Keith Bruce’s Healdsburg ties helping Sonoma wines at Super Bowl 50
Regardless of who wins the Vince Lombardi trophy today in Santa Clara, Keith Bruce is rooting for the Bay Area to come out a Super Bowl winner.
Bruce, 50, a part-time Healdsburg resident, is the CEO of the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee, the group responsible for making sure this golden anniversary sporting event is a success.
The NFL handles today’s game at Levi Stadium between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers, as well as the half-time show. But the host committee is responsible for most other details, including the raising of $50 million from corporate sponsors.
Other duties include event operations, hospitality, transportation, logistics, fan experiences, marketing and security.
To top it off, the committee has pledged to make this “the most giving Super Bowl ever.” The bulk of its donations will go to Bay Area charities for under-served youth and those that address environmental and sustainability issues.
To oversee the operations, in September 2013 the host committee turned to Bruce, then president of San Rafael’s SportsMark Management Group, a global sports marketing and event management company. His work for corporate sponsors has involved him in 14 of the last 15 Super Bowls, six Olympics, 10 NCAA Final Four tournaments and a few FIFA World Cups.
Bruce resides primarily in Marin County but has owned a second home in Healdsburg for more than 15 years. His connections to Wine Country helped bring on board Sonoma County’s combined wine and tourism industry as a Super Bowl “destination partner.”
For the last week, the county’s wineries have hosted a popular wine pavilion in Super Bowl City at San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza. Meanwhile, local tourism officials have offered tours to game visitors wishing to explore the area north of the Golden Gate.
Below Bruce shares a little about what Super Bowl 50 means for Wine Country and the greater Bay Area.
Q: Why did you want to take on the challenge as CEO of the host committee?
A: The opportunity to run Super Bowl 50, which in and of itself will be the largest and most celebrated Super Bowl in the history of the NFL. It’ll be arguably the largest event ever in the Bay Area … certainly one of the top events.
There’s just not too many opportunities in your life to have that kind of opportunity to make a difference and to create an event that really kind of changes the way that Super Bowls are produced and presented. So it was just a really interesting opportunity for me at the right time in my career to do this.
Q: Tell us a little about the preparations.
A: Relevant to your part of the world, Sonoma County, we have what’s called a destination partner. That’s something that I created to essentially make sure that the tourism meccas of Wine Country and Pebble Beach were able to participate with Super Bowl and attract visitors up to the region and get out in front of that.
So Sonoma County Vintners was our first destination partner, followed by Pebble Beach and then Napa Valley joined in as the last destination partner.
(We are) so very happy with the relationships we have with Wine Country and Pebble Beach, and I think they’re going to be the beneficiaries this week of a lot of people coming into the region to take day trips up to the Wine Country or to go down and play golf.
Pebble Beach is sold out this week. It’s the week before the AT&T Pebble Beach (tournament). They’re never sold out this week, but they are because of Super Bowl.
Q: Other than the game, what events will draw the biggest crowds?
A: We’re expecting over a million people to flow through Super Bowl City and (at the Moscone Center) the NFL Experience over the course of the nine days. And certainly based on the crowds we’ve seen on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, with the good weather, we’re well on track to hit that number. San Francisco is the place to be in terms of fans who are wanting to enjoy free-to-the-public or low-cost ways to have fun around Super Bowl.
Q: How is the host committee helping Bay Area charities?
A: We have raised already over $12 million for the 50 Fund. The 50 Fund is our 501c3 charitable arm that is essentially our mechanism to ensure that money goes directly into local Bay Area nonprofits who need it most.
At the website (impact.50fund.org), you’ll see every single nonprofit in the Bay Area broken out by county who received money from the 50 Fund, how much did they receive and how many young adults have been affected and impacted by that giving.
So there’s a real mission here to change the way that giving and community can come together around a big event like the Super Bowl and also just (be) operated from a transparency standpoint so people really know where the money’s going.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: