the Super Bowl, said Myisha Boyce, the chief community engagement officer for the Las Vegas Super Bowl LVIII Host Committee.

“There is nothing dormant about the Super Bowl, it is in full activation every week and it is getting busy,” Boyce said. “The suppliers can expect to engage in capacity building workshops, peer-to-peer activities, mentoring opportunities from not only the NFL, but from our local community.”

The Super Bowl LVIII Business Connect program selects experienced Las Vegas businesses to bid for contracts with the work associated with hosting the biggest football game of the year. To be eligible for this program, a company needs to be in operation since 2020 and be at least 51 percent owned by minorities, women, members of the LGBTQ community or veterans as well as provide services related to hosting the Super Bowl.

Companies in the Business Connect program offer practical products and services such as fencing and tenting, janitorial, catering and temporary housing.

Many businesses at the event expressed excitement about being able to connect their names with the NFL and the Super Bowl. This includes Workbnb, a Las Vegas business that provides temporary workforce housing to companies with employees traveling for work.

“When rental operators see on our website that we’re a proud supplier to the NFL, that type of brand recognition creates trust in the marketplace,” said Yeves Perez, the co-founder and CEO of Workbnb.

The economic impact of hosting the Super Bowl and the upcoming Las Vegas Raiders season, which includes one pre-season game and nine regular season games, is expected to be over $1 billion. It’s also expected that more than 450,000 people will visit the area for Super Bowl weekend.

Perez estimates that Workbnb already has 50 bookings related to the Super Bowl and expects to add more over the next 200 days.

Another business selected for the Business Connect program is Wedlow Maintenance, which provides cleaning services for offices and other properties. Owner Alvin Wedlow said being part of Business Connect is gratifying for the 22-year-old company.

“We worked hard and we qualified for this, which shows our hard work paid off,” he said. “We just want to provide local services and show local companies that even though we aren’t a national company we can still compete with the national companies.”

Luxe Lifestyle, a high-end personal concierge service, was another business selected for Business Connect. Even though the company has worked with the NFL for past events in Las Vegas such as the Pro Bowl and the NFL Draft, the CEO of the company, Travis Turner, expects the impact of the Super Bowl to ripple out to small businesses across the city.

“The impact for our community is going to be huge,” he said. “To say that we have our first Super Bowl and all of the different businesses connected with vendors that have been selected to be a part of that, I think everybody should feel proud and feel gracious knowing they’re a part of history.”

Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com. or @seanhemmers34 on Twitter.