Bill Lively, CEO of the Super Bowl XLV Host Committee, told a gathering of Dallas bloggers at Hully & Mo last evening that there’s no “margin of failure” when it comes to the committee’s need to raise $30 million for North Texas’ first crack at the big game in February 2011. This was after he joked that he’d need to buy a gun and shoot himself if the effort falls short of its goal.
Lively acknowledged that the committee’s fund-raising efforts have recently required some “course correction” — changing their tactics, getting “a little more aggressive” — in this difficult economy. He said they’re still ahead of where they’d hoped to be at this point, but could easily fall off the pace within two weeks if they don’t keep pushing. North Texas leaders are hoping to put on the biggest, best Super Bowl ever, and so they’ve set that big $30 million goal. They were aiming to bring in half of that through $1 million sponsorships – so far they have 10.
When I asked him if there’s some aspect of the committee’s grand plans that might be scaled back if it doesn’t look like they’ll raise all that money, Lively said flatly “We’ve got to raise the money we’re committed to raise, to meet the bid expectations.”
