With the Super Bowl less than a month away, the Roosevelt Row business district is looking forward to entertaining visitors as they come to town.
City officials and members of the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee held a Zoom call with business owners on Thursday to discuss logistics such as traffic, road closures, parking and receiving deliveries during the Super Bowl.
Busy businesses like Taco Boy’s expect big crowds. They’re in a prime location on Roosevelt Row and hope their catering for the big game will help them cash in, but encourage customers to order early.
“We know there are going to be a lot of parties, so it would be great if we had catering orders,” said Richie Chacon, Taco Boy’s food service representative. No way!” said Chacon.
Major roads will be closed and parking will be limited in the area during the Super Bowl, but Roosevelt Street and access roads will remain open for businesses to pick up deliveries, city officials said.
“We know it’s not the best place to park here, so plan ahead that you’ll need to park a little further in,” Chicon said.
Roosevelt Row is full of small shops like the Straw & Wool Hat Shop. Straw & Wool sells a wide variety of hats and accessories for every occasion. Co-owners Ali Nervis and Henry Dickerson want to showcase their products to Super Bowl attendees.
“We’re excited to see a lot of new people coming in and learning about our store,” Nervis said. It’s definitely exciting,” he said.
Nervis and Dickerson also run a welcome center right next to the hat store and host a Buy Black Marketplace several times a month through the nonprofit Archwood Exchange.
Outdoor markets are home to a variety of small and medium-sized businesses that do not have stores.
The problem is that for the Super Bowl, city officials rented open space to food giant Tostitos for pop-up restaurants, driving out the marketplace business.
“So we put it there to see if there is anything that the host committee, city officials, or whoever can do to keep these businesses from getting kicked out or left out in the cold. Reach out to get out… the most important thing,” Dickerson said.
ABC15 has reached out to city officials and the Super Bowl organizing committee for comment on the situation, but has yet to hear back.