Author: GNOSF-admin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

R+L CARRIERS NEW ORLEANS BOWL ANNOUNCES 2017 DATE, TIME AND CONFERENCE AFFILIATIONS for 17^th ANNUAL BOWL GAME

NEW ORLEANS (May 10, 2017) – R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl officials and the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation confirmed today the 2017 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl will kick off on Saturday, December 16, 2017, at 12 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on ESPN and broadcast on ESPN Radio. Celebrating its 17^th anniversary, the New Orleans Bowl will host teams from the Sun Belt Conference and Conference USA at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

“The R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Committee, staff and volunteers are excited to once again be a part of the special tradition of college bowl season,” R+L Carriers Bowl Executive Director Billy Ferrante said. “We are looking forward to celebrating the accomplishments of both schools, alongside their alumni, students and fans this December.”

Priority membership seats are currently available through the New Orleans Bowl office at (504) 525-5678 with details on the bowl website at www.neworleansbowl.com. All other general tickets will go on sale to the public in early September through Ticketmaster.

In its 17^th year, the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl and its affiliated events continue to grow and create significant impact in the Greater New Orleans region, generating an estimated economic impact in excess of $20 million annually.

###

About R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Organized in 2001, the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl is managed by the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, established in 1988, and whose mission it is to attract, manage and promote sporting events to the Greater New Orleans area for the purposes of economic impact.

For more information on the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, visit

Website: www.neworleansbowl.org

Twitter: @Neworleansbowl

Facebook: www.facebook.com/NewOrleansBowl

 

About R+L Carriers:

R+L Carriers is a Global freight shipping company based in the United States. With nearly 50 years of service, R+L Carriers, Inc. serves the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic with LTL, Truckload, Business Critical, Logistics and more. To learn more about R+L Carriers Worldwide shipping solutions visit their corporate website at rlcarriers.com.

2017 NBA All-Star Huge Win for Louisiana, GNOSF Bids to Host X Games, NOLA Bound: 2022 Final Four, 2018 WrestleMania Heads Back to Superdome.

During the Fall of 2016, Chevron and the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation recognized male and female student-athletes for their accomplishments on the field and in the classroom.

From February 17 to 19, visiting NBA owners, executives, media and fans witnessed the extraordinary skills of the NBA’s best and brightest stars at Smoothie King Center and Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The All-Star Weekend culminated a 6-month whirlwind of planning and execution by the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, New Orleans Pelicans and the NBA.

“The New Orleans Host Committee accomplished the impossible,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “On very short notice they created the hotel rooms, the arena availability and everything that we needed to make this event work. And hosted Mardi Gras at the same time.”

By the end of the weekend, more than 70 official NBA events took place, including the NBA Cares Day of Service, which took place at eight schools (three of which were impacted by the February tornadoes). An estimated 50 plus “unofficial” events were also held throughout the city. In total, the NBA’s invited guests generated more than 24,000 hotel room nights across 39 different properties, with an estimated 10,000 additional nights from fans, meeting planners and sponsor support groups.

The ultra-experienced Host Committee, led by the Pelicans and Sports Foundation in partnership with SMG, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the City of New Orleans, the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation and the State of Louisiana, came together last July on record short notice with the challenge of bidding, planning and hosting the mega-event of All-Star over the first weekend of Mardi Gras. By all accounts, New Orleans and Louisiana received a standing ovation from the NBA, media and attendees.

Check out the new sports court and park for the Boys and Girls Club in Covington presented by Chevron, the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and the New Orleans Pelicans.

The NBA Day of Service is an annual mainstay of the All-Star weekend, but did you know it started in 2008 right here in NOLA? For the 2005 and 2006 seasons, the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) were displaced due to Hurricane Katrina and played their home games in Oklahoma City.  The Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation worked with team ownership to convince the NBA to “take a chance” (at the time) on New Orleans and become the first mega sporting event awarded to the Crescent City post-Katrina.  The NBA was seeking to do more than just bring the event to New Orleans.

Thus, the NBA Day of Service was created as a then one-time project for 2008 All-Star only, and the focused would be on three areas – Learn, Live and Play.

After deliberating potential project options, the NBA narrowed it down to 10 homes, playgrounds, schools and community centers, many of which remained untouched following Hurricane Katrina.

The NBA devised a voiced-over invitation from Bob Lanier to all guests to participate. The response to participate was overwhelming, with more than 3,000 current and former players, team owners and executives, coaches and Commissioner David Stern lending a hand that rainy day.

Afterwards, the NBA received incredible feedback from the participants as well as those New Orleans residents on the receiving end of their kindness. Because the response was so positive, the Day of Service has become a permanent fixture at All-Star and remains a model for other major events, including the Super Saturday of Service (organized by the Sports Foundation) for the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans.

The NBA will continue the leagues tradition of community service during 2017 NBA All-Star by extending their generosity throughout Louisiana.

On Wednesday, February 15^th the NBA Cares program will visit members of the Baton Rouge Community who were affected by historic flooding in August 2016. NBA and WNBA players/legends will join youth and law enforcement from the Baton Rouge Community for a basketball court dedication, basketball clinic and a Building Bridges through Basketball workshop focused on strengthening the ties between law enforcement and the community.

The following day, the NBA All-Star Fit Celebration will take place at five elementary schools in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes. The basketball and fitness clinics will focus on the importance of healthy living while teaching the fundamentals of the game.

One of the schools scheduled to host NBA activities will be Fannie C. Williams Charter school. Located in New Orleans East, an area recently effected by the February 7^th tornado. The NBA and Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation are working together to develop programing and donations to benefit those effected by the storm.

The NBA All-Star Game and the entire week of special events, parties and festivities is a much needed economic and positive media boost to Louisiana for the third time in the past 10 years. In fact, the mega event has steadily grown since New Orleans last hosted. Although New Orleans had no official study performed for the 2008 All-Star Game, projections from the 2007 event held in Las Vegas placed the economic impact somewhere around $90 million mark.  The University of New Orleans Division of Economic Research performed a thorough study during the 2014 event, concluding that All-Star generated a $106.1 million economic impact and $5 million in new tax dollars for the State of Louisiana. The upcoming 2017 event, although a bit more compressed due to facility availability, is expected to have the same return on investment for the state and city.

Often overlooked is the value of the media exposure that comes along with these mega-events. In 2008, there were more than 2,000 credentialed members of the media in town covering the weekend of events as well as providing a major platform to tell the real story of the status of New Orleans’ recovery.  The success of the mega-event as well as the positive publicity surrounding the weekend had an immeasurable impact on the perception of New Orleans for all those outside the State of Louisiana.  Following the weekend, it was clear that if New Orleans could successfully host such a complicated and important event as All-Star, then we could certainly host your event, convention or family reunion.

The importance of successfully hosting this event was not lost on our other major event partners. Soon after hosting 2008 All-Star, the Sports Foundation led successful bids for the 2012 Final Four and 2013 Women’s Final Four.  In 2009, the Sports Foundation and Saints produced a successful bid to host the 2013 Super Bowl. Soon followed WrestleMania XXX and the return of NBA All-Star in 2014, lining up and unprecedented run of major sporting events held in the same city.

In the Spring of 2016, the Sports Foundation and Pelicans began working behind the scenes with the city, state, venues and hotels to identify conflicting business, space availability and capacities in case the NBA decided to move the 2017 All-Star Game and came calling on New Orleans. The prediction was, with such a short period of time before the 2017 game, the NBA would need to go to an experienced host city.  Moving to a new city would cause critical delays in planning and execution for this complex event.  That call officially came after Tom and Gayle Benson made a passionate pitch to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to give us a chance to bring the event back to New Orleans.

The next day began the 29-day fury of discrete business negotiations among the NBA and the Sports Foundation, New Orleans Pelicans, the City of New Orleans, SMG (Smoothie King Center/Mercedes-Benz Superdome managers) and the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau on behalf of CBD hotels. The record short bid concluded on August 19 with a press conference announcing the mega-event was coming back to New Orleans for a modern era record third time in 10 years. Now, just five short months later, the Host Committee is in the final stretch preparing for the February 17-19 weekend celebration of the NBA’s greatest.

The New Orleans NBA All-Star Host Committee is led by the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and New Orleans Pelicans, with Sports Foundation Executive Committee members David Sherman, Paul Valteau and Philip Sherman serving alongside Pelicans’ Executives Dennis Lauscha, Ben Hales and Mike Stanfield.

The Host Committee also includes the following subcommittees: City Services, Security and Traffic Control (chaired by Deputy Mayor Ryan Berni); Facilities (chaired by SMG GM Alan Freeman); Hotels (chaired by NOCVB CEO Stephen Perry); Media/P.R. (co-chaired by NOTMC CEO Mark Romig and NOCVB P.R. Chief Christian Sonnier); Inclusion (chaired by Communify’s Dustin Woehrmann); and, Community Events (chaired by the Saints’ Stephen Pate).

The Sports Foundation, under the guidance of CEO Jay Cicero and SVP Events Jeff Rossi, serves as the staff of the Host Committee. In addition to the coordination of day-to-day duties of the subcommittees listed above, the staff responsibilities also include fundraising, marketing, advertising, local business matching, volunteer program coordination, accounting and event operations.

The fact that New Orleans has an experienced and prepared host NBA team, Sports Foundation, committee leadership and staff in place from the 2008 and 2014 All-Star was a key element in the NBA’s decision to choose New Orleans.

Join the celebration of of New Orleans’ 3rd NBA All-Star Weekend.

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) announced New Orleans won the bid to host WrestleMania in 2018. A total of 75,167 fans packed the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in 2014 for WrestleMania 30