Bay Area businesses prepare for busy week as visitors arrive for Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara

By Max Darrow

Businesses throughout the Bay Area are preparing for what should be a big week, with visitors coming in from all over the country for Super Bowl LX.

“We do, on average per day, 250 pizzas. We hope to go over that,” said Franco Campilongo, owner of Terun in Palo Alto. “We are confident that we’ll get some of those people in the restaurant.”

Campilongo and his team are working on their best game plan for how to make the most of the week. Part of that strategy means drawing upon what they learned 10 years ago, the last time the Super Bowl was in the Bay Area.

“We focused on the to-go business on the day of. We learned that people, especially in this area, love to watch the game from home and enjoy any kind of food,” he said. “We’ll see this year – it might be different from 10 years ago. But we are confident it’ll be a good day.”

As he doesn’t run a sports bar, he isn’t expecting it to make a massive difference for his bottom line. But there are some intangibles that can’t be quantified, that could have a lasting impact.

To get a better sense of that, CBS News Bay Area spoke with Arkesha Baquet, co-owner of Li’l Dizzy’s Café in New Orleans, home of Super Bowl LIX.

“It was a great experience. Really good,” she said. “There were some businesses that may have not seen the same revenue, but we did see an influx.”

It made a difference financially, but she says the exposure was the game-changer.

“Great. It was really good for my business,” she said. “We had a lot of people who came.”

That included Travis and Jason Kelce’s dad, impromptu interviews, some celebrity sightings, and new faces from all over the country.

A study from LSU revealed Super Bowl 59 brought 100,000 out-of-state visitors to Louisiana from 45 states.

That study also revealed the following:

• $1.25 billion total statewide economic impact
• 9,787 local jobs supported statewide
• $658 million in total spending by visitors and vendors
• $395 million in wages generated for Louisiana workers
• $82.7 million in state and local tax revenue

“You want to have a plan of action on how you can move those tables,” Baquet said. “You can get a crowd, but you don’t want to lose it.”

A part of her playbook? Her team created a to-go station ahead of the big week.

“Because we wanted to be able to take care of the influx of customers,” she said.

Back in Palo Alto, Campilongo said there are a few new plays in Terun’s Super Bowl playbook. They’re running a special and are changing their hours.

“We usually close between two and five. This year, we’ll stay open,” he said.

He’s excited for the chance to impress new faces at his restaurant over the course of the week.

“We are looking forward to meeting people from outside of California and to share our love for food and hospitality with them,” he said.

The Bay Area Host Committee (BAHC) projects the Super Bowl will have an economic impact ranging from $370 million to $630 million, with the majority of it being for San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties.